Intergenerational Entrepreneurship to Foster Sustainable Development: A Methodological Training Proposal

Intergenerational entrepreneurial initiatives are aimed at addressing the needs and opportunities of certain social groups and have the potential of becoming successful business projects. Moreover, they are a key to undertake sustainability practices that may represent a competitive advantage for the companies and an example to imitate when creating businesses. The objective of the study is to propose an intergenerational training methodology so that young people and seniors can create companies together, generating social cohesion and sustainable development in response to generational challenges. Intergenerational entrepreneurship seems to be a novel research area, especially when referring to developing methodologies of collaborative entrepreneurship projects. For this purpose, our literature review focuses on, first, the matching theories and experiences applied for intergenerational cooperation; then, literature about training methodologies for entrepreneurship is reviewed; finally, the main theories on training skills for entrepreneurship are approached. Focus groups were conducted as they serve as the main sources of data and are very appropriate for the generation of new ideas within a social context. In general, results show that, for achieving a successful intergenerational cooperation, some specific training is needed for both generations. This paper is a starting point for future research approaching intergenerational entrepreneurship, or entrepreneurial initiatives with singular characteristics, such as rural contexts or people with disabilities.

Intergenerational Justice

The problem of climate change has generated renewed interest in the question of what we owe to future generations. This question is often thought to pose special problems for contractualists, because many claim that there is no possibility of mutually beneficial cooperation between generations. Because benefits can flow only forward in time, there cannot be reciprocity between non-contemporaneous generations, and so there is no place for a social contract to determine how the benefits and burdens of cooperation are to be assigned. This chapter argues that this supposed problem for contractualism is not really a problem at all, since there is no problem in principle, or in practice, with a system of intergenerational cooperation in which benefits flow only one way. The widespread failure to appreciate this is due to several counterintuitive features of the system that is at work in our society.

Having a stake in the future and perceived population density influence intergenerational cooperation

Intergenerational common-pool resource games represent a new experimental paradigm in which the current generation's decision to cooperate or defect influences future generations who cannot reciprocate, providing key insights for sustainability science. We combine experimental and theoretical approaches to assess the roles of having a stake in the future (50% chance to pass the resource on to themselves in the next generation) and reminders of the presence of others (exposure to people-chatting sounds) on intergenerational cooperation. We find that, as expected, having a stake in the future increases cooperation with future generations, except when participants are also exposed to people-chatting sounds. We hypothesize that this interaction effect occurs because people-chatting sounds trigger a perception of large group size, which reduces the chance of individuals and their descendants benefiting from the pool in the future, thus reducing cooperation. Our results highlight the context-dependent effect of having a future stake on intergenerational cooperation for resource sustainability, and suggest an area of future work for environmental messaging.

Are There Differences and Complementarities between Senior and Young Entrepreneurs? An Intergenerational Perspective

Social exclusion related to the unemployment of vulnerable population groups constitutes a crucial limitation to achieving a sustainable world. In particular, young and senior populations have specific characteristics that put them at risk of exclusion from the labor market. This circumstance has motivated an attempt to foster cooperation between these age groups to enable them to develop entrepreneurial initiatives that will contribute to close this social vulnerability gap. We approach this topic by focusing on intergenerational entrepreneurship, understood as entrepreneuring projects jointly undertaken by seniors and young adults. The objective of this study was to identify the differences and complementarities between senior and young entrepreneurs with a view to enabling them to develop viable intergenerational entrepreneurial projects, with special emphasis in the motivational push, pull, and blocking factors that affect them. This kind of entrepreneurial initiative fosters knowledge transfer and experience between age groups, promotes job creation and social inclusion, improves a sense of belonging, and, thus, contributes to the construction of a stronger society serving as an engine for sustainable development. Therefore, intergenerational entrepreneurship can be considered a form of social innovation. A mixed-methods approach was utilized in this study, using quantitative data from a questionnaire as a starting point for the characterization and identification of senior and young entrepreneurial profiles, and qualitative data from focus groups, which enabled us to identify complementarities among generations. The results show that there are significant differences between youths and seniors in terms of the motivations and factors that push, pull, or block the decision to form an intergenerational entrepreneurial partnership. These differences can be interpreted as complementarities that can boost intergenerational cooperation to promote social inclusion.

Intergenerational Cooperation and Stereotypes in Relation to Age in the Working Environment

The problem of intergenerational cooperation in the workplace is becoming increasingly important, especially because of the ageing workforce. The article presents the issue of companies facing the challenge of changing a work environment that has to be tailored to the characteristics of each individual generation in the workplace. Generational differences and similarities are explained in more detail, especially in relation to work, followed by a consideration of stereotypes and age discrimination in the work environment. The article illustrates the problem of stereotypes related to age at a selected company. In focus groups we found several positive as well as negative stereotypes regarding age in the workplace, which we use in a research questionnaire especially designed for this study. The questionnaire was completed by 394 employees, and the results used to provide answers to the following research questions: Are there stereotypes within the company about the characteristics of different generations? And do different generations have different foundations regarding the company’s expected attitudes towards their work? The results show that in the focal company there are mostly positive stereotypes regarding age. We also found out that there are no significant differences between the different generations regarding the company’s expected attitudes towards their work. The respondents of all ages expected these attitudes to be based on similar foundations.

Intergenerational Cooperation and the Social Contract

John Rawls made the enormously influential suggestion that society can be conceived of as a “cooperative venture for mutual advantage,” governed by a “theory of justice,” which is a set of principles that specify an acceptable division of the “benefits and burdens of cooperation.” It follows, however, that if there are no opportunities for mutually advantageous cooperation in a particular domain of social interaction, then these interactions cannot be governed by principles of justice. Certain commentators have argued that this analysis precludes the application of Rawlsian-style contract theory to questions of intergenerational justice, on the grounds that there can be no reciprocity between non-contemporaneous generations, and thus no possibility of intergenerational cooperation. Yet despite having become influential in the literature, this claim is incorrect, being based upon an overly narrow, direct conception of reciprocity. Many systems of cooperation, both in nature and in human society, are based on indirect reciprocity, where the individual from whom a benefit is received need not be the same as the individual to whom a benefit is provided. Once the possibility of indirect reciprocity is taken into account, one can see that there is no obstacle to the development of systems of intergenerational cooperation. The analysis of such systems provides the foundation for a contractual approach to questions of intergenerational justice.

Potential of Age-management in the Construction Digitalization Process

Research background: The article deals with the issue of intergenerational cooperation of different age categories. It follows up on the outputs of the research task “Intergenerational management to support digitization in construction” funded by TACR. Purpose of the article: The aim of the article is to determine the main problems of intergenerational cooperation and to analyse the current situation from the point of view of solving the necessary changes by introducing digitization in the construction industry. Methods: When modelling mutual cooperation between generations, it turns out that the key problem is the willingness to cooperate. Interpretation of the results obtained from the research was made through logical deduction and synthesis of previous knowledge in the field. Findings & Value added: The findings of the article are in the form of determining the main attributes preventing effective intergenerational cooperation with the aim of sharing digital competencies. The outputs of the article are the cornerstone for the model of intergenerational cooperation based on improving communication between generations, mutual sharing of competencies and thus the use of the strengths of individual cooperating generations (digital competence vs. long-term experience in the field). The research project shows a way to deal with the situation in companies and offers a relatively simple solution that aims to improve intergenerational cooperation and sharing competencies in order to increase the competitiveness of companies. It also offers a way to make effective use of older employees and offer them job satisfaction.

Social Solidarity and Generational Exchange in Post-Celtic Tiger Reality Television

An after effect of the 2008 global financial crisis was a significant generational divide, fuelled by growing inequality, that limited access to necessities such as secure work and housing for the post-crash generation in Ireland. Faced with issues including political upheaval, climate crisis, and austerity, young people in Ireland and elsewhere have recently organized themselves online and on the streets as social, environmental, and political activists. This article examines recent Irish reality television texts that encourage intergenerational cooperation and solidarity, offering visions of mutual reliance and positive relationships between young and old that dissipate any notion of “generation wars.” Familial and community structures are thus reinstated as a safety net for current uncertainties. This article proposes that these programmes reflect a desire that the cohesion and transformation gained through intergenerational exchange and cooperation on social issues in Ireland might also be leveraged towards addressing the more stubbornly divisive economic inequalities.