1. UPPSALA UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS STUDIES
THE INFLUENCE OF GENERATIONS
IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Marina Amâncio
920730 - 8447
Entrepreneurship
Spring Semester 2016

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CONTENT LIST
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................... 3
PURPOSE AND QUESTION................................................................................................................... 3
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK................................................................................................................ 5
ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Baby Boomers ..................................................................................................................................... 8
Generation X ....................................................................................................................................... 9
Millennials......................................................................................................................................... 10
The future entrepreneur: what about generation Z? ....................................................................... 11
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................... 12
BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................................................... 13

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INTRODUCTION
Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and the Zeds. Different generations coexisting at
home, on the streets and in the market, mixing their characteristics and perceptions of the
world, having a big impact on how society behaves now. All of them with different desires,
values, aspirations and expectations that not only shaped society, but also the business world,
where some of these characteristics can be seeing in the trends of entrepreneurship.
These generations might be different in many aspects, since they were born in different
contexts and years, but they share a mutual factor. All of them were the youth that affected
their society at the time. Presenting new ideas, new practices, new jobs and new life styles,
the youth have a great power of change, thinking outside the box and always planning a new
revolution. Moreover, the power of youth in society is not a new topic; from a long time ago,
it is possible to realize that the “young kids”, shaped by the economy and cultural context
they were born, also shape the world around them, especially the market, since they affect
consumer and worker behavior (McCrindle, 2009).
With that in mind, in order to understand the entrepreneur market, the new economy and the
new trends, it is necessary to understand generations, even the older ones that coexist and
still have an impact on the younger generations, giving youth this important role in society.
Never before, the topic of youth entrepreneurship has been discussed with so much emphasis.
Understanding how aspirations, attitudes and activities influences the starting of new
businesses by young people, makes it easier to understand the needs and how to inside the
market (Kew, 2013).
PURPOSE AND QUESTION
In order to make the connection between entrepreneurship and generations, for this paper,
the aim is to understand how much of the generation’s characteristics are present in the
market, in the sense of how the way these generations behave can affect the entrepreneurial
projects and the types of companies that exist today. As said before, youth has a crucial part
in shaping work and consumer behavior, this means that the market of entrepreneurship is
directly impacted by all generations. The youngsters, now or 50 years ago are the ones that

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set the companies idea, vision, portrait and relationship with consumer, bringing new trends
that must be followed.
The main idea of this paper is to name the different characteristics of four generations and
apply to the market, observing how Baby Boomers, X-ers and Millennials shaped the market
with their thoughts and desires. With the new generation, known as the Zeds, coming to the
market and starting their entrepreneur years in a decade, a future scenario of how their market
and projects will look like will also be presented, based on their characteristics and the events
that affected their personality.
The final and main question of this paper is to answer how much of the generation’s
characteristics affected their markets, entrepreneurial projects and companies. To find the
answer, a deep research about these generations’ characteristics was made; together with the
current market they were settled. The need for doing the connection between generations and
entrepreneurship is based on the fact that there is considerable wide published material about
generations, their characteristics and how important they are for different spheres of society.
However, the connection between generations and the entrepreneur market is not common,
even with such a deeper understanding that youth has a major part on setting the market
trends.
Analyzing theories of entrepreneurship and generational theories provided the necessary
connection between the two concepts, giving enough information concerning the impact of
generations on how the market will behave. For the subject of generations, academic work is
commonly find, linked with the fields of psychology and anthropology, with the purpose to
understand on the personal side the representatives for each generation. For entrepreneurship,
grey literature, such as reports from companies and institutions are easier to find, but still
important since these organizations are settled on the market.
In the end, the purpose and question of these paper aims basically to understand with more
depth how the market is influenced by the people that work and by their characteristics. In
order to understand that inside different contexts, generations are the perfect point of view;
since there is, already, a context of time settled for each of them. With the research, it is

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hoped that the reader can start looking at the market with knowledge about the characteristics
and effects of different generations in entrepreneurship.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
For generational theories, Mark McCrindle’s book titled “The ABC of XYZ – Understanding
the Global Generations” and published in 2009 was used. With deep concepts about
generations and explanations about the characteristics of Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and Gen
Z, the author presents the social contexts that shaped the generation’s values, vision and
desires. He also expose the important concepts necessary to understand the topic, especially
the concept of generation itself, where he explains that before, generations were strictly
defined by spaces and intervals of time, not considering any other aspects that could influence
the people organized in that period. Now, the modern view of generations analyses deeply
the analog and qualitative aspects that shape the generations, like developments, technology
and global events for example.
“So today generations are defined sociologically rather than biologically. A generation refers
to a cohort of people born within a similar span of time (15 years at the upper end) who share
a comparable age and life stage and who were shaped by a particular span of time (events,
trends and developments).” (McCrindle, 2009: 1-2)
The author dedicate the introduction of the book to explain that, generally, generations are
left aside as a concept that is not trustable due to predictions and stereotypes. However, his
answer to the negative point of view is that with deep research and analysis of a group of
people experiencing the same political, cultural and media aspects, it is possible to grasp a
pattern for the group’s view of the world.
“While people of various ages are living through the same events, the age at which one is
exposed to a political shift, technological change or social marker determines how embedded it
becomes in one’s psyche and worldview.” (McCrindle, 2009: 3)

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That is why the understanding of youth is so important for society. The exposure to certain
events in a certain age have a powerful impact on shaping someone’s personality, or at least
values and vision. With that in mind, youth is also a period where groups and collectiveness
are more important than ever, where relationships and their influences are in the basis of
someone’s personality. Soon, this will all also affect the market. When the youth enters the
market and starts working, all of their visions of how they should work will reflect their
exposure to these aspects. That is when the entrepreneur market starts to be shaped by these
youth.
For the concepts related to youth entrepreneurship, Kew’s ideas in the report from the “Youth
Business International and Global Entrepreneurship Monitor” were used, where “YBI is the
only dedicated global youth entrepreneurship network” (2013: 13). The report, published in
2013, presents important concepts that focus on how youth is related to entrepreneurship.
The report does not focus on any of the generations, which is a positive aspect for the total
understanding of how much young people influence the market, no matter when they were
born.
The purpose of the report is to present the concept of entrepreneurship towards young people
and their impact on the concept. However, it is necessary to present the concept of
entrepreneurship first, presenting its spheres and outcomes.
“Entrepreneurship is widely acknowledged as a driver of sustainable economic growth as
entrepreneurs create new businesses, drive and shape innovation, speed up structural changes
in the economy, and introduce new competition – thereby contributing to productivity.”
(Kew, 2013: 9)
All of the concepts related to entrepreneurship cited above are also related to youth. New
businesses, for example, starts with new ideas, generally presented by young people that not
only follow trends faster but also set them. Innovation is related to the creation and
production of new ideas, presenting something completely new or even looking at something
old in a new way. Productivity is also related to youth, in the sense that they are settled in the
energy age, where everything is new and they feel ready and bold enough to try new things.

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In addition, all of these concepts can change perspective when applied to different
generations, as it will be explained further in this paper.
The new practices and ideas presented on the market, obviously, become the new action, the
new “normal”, meaning that something will be traditional, and not a perfect fitting for the
modern days. This happens to hierarchical careers and companies, that loose their strength
with the new generations for example. The market of entrepreneurship, a concept that even
only started to be more discussed by generations like the millennials (We All Want to Be
Young, 2012) also had its first steps with the baby boomers, still influencing today’s
generations.
“The traditional job for life career path has become rarer and youth entrepreneurship will
need to be seen as an additional way of allowing the youth into the labour market and
promoting job creation.” (Kew, 2013: 12)
As said before, even though the theories of entrepreneurship and the different generations are
not easily connected in academic work, the concepts affect each other. Entrepreneurship is
all about innovation that can only happen with a group of people with new characteristics
and desires especially the desire to make changes, something that is common practice for
youth.
ANALYSIS
After presenting the theoretical basis of generations and stablishing the importance of youth
when it comes to the entrepreneur market, new trends and innovation, the upcoming section
is to understand with more detail the generations that coexist in the market now. By
presenting their characteristics, the events that shaped them and how their personalities are
reflected in the entrepreneur market, the connection between the two theories is expected as
well as a deeper knowledge of the generations and the market.

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Baby Boomers
The first analyzed generation is called the Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964
(McCrindle, 2009) right after the World War II, a context that already impacts their main
characteristics. The years after the war were marked by the opposite of what the war
presented before, this means economic growth and technological advance. Listening stories
about the war from their parents, baby boomers felt the need to work hard to make change
and focus on development, leaving the war years behind. Defined as hard working, baby
boomers, affected by the militarism in the war, accept to follow a chain of command, where
you have different positions that you work hard to go through each one, until you reach the
top. (Yu, 2005). This generation is also defined as a group that likes and expects to follow
directions and leaders in order for them to grow inside the company; however, it is not a
generation that feels very comfortable with new technologies (Raths, 1999).
Keeping the characteristics above in mind, when Baby Boomers were representing the
younger generation and entering the labor force, the types of companies back then presented
some characteristics that can relate to the ones in the generation. For example, hierarchical
systems were the main force inside companies in the 1980s, were probably ideas introduced
by the young baby boomers willing to follow the rules. The fact that technology did not play
an important part inside companies at the time also sets why this generation can be reluctant
with the major applicability of high tech devices inside companies and people’s lives
nowadays.
Another important characteristic of the baby boomers is the work driven life. For them, it
was all about working as hard and as much as possible in order to provide security and
material possessions for the family (McCrindle, 2009). This generation would carefully
chose their professions (We All Want to be Young, 2012), planning to be inside the same
company for a long time, since “safety” was the key word for a good career (Yu, 2005). That
value is reflected on the large amount of working hours inside companies in the 1980s, giving
this generation the pioneers in the idea of “workaholic” (McCrindle, 2009).

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Generation X
Known as the Gen-Xers, this generation were born between 1965 and 1979, grew up in a
context where peace and economy prosperity were happening (McCrindle, 2009). A few
characteristics of this generation are more independency, a more environmental point of view
and a more questioning personality comparing with the Boomers (Losyk, 1997). When
applying these characteristics to the market at the time, when the young Gen-Xers started to
work, it is possible to see a relation between them. In the early 1990s, the hierarchy inside
companies was losing strength, all work of the Gen-Xers that wanted to prove that they had
capacity to do a greater job than the older employee was doing, for example.
The individualistic personality, shaped by growing up with two working parents or even
divorced parents (common contexts for the Baby Boomers), gave this generation the title of
introducers of the concept of entrepreneurship. Not quite as the modern concept known today,
but the Gen-Xers, a little bit impatient with the hierarchical pattern inside companies, started
to raise their voice and became consultants inside those companies, representing the
entrepreneurial innovation, for example (Losyk, 1997).
Another important aspect of this generation is that, unlike the workaholic Boomers, work is
not the first priority (McCrindle, 2009). More focused on the union of family and the
understanding of the importance of this segment reflected the labor force, where the hours
dedicated to work started to drop, for example.
“Though they are willing to work hard, the X-ers see it as only one part of life and secondary
to their personal lives. In contrast to their parents and grandparents, they believe in work–life
balance as opposed to work ethic. Having entered the workforce at a low point and witnessing
their parents getting laid off after years of loyal service, the X-ers are not confident that hard
work and loyalty are fairly compensated” (MCrindle, 2009: 61)
In addition, this generation was introduced to the computer (Losyk, 1997), the technology
that would change the way people work forever and impact the next generation with an
unmeasurable force that would set their values and personalities.

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Millennials
Generally known as Generation Y, the millennials were born between 1980 and 1994
(McCrindle, 2009). They are the young generation working today and because of the impact
of the internet in their lives as a whole, defining the characteristics of this generation is
complex and conflicting most of the time. As the most plural generation, in the moment,
millennials have a liquid personality, due to the impact of the internet and the fast access to
different content, this generation can and wants to be different things at the same time (“We
All Want to Be Young”, 2012). Still, when it comes to the internet impact in this generation,
the “full” access to information from all over the globe, the proximity and the trust that the
internet involves compared with other media, made Gen-Yers ask for more transparency from
companies. Today, entrepreneurship is shaped by this characteristic, where start-ups for
example are much more transparent when compared to the big corporations, that even show
a slight more transparency level then before, in order to fit in the new economy.
This generation is also known for multi-tasking, doing and wanting different things at the
same time. The urgency that can be defined as one more impact of the internet.
“Being a techno-centric generation, Gen Y-ers are outcome oriented rather than process
oriented. They are clever multi-taskers who can work at several major projects at one time
without feeling stressed.” (McCrindle, 2009: 65).
Multi-tasking is one of the main aspects that made entrepreneurship a normal practice for
this generation. Innovation comes from different background and being involved in different
projects. In addition, for Gen-Yers, it is possible now to still be a student, practice a sport and
run a small business without having to leave any of the positions. This action would be
impossible when Baby Boomers were the youth, since the work hours were so tiring and long
that having a small business at the same time would put one of the positions at risk.
One important aspects of Millennials and the way they work is the relationship between their
profession and life (Ng, 2010). For this generation, more than ever before, having time
besides working is extremely important not only for their mental and physical healthy, but
especially to their motivation and creativity exercise when working. Looking to the

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entrepreneur market, a very strong trend right now are home offices and freelance
companies/workers, which is the reflect of this generation’s necessity to keep everything in
balance, maintaining both work and pleasure safe without having to give up on one of them.
For millennials, having a job should be much more than a position, it should come with an
experience and a cause (Ng, 2010; Gaudelli, 2009). In the entrepreneur market this is
reflected in the new businesses where it is expected that a company shows more than just an
interest in making money. The young millennials are more worried about making a difference
than having a big material payment in the end. That is the reason why companies and projects
are showing their support for social and environmental causes in a massive and public
dimension, in a way that was never did before.
If the impacts of internet are the core of Millennials values and personalities, even when this
generation did not experienced the fastest and instantly online world through all their lives.
The internet has a much more important role in the newest generation and the next youth to
enter the workforce.
The future entrepreneur: what about generation Z?
The newest generation today known as the Zeds, born between 1995 and 2012, can also be
called the “Digital Natives” (Singh, 2014). They were born in a time ruled by the internet,
experiencing environmental problems and terrorism, at the same time that had more
privileges from their hard working parents. The Zeds were born and grew up side by side
with the internet, never experiencing a time where the online world was not there with instant
information and global proximity. If Millennials were more independent due to the internet,
the Zeds are much more. Knowing exactly where and how to search this generation feels like
can do everything by themselves with the internet (Zimmer, 2015).
Since this generation is not yet present on the market, only perspectives about their future
can be presented, through the context they are growing up and its affect in their values. Since
this generation is commonly defined as a youth that values freedom and unconventional
experiences (Singh, 2014), the expectation is that entrepreneurship gets more strength from
them. Innovation and new ideas will come from this desire to detach from any traditional

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working aspects that Millennials still hold on when working. The value of higher education
will also make this a more prepared and educated working group, that will probably start
their entrepreneur career sooner than Millennials. The power of the internet will get younger
Zeds to find information and contact with the entrepreneur world, giving the generation more
confidence when opening new businesses.
“Many of these teens are getting a jump start in entering the working world as entrepreneurs;
more than one-third of Gen Z students either currently have their own business or plan on
having one in the future. Young teens are especially entrepreneurial; teens ages 13-15 are
twice as likely to currently have their own online business compared to older teens.”
(Zimmer, 2015: 5)
The constant presence of the internet in Zeds life and their open mind due to many social and
cultural achievements, such as woman empowerment and homosexuality, will reshape the
workplace. This generation also cares more about financial aspects, something that will
influence the economy, where startups and small companies will have more bold financial
perspectives, differently than the Millennials that want more impact than financial return.
“Generation Z represents the greatest generational shift the workplace has ever seen.
Generation Z will present profound challenges to leaders, managers, supervisors, HR leaders,
and educators in every sector of the workforce. It will be increasingly important to understand
where they are coming from and key strategies for bringing out the best in this new emerging
young workforce.” (Singh, 2014: 63)
Bringing the detachment of definitions and a more global aspect to anything they do, Zeds
will change the entrepreneur market in a much more impacting scale than other generations.
Observing and analyzing the next events that can bring new values to this generation is
crucial to see the new market trends that this generation will work in the future.
CONCLUSION
With this extensive work about generations and the entrepreneurial sphere, it was possible to
see how much of generations is reflected in the market. Understanding how global events
and technology change a group of people, will give more depth to the analysis of new
businesses, the concept of innovation and working behavior. It is interesting to see how all

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of these cited aspects are related and shape economy and consumer behavior, where
generations are becoming more aware of what people want and expect from the market,
wanting to enter faster and more effectively with new businesses.
The inspiration for this paper came observing the presented cases in class, where old and new
companies were analyzed, showing different characteristics. The video “We All Want to be
Young” from the trends agency Box1824 in Brazil made the connection that the current
working generation in their time context shaped the way companies would present
themselves and even behave in certain situations. With this paper, it was possible to
understand that youth has a major part on the entrepreneur market. They not only wait and
ask companies to reflect their values, they open new businesses and startups with their own
values and ideas, enhancing the production and innovation aspects of the market.
Deeper research in such a subject is expected in order to understand work and consumer
behavior based on the young kids in the population. In addition, understanding the old
generations is important, but new ones will always appear and reshape society, along with
the entrepreneur market; that is the reason why academic and market researches should
follow and observe the young community for a complete understanding of how society and
the marker works. Concluding, the power of youth, their aspirations and values, should be
taken seriously as an important affect in different aspects of society, since cultural to
consumer aspects, and especially when understanding entrepreneurship.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Zimmer, C. (2015). Getting to Know Gen Z and High Schoolers’ Expectations For Higher
Education. Barnes & Noble College.
Gaudelli, J. (2009). The greenest generation: The truth behind millennials and the green
movement. Advertising Age. Retrieved November 6, 2009 from
http://adage.com/goodworks/post?article_id=136331.
Kew, J., Herrington, M., Litovsky, Y., & Gale, H. (2013). Generation entrepreneur? The state
of global youth entrepreneurship. Youth Business International and Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor, Newcastle.

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Losyk, B. (1997). Generation X: What they think and what they plan to do.The
Futurist, 31(2), 39.
McCrindle, M., & Wolfinger, E. (2009). The ABC of XYZ: Understanding the global
generations. The ABC of XYZ.
Ng, E. S., Schweitzer, L., & Lyons, S. T. (2010). New generation, great expectations: A field
study of the millennial generation. Journal of Business and Psychology, 25(2), 281-292.
Raths, D. (1999), ‘Bridging the generation gap’, InfoWorld, Vol. 21, No. 45, pp. 84.
Singh, A. (2014). Challenges and Issues of Generation Z. IOSR Journal of Business and
Management (IOSR-JBM), PP 59-63
We All Want to be Young. Box1824, Brazil, 2012.
Yu, H. C., & Miller, P. (2005). Leadership style: The X Generation and Baby Boomers
compared in different cultural contexts. Leadership & Organization Development
Journal, 26(1), 35-50.