Keywords

Introduction

Tourism is the fastest growing industry that creates jobs and affects the global economy tremendously. According to WTO statistics, the tourism industry grew by 4% in 2019 (World Tourism Organization 2019). It is important to indicate that the current population of the world is 7.6 billion (World Population Prospects Report 2019) while international tourist arrivals worldwide reached 1.5 billion in 2019 (UNWTO 2020). Therefore, tourism has shown strong growth and is helping in the economic development of countries. The most common definition of tourism is ‘the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited’ (TSA: RMF 2008; Page 2007: 12). The tourism industry is a huge business ecosystem that includes accommodation (hotels, motels, resorts, camping, hostels, bungalows), food and beverages (hotel restaurants, local restaurants, catering), transportation (railway, road, water, air), associated sectors (gift shops, craft shops, local shops), recreation and entertainment, travel services and tour operation businesses (Quattrociocchi et al. 2017). UNWTO (2008: 2) expressed the ecosystem of tourism as ‘the activities that typically produce tourism characteristics products’. The development of mass tourism has changed small villages into massive tourist destinations (Ransley 2012). Mass tourism has increased the demand for new products and activities for tourist consumption, although the demand for tourism activities has expanded to increase entrepreneurial activities.

Humanity is in a new era, called the digital era (Kesici and Tunç 2018). The aspect of this era that is having most impact on technology development and its effects on human life. Technological devices have become widely used, both at home and at work (Hoque 2018). This era will also have new employees, from Generation Z. That means that different generations will be involved in business life. Organizations have a more multigenerational structure than ever before. Directors have to manage employees from different generations, adapt their workplaces to this diversity, and attract new talents to the organization—in other words have a good talent management. According to a CNBC article, the oldest ‘Gen Zers’ have graduated from college and are about to enter the workforce. They have entered the business world after the baby boomers’ retirement, but Gen Z is still developing and maturing (Agarwal and Vaghela 2018). Managers of organizations and human resource managers should consider the differences among the generations. They should separately evaluate the generational differences (Barclays 2013). Are managers ready to understand Gen Z’s needs and expectations? Do they know enough about how their features might be useful for their businesses? Are they ready to manage this generation? Thus, it is important to understand Generation Z’s characteristics, needs, expectations and preferences in business life.

This chapter aims to discuss and highlight Generation Z’s (or Gen Z for short) career choices in tourism entrepreneurship. The three main concepts of this chapter are tourism entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and Gen Z, which are examined by using an extensive literature review. The first part of the chapter highlights the definition of tourism entrepreneurship, types of tourism entrepreneurs and the role of intrapreneurs in tourism enterprises. The second part of the chapter will focus on the characteristics of Gen Z, Gen Z’s lifestyle, business choices and the future of Gen Z’s tourism entrepreneurial career choices. The final part of this chapter will discuss Gen Z’s career choices in the tourism industry.

Tourism and Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship has been studied extensively, from as early as the 1950s (Lant and Mezias 1990). Many entrepreneurial theories have been developed and examined empirically by researchers (Nielsen et al. 2017). Two scholars who developed ‘classical’ theories of entrepreneurship were Schumpeter (1934) and Kirzner (1973) (Shockley and Frank 2011; Isık et al. 2019). Schumpeter (1934) made it clear that entrepreneurship requires innovation, while Krizner (1973) pointed out that alertness is the key to entrepreneurship (Shockley and Frank 2011). Ahmad and Seymour (2008: 9) explained the concepts of entrepreneurship as ‘Entrepreneurs are those persons (business owners) who seek to generate value, through the creation or expansion of economic activity, by identifying and exploiting new products, processes or markets. Entrepreneurial activity is enterprising human action in pursuit of the generation of value, through the creation or expansion of economic activity, by identifying and exploiting new products, processes or markets. Entrepreneurship is a phenomenon associated with entrepreneurial activity”. Hessels and Naudé (2019: 399) supported that “entrepreneurship is needed for economic development and that medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are vehicles for such entrepreneurship’.

There are many ways to start a business under the tourism umbrella. The tourism ecosystem includes many tourism enterprises like travel agencies, tour operators, hotels, restaurants and cruises (Farrell and Twining-Ward 2004). The entrepreneur who can notice opportunities has the key to real success. The tourism industry is full of entrepreneurial opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, the industry is dominated by SMEs (Khoshkhoo and Nadalipour 2016). Tourism SMEs play an important role in a country’s economic and cultural development (Chang 2011). Tourism entrepreneurship’s rapid developments can create jobs, income and profits, therefore, Koh and Hatten (2002: 30) defined a tourism entrepreneur as ‘a creator of a touristic enterprise; there are two commonly practised routes to tourism entrepreneurship: starting from scratch, and acquiring a franchise. The starting from scratch route involves opportunity identification, opportunity assessment and opportunity pursuit. The franchise route is the acquisition of someone else’s success formula’.

Tourism entrepreneurship has become more important not only because it creates economic benefits but because it also gives a competitive advantage among tourism destinations (Ireland and Webb 2007). Competition has been an important issue of international tourism (Gursoy et al. 2015). All tourism entrepreneurs must adapt to the highly competitive and international business environment. Cecilia et al. (2011: 246) stressed that tourists’ needs, and demands have changed over the years and require more attention to detail from tourism entrepreneurs, which they explained as:

The new tourists are more experienced, more educated, more ‘green’, more flexible, more independent, more quality-conscious and ‘harder to please’ than ever before. Furthermore, they are well-read and know what they want and where they want to go. The different approach of the new tourists creates a demand for new products. The small, medium and micro-entrepreneurs within the tourism industry are dependent on major tourism developments. It is an essential role of these small entrepreneurs to be increased to deal with the changing demands of the new tourists.

Tourism entrepreneurs must react quickly that tourist needs are changing quickly. Otherwise, it will be too late to catch the demand in time. Tourism is so sensible that is affected in many ways. It is not like other industries, it has unique characteristics that means that tourism entrepreneurship differs from others (Solvoll et al. 2015; Tresna and Nirmalasari 2018). The tourism characteristics are:

  • ‘Intangibility: Services are viewed as performances or actions rather than objects’ (Koh and Hatten 2002: 31).

  • ‘Inseparability: The simultaneous production and consumption of a service. Goods are produced first, then sold and consumed, whereas most services are sold first and then produced and consumed simultaneously’ (Bowen 2002: 5).

  • ‘Heterogeneity: The vagaries of human interaction between and among service contact employees and consumers’ (Bowen 2002: 5).

  • ‘Perishability: The service production characteristic of fixed time and space. Services cannot be saved, stored, resold, or returned’ (Bowen 2002: 5).

  • ‘Seasonality: The concentration of tourism flows at a certain time in a destination country’ (Karamustafa and Ulama 2010: 5).

  • ‘Service management skills: Understanding, developing and deploying service management skills’ (Koh and Hatten 2002: 31).

Tourism entrepreneurship differs from general entrepreneurship because of its characteristics. General entrepreneurship literature would be beneficial to learn and apply in a tourism context. However, many issues have not been fully understood yet. Tourism entrepreneurship has not been fully covered, describe the growth of tourism entrepreneur. Recent studies suggested that tourism entrepreneurs are motivated by living styles and conditions known as lifestyles and that they are not profit-oriented (Solvoll et al. 2015; Pırnar 2015). Tourism entrepreneurs require more effective social, public relations, marketing and communication, business development, and service management skills (Sima et al. 2015). Consequently, tourism entrepreneurs who have unique skills like innovative and managerial skills would have a more competitive advantage than others (Pırnar 2015).

Generally, entrepreneurship literature divides entrepreneurs into many different types, such as lifestyle and serial (Schwienbacher 2007), internet entrepreneurs (Serarols-Tarrés et al. 2006), nascent entrepreneurs (Davidsson 2006) and social entrepreneurs (Saebi et al. 2019). Types of tourism entrepreneurs are classified mainly based on the type of journey or service offered by the entrepreneur (Koh and Hatten 2002). The type of entrepreneur is also important because this affects the full journey of entrepreneurship (Rodriguez-Sanchez et al. 2019). There are many arguments about the types of tourism entrepreneurs (Fu et al. 2019), which will be examined in the next section.

Types of Tourism Entrepreneurs

It is essential to examine more details about types of tourism entrepreneurs to understand the nature of tourism entrepreneurship. The typology of tourism has not been studied extensively (Koh and Hatten 2002; McGehee and Kline 2008; Fu et al. 2019). Koh and Hatten (2002) suggested the typology of tourism entrepreneurs as being two categories—product-based or having a behaviour- or motivation-based typology, which is shown in Table 3.1. McGehee and Kline (2008) redefined Koh and Hatten’s typologies with an example, which helped to understand their ideas more clearly. Product-based typology includes inventive, innovative and imitative tourism entrepreneurs. Motivation-based includes social, lifestyle, marginal, closet, nascent and serial tourism entrepreneurs. Product-based typology simply refers to the tourism product, whether such a product already exists or whether it could be created. Behavioural-based is related to the entrepreneur’s desire, characteristics, skills and abilities.

Table 3.1 Tourism entrepreneurs’ typologies and definitions
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Product-Based Tourism Entrepreneurs

Product-based tourism entrepreneurs are focused on inventing, creating or applying an existing product into their entrepreneurial venture. It is quite problematic to do that in tourism because of the definition of tourism products. Tresna and Nirmalasari (2018: 39) articulated the definition of tourism products as ‘all kinds of products, both goods and services, which are tourism commodities’. Tourism entrepreneurs must be aware of the elements of tourism products that cannot be separated while organizing the package. Tour packages mainly include transportation, accommodation, food, transfer, entertainment and other services (Lis-Gutiérrez et al. 2018). Therefore, there are many ways of being an entrepreneur in tourism.

One could become an entrepreneur by creating an unusual package tours, opening different type of accommodations or offering interesting transportations. The inventive tourism entrepreneur invents tourism products or services from scratch. Unfortunately, there are not many inventive tourism entrepreneurs in the world. Good examples of inventive tourism entrepreneurs are Hilton, Marriot, lastminute.com and trivago.com (Ateljevic and Li 2017). On the other hand, innovative entrepreneurs create a new way of doing things or services. A good example would be all-inclusive hotels, themed amusement parks and hotels (Goldsby and Mathews 2018). The differences between innovation and inventive tourism entrepreneurs are risk levels, business idea processes and market competition (Koh and Hatten 2002). The last classification of the product-based typology is imitative tourism entrepreneurs. Imitative tourism entrepreneurs prefer to do similar services to others or franchise a famous brand. This type of entrepreneur does not want to take high risks and is more careful about the needs of the community.

Behaviour-Based Tourism Entrepreneurs

Behaviour- or motivation-based tourism entrepreneurs are linked with entrepreneurs’ perceptions, characteristics and skills (Koh and Hatten 2002; McGehee and Kline 2008). Koh and Hatten (2002) suggested six behaviour-based tourism entrepreneurs’ characteristics as ‘social, closet, nascent, serial, lifestyle, marginal and growth-oriented’. All six behaviour-based tourism entrepreneurs are having different characteristics, motivations and reasons to start a new business. Social, closet, nascent and serial tourism entrepreneurs are recently getting more attention. Social tourism entrepreneurs are founders of non-profit tourism organizations. Reindrawati (2018) defined social tourism entrepreneurs as ‘those who conduct tourism business activities that inspire and encourage local communities to participate to carry out business activities travel’. Social tourism entrepreneurs prefer to establish tourism locations for the benefit of other people. Some gardens, museums, aquariums, art galleries and non-profit tourism organizations (the American Hotel and Motel Association, the Travel Industry Association of America, Travel and Tourism Research Association, the International Council of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education, and the International Society of Travel and Tourism Educators) are good examples of social tourism entrepreneurial ventures (Koh and Hatten 2002; Reindrawati 2018).

The closet tourism entrepreneur, who lives and works in places where tourism occurs, practises tourism-related activities in addition to their full-time duties. The closet tourism entrepreneur has an income from a daily job, while extra earnings come from part-time tourism services that they offer (Koh and Hatten 2002). The nascent tourism entrepreneurs are at the beginning of their tourism venture (Karatas-Ozkan and Chell 2010; Douglas 2017). McGehee and Kline (2008) suggested that nascent tourism entrepreneurs develop a business plan, process financial help, attract investors and actively seek business opportunities. The serial tourism entrepreneurs, who already have tourism-related establishments and continue to find other—related or unrelated—tourism establishments (Koh and Hatten 2002). They have more opportunities than many other types of entrepreneur. Serial tourism entrepreneurs know about running a successful venture. They are well-regarded in terms of getting financial help because they have already received capital for previous enterprises (Nahata 2019). Conversely, marginal, lifestyle entrepreneurs and growth-oriented entrepreneurs have been the subject of the tourism literature.

Marginal Tourism Entrepreneurs

The most attention from scholars has been on marginal tourism entrepreneurs (Dahles 1998; Dahles and Bras 1999; Koh and Hatten 2002; Bird and Mitsuhashi 2003; Ndabeni and Rogerson 2005; Rogerson 2008; King 2009; Berdychevsky 2016; Karunaratne 2017) and lifestyle tourism entrepreneurs (Ateljevic and Doorne 2000; Koh and Hatten 2002; Shaw and Williams 2004; Ollenburg and Buckley 2007; Lashley and Rowson 2010; Dawson et al. 2011; Casado-Díaz et al. 2014; Bredvold and Skålén 2016; Xu et al. 2017; Cunha et al. 2018). Marginal tourism entrepreneurs were known as ‘romantic entrepreneurs’ (Dahles and Bras 1999), these being one of the most interesting types of tourism entrepreneurs. Berdychevsky (2016) described romantic entrepreneurs by stating: ‘local men romancing female tourists can be conceptualized as romantic entrepreneurs since many of them perceive tourist girlfriends as an economic strategy to make a living and secure their future’. King (2009: 231) claimed: ‘the concept of ‘romantic entrepreneur’ adequately describes (young) men putting much effort into the establishment of romantic relationships with female tourists, intending to be supported by these women or of acquiring a ticket to follow them to their home country’.

All studies related to romantic entrepreneurs were conducted in South Asia or undeveloped territories. This type of tourism entrepreneurship could be related to low income, unskilled workers, education levels and economic problems (King 2009). On the other hand, Bird and Mitsuhashi (2003) and Karunaratne (2017) emphasized that the term ‘romantic entrepreneur’ has a different meaning to entrepreneurship in the Japanese context. Hirschmeier (1964) was one of the scholars who defined Japanese entrepreneurs as ‘romantic entrepreneurs’. He explained their style as ‘start a new business, often change their industry, type of business or management styles and establish many businesses to achieve maximum wealth’ (Hirschmeier 1964, cited in Karunaratne 2017). However, romantic entrepreneurs can also be local boys who exchange their service (as an unofficial tourist guide) or friendship for money with tourists in tourism contexts (Dahles 1998; Dahles and Bras 1999). Afterwards, Dahles and Bras (1999) offered the view that these types of tourism entrepreneurs can be labelled as ‘marginal tourism entrepreneurs’. Koh and Hatten (2002) explained that ‘marginal tourism entrepreneurs are those who operate their enterprises in the informal and peripheral sector (i.e., the part of an economy where businesses are unregistered but tolerated by the government) of the travel/tourism industry, such as street vendors, hawkers and unlicensed tour guides. They are certainly not employees but are independent business owners’. Marginal tourism entrepreneurs are also portrayed as survivalist (Ndabeni and Rogerson 2005; Rogerson 2008).

Lifestyle Tourism Entrepreneurs

The lifestyle tourism entrepreneur is another type of behavioural-based tourism entrepreneur. Koh and Hatten (2002: 36) described lifestyle tourism entrepreneurs as ‘those who launch touristic enterprises to support their desired lifestyles and/or hobbies/interests with no/little intention of growing their enterprises’. Similarly, Fu et al. (2019: 5) described lifestyle entrepreneurs as ‘focus more on improving their quality of life by living in a place that they desire, building social networks, and being part of a community, rather than maximizing profits’. For many years, retired people have been the key players of lifestyle tourism entrepreneurs (Casado-Díaz et al. 2014). They often harbour a desire to live in a seaside or rural area, with a slow and natural life (Ollenburg and Buckley 2007). Some people establish a small restaurant because of the enjoyment of cooking and meeting new people (Koh and Hatten 2002).

Lifestyle tourism entrepreneurs start a business because they need to satisfy different interests with low risks and low skills required. Some of the lifestyle entrepreneurs are retired people who have travelled to a place just for the opportunity to run a tourism business venture. Some people pursue a destination to have a different lifestyle. If a tourism entrepreneur knows a specific area like organic food, they may create innovative services and products within their new desired destination, mainly in a rural area (Cunha et al. 2018). Masurel and Snellenberg (2017) emphasized that lifestyle entrepreneurs’ competencies are not different than other entrepreneurs. However, Sun et al. (2019) found that lifestyle entrepreneurs’ work and personal lives are not separable. This may create some problems in the entrepreneur’s life when their circumstances change.

Lifestyle tourism entrepreneurs have always had a relationship with the retirement plan (Prince 2017). Many lifestyle entrepreneurs open ‘Bed and Breakfast’ (B&B) guest houses or hotels so they can spend their retirement in sunny and small villages (Crawford and Naar 2016b). Crawford and Naar (2016a) found that most of the B&B owners in the USA are lifestyle entrepreneurs. However, some entrepreneurs become lifestyle entrepreneurs because they like the living conditions, personal freedom, more time, financial independence and daily job routine (Peters et al. 2009; Crawford and Naar 2016a, b; Balachandran and Sakthivelan 2013). Many lifestyle tourism entrepreneurs were not wishing to grow because it is risky and may result in failure (Shmailan 2016). The entrepreneur’s motivation will influence the company’s growth strategy. They may wish to grow or not to grow. Lifestyle entrepreneurs do not want to change anything to earn more money or to have more customers (Kosenius et al. 2020). Lifestyle tourism entrepreneurs may prefer to keep their business as usual.

Growth-Oriented Tourism Entrepreneurs

Another type of tourism entrepreneurs, who are known as growth-oriented entrepreneurs (Getz and Petersen 2005; Mason and Brown 2014; Volery et al. 2015; Kuschel and Lepeley 2016; Lecuna et al. 2017; Kallmuenzer and Peters 2018; Day and Mody 2017; Ali 2018; Fu et al. 2019), became more popular because of economic and other impacts. Growth-oriented entrepreneurs are widely studied in general entrepreneurship literature (Bager et al. 2015; Gutterman 2016, 2018; Masurel and Snellenberg 2017; Lecuna et al. 2017). Growth-oriented entrepreneurs want to create jobs, experience internationalization, explore new markets, enhance innovation, achieve sustainable growth and fuel their strong desire to make money (Getz and Petersen 2004, 2005; Macke 2016; Gutterman 2018).

Growth-oriented entrepreneurs always take risks, with their desire coming from an income-oriented approach (Getz and Petersen 2005). Growth-oriented entrepreneurs want to grow to create jobs and economic benefits. In the tourism industry, there are few growth-oriented tourism entrepreneurs because the tourism industry is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Peters et al. 2019). Entrepreneurs who own tourism SMEs are mainly lifestyle entrepreneurs (Hall and Rusher 2013) rather than growth-oriented entrepreneurs (Getz and Petersen 2005). Getz and Peterson (2005) found that hospitality entrepreneurs’ characteristics to be autonomy-oriented, money-centred, with their business being under family ownership and the main motivation to start-up business being ‘lifestyle’.

The characteristics of successful entrepreneurs (Shmailan 2016; Lecuna et al. 2017; Hmieleski and Sheppard 2019; Sadeghi et al. 2019) and the abilities of entrepreneurs (Chou et al. 2016; Darnihamedani and Hessels 2016) have been examined extensively in general and tourism literature. Bird (2015: 151) described the successful entrepreneur’s characteristics as ‘flexibility, field independence, cognitive complexity, openness to experience, visionary and vigilance, as well as his or her ability to form network relationships outside the venture’. Rasca and Deaconu (2018) discussed that entrepreneurial abilities and attitudes can be learnable through entrepreneurial education. An entrepreneur can learn critical thinking, lateral thinking, applying heuristics, and systematic searching (Rasca and Deaconu 2018).

Elsworth et al. (2008) further added that the successful entrepreneur can teach others who wish to be an entrepreneur. In this way, potential entrepreneurs can develop more entrepreneurial abilities and learn from other successful entrepreneurs (Bird 2019). Elsworth et al. (2008) found that entrepreneurial thought and behaviour play a crucial role in being a successful entrepreneur or intrapreneur. They believe that the entrepreneur and the intrapreneur both share similar characteristics and behaviour. However, some of the characteristics of entrepreneurs/intrapreneurs are inherent, while some of them can be learnt through training and education over time.

Tourism Intrapreneurs

Tourism entrepreneurs do not always open and run their own company. There is another way to act like entrepreneurs within an organization, and that is known as ‘an intrapreneur’. Along with, companies are no longer looking for ordinary personnel to recruit (Harrison and Delaney 2014). Firms want to hire employees who can ‘think like an owner’, demonstrate entrepreneurial attitude and skills, think on their feet and possess good problem-solving abilities (West 2013; Kaplan 2015). In today`s business world, large companies encourage internal entrepreneurship or cooperate entrepreneurship (Mottiar and Boluk 2017). Intrapreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship are terms used interchangeably and both mean any activities that can create innovative solutions by using an organisation's resources and increasing business growth (Parker 2011). Intrapreneurs act differently to normal employees, pushing boundaries and being more innovative. Therefore, an intrapreneur can be defined as a person who shows entrepreneurial behaviour within an existing organization (Pinchot 1985; Antoncic and Hisrich 2003).

Parker (2011) stressed that the entrepreneur and the intrapreneur may have similar abilities, approaches, mentality and tactics as regards business opportunities. Moriano et al. (2014) argued that intrapreneurs may achieve rewards, access existing resources, and enjoy freedom in different types and sizes of organizations. On the other hand, Bosma et al. (2011) found that certain characteristic traits—risk, creativity, opportunity and analytical thinking—do not differentiate between entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Intrapreneurs do have some specific characteristics, like ‘networking skills, thinking out of the box, enterprise, being a controller, champion, risk-taker, innovator, creator, success-oriented, challengeable, and a quick learner’ (Mohedano-Suanes and Benítez 2018: 111). This may indicate that intrapreneurs may lead to change in terms of creativity and pioneer developments inside the company.

The differences between entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship are shown in Table 3.2. There are different arguments about who is an intrapreneur and who is not (Koh and Hatten 2002; Jyotirmay 2007; Mottiar and Boluk 2017; Antoncic and Antoncic 2018). However, some people who have entrepreneurial skills will start a company and some of them work in a company and use their entrepreneurial skills within the company. If the firm is entrepreneurial and provides working conditions and support for intrapreneurs, the firm will have many intrapreneurs. Intrapreneurship cannot be based on the person’s characteristics, skills and abilities. Intrapreneurship, like entrepreneurship, mainly depends on the firm’s environment and entrepreneurial eco-systems.

Table 3.2 Entrepreneurship vs Intrapreneurship
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A person’s desires and wants may not be enough on their own to help them to pursue intrapreneurship. Companies must support intrapreneurship activity within the organization (Antoncic and Hisrich 2003). Intrapreneurship can only be presented when top management shows support and encouragement (Pinchot 1985). Therefore, management has a key role in executing and enhancing intrapreneurship (Altınay 2004). Management must show tolerance to fail (Alpkan et al. 2010). Some organizations use this as an opportunity and create support systems, reward systems and flexible working systems, with more free time and choice (Bosma et al. 2011). Essentially, intrapreneurship supports management styles to change the old and clichéd job routines to a more proactive and dynamic style (Gawke et al. 2017). Hence, intrapreneurship plays an important role in developing and transforming an organisation’s management and a better way of doing business.

Intrapreneurs may show their skills and traits when they see opportunities. Kraleva (2011: 79) pointed out that ‘Intrapreneurship, like organizational learning, enforces employees’ participation in the decision-making process and their active involvement in achieving the organizational objectives’. Antoncic and Antoncic (2018) found a strong link between intrapreneurship and a firm’s growth in tourism. An intrapreneur can be a growth-oriented entrepreneur who holds similar characteristics and attitudes. Mottiar and Boluk (2017: 130) believe that the young generations are energetic, visionary, opportunist and like to change the status quo by becoming intrapreneurs in the tourism industry. Tourism businesses owners also aware that companies need new generations to be more creative and innovative (Jyotirmay 2007).

Generation Z

The digital era has really only just started, and three generations are currently in the workforce (Li 2017). The most different generation would be Gen Z, compared to other generations (Mahadi 2018). Gen Z, who number approximately 69 million people in the USA, has already overtaken Gen Y by three million (NDP Group 2017). This generation is also strongly represented in other countries. For example, Gen Z represents 17% of the Turkish population (Mercan 2016). They are considered as the future (NDP Group 2017).

Currently, Gen Z workers tend to enter business life as trainees. They will graduate from colleges in the following year and be part of the workforce or internship programmes. They will form a large part of the changeover in the workforce, accounting for 27% of the workforce by 2025. It is predicted that they will change jobs 18 times and careers six times in their working life (Taş et al. 2017; Agarwal and Vaghela 2018; McCrindle 2019a). The following section outlines the extant literature on Gen Z characteristics, lifestyles and business choices.

Who Is Generation Z?

There are different views about Generation Zers’ age range in literature. Most commonly, they are people who have been born after 1996. The NDP Group divides Gen Z into two groups (NDP Group 2017). One group is composed of people who were born between 1997 and 2005. The other group is defined as people born in 2006 and after. The first group is mentioned as ‘the first connected kids’ whereas the latter is explained as ‘the technology inherent’ (NDP Group 2017). In general, both groups of Gen Z don’t know any time without the internet and social media (Business Insider 2019).

Gen Z is defined differently by various sources. Before the current definition, there were different names for this generation, such as ‘children of the internet’, ‘digital natives’, the ‘media generation’, the ‘.com generation’, ‘IGen’, ‘instant online’ (Levickaite 2010), the ‘homeland generation’ and ‘post-millennials’ (NDP Group 2017). The term of generation is defined as ‘a group of people or cohorts who share birth years and experiences as they move through time together, influencing and being influenced by a variety of critical factors’ (Kupperschmidt 2000: 66). Every generation has their unique and common backgrounds and life experiences. For example, Gen Y is the generation that has experienced the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the death of Princess Diana, September 11, and war in the Middle East. In contrast, the mortgage crisis in the USA, the world of global terrorism and economic threats can be expressed as the common backgrounds of Gen Z (Arar and Yüksel 2015; Agarwal and Vaghela 2018). They have grown up with economic depression and will begin their business life under economic pressure (Taş et al. 2017). To this can be added pandemics all around the world. According to Washington Post news (2020):

The pandemic has been a relentless destroyer of brick-and-mortar businesses as public health officials warn against in-person interactions. But the coronavirus is boosting almost anything that can be done online or with minimal human contact - grocery deliveries, online learning, takeout food, streaming video, even real estate closings done with online notaries… The reality of office employees logging in from home also could reshape the workplace… A Microsoft executive, said in an online news briefing. ‘We’re never going to go back to working the way that we did’… Kate Lister, president of consulting firm Global Workplace Analytics, said she expects more than 25% of employees will continue working from home multiple days a week after the crisis fades.

The fast growth of technology is, as a matter of course, the highest priority in Gen Zers’ life experiences (Arar and Yüksel 2015). The advanced products of the Apple company, Facebook, Twitter, used by millions of people, and other social media such as Instagram, Pinterest and Foursquare, have become part of Gen Z’s daily lives (Berkup 2014). Even a 2-year-old child knows how to use a smartphone or a tablet computer. That’s why this generation loves and is addicted to speed in any part of their lives (Arar and Yüksel 2015). These explanations mean that Generation Z will be the fastest adapting group to this mandatorily changing world.

Lifestyles of Generation Z

Lifestyles are the living, spending and working patterns of people using the internet and digital devices (Yu 2011). Any technological device has direct and/or indirect effects on people’s lifestyles (Hoque 2018). Gen Zers are true digital natives, connecting more than ten hours in a day (Vision Critical 2019). Their basic characteristics are confidence, independence, individualism, addiction to technology and speed. They have big differences from their parents, who are Generation X. Because they haven’t matured yet, researchers don’t know which issues will impact most on Gen Z (Alp et al. 2019). However, there is various research comparing Generation Z with Generation Y, which is the nearest generation. Gen Yers are also called ‘millennials’, ‘generation next’, ‘nexters’, ‘echo boomers’, ‘trophy kids’, ‘generation www’, ‘net generation’, or ‘Gen N’ (Jain and Pant 2012). They weren’t born into the same level of technology as Gen Z, but they live with technology. They have a high level of education, mostly up to postgraduate level. They are experienced with technology and innovation, and they have confidence. They don’t like to wait and don’t know how to be patient. They want speed. A satisfactory and balanced life is their motivation (Suleman and Nelson 2011; Berkup 2014).

Gen Z, in contrast, is the generation that was born into the internet. Social networking is a part of their daily lives and they embrace this, connecting in informal, individual and straight ways. They are the ‘Do-İt-Yourself’ generation. They are impatient, instant-minded, individualistic, self-directed, and are the most demanding, acquisitive, materialistic and entitled generation so far (Agarwal and Vaghela 2018). Getting contact with any person in any location of the world is possible in seconds. They can also access any kind of information at any time. They are thought to have the highest motor skill synchronization for hand, eye and ear in the history of humanity. They consume rapidly and are interactive, efficient, dissatisfied and result-oriented as they socialize through the internet (Berkup 2014). They want things faster, easier and cheaper (Erickson 2012) (Table 3.3).

Table 3.3 The rate of stereotypes of the other generations
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Gen Z is evaluated as the best-connected generation. Thus, technology is not an innovation, convenience or necessity, just a part of normal life for Gen Zers. They have been equipped with technological devices since they were babies. Gen Z is the children of PC, GSM and the internet (Berkup 2014). They were exposed to the digital world at a very early ages. Their brain has become rewired in order to react to digital stimulation. Thus, they absorb visual images more than straight text (Hoque 2018). However, they prefer text to speaking, computers to reading books. They don’t spend much time outside, communicate online, and they can’t imagine a life without computers and telephones (Taş et al. 2017). They are interested in many subjects at the same time. They will be expected to have a long life, better life conditions and become wealthier with advanced technology (Berkup 2014). Gen Z prefers Snapchat and Instagram rather than Facebook. They are mobile first. They use the mobile web as a window on the world and a tool for managing daily tasks. They want to do their tasks in just a few clicks. They need fast responses. Therefore, organizations need to develop fast response solutions—such as instant help services—for them. They also tend to use artificial intelligence and robots in order to respond automatically on instant messaging platforms (BNP Paribas 2017).

Gen Z has lived exclusively within an ultra-connected world. They are often called digital natives, but also ‘linksters’, as no previous generation has spent more time on the internet. Gen Z, the technologically sophisticated generation, are always connected for everything they do: meeting people, creating relationships, education, training, news and shopping (BNP Paribas 2017). Technology is very functional for Gen Z’s education process. Almost all of Gen Z uses technology as a part of their formal education and has technology literacy. Education is crucial in order to prepare them for their future career (Delltechnologies 2018), but learning is not limited to the classroom, it is expanded by Youtube videos or free learning sites. They can also find any answers to their questions by searching on Google. Contrary to popular belief, it is interesting to learn that the majority of Gen Z prefers to interact with people face-to-face rather than just on social media (Moore et al. 2017), because they need an advisor to teach them how to learn. According to Purcell, et al.’s (2012) study, 76% of teachers reported that students expect information from their teachers instead of searching by themselves (Table 3.4).

Table 3.4 Generation Y vs. Generation Z
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Business Motivation and Expectations of Generation Z

In a changing world, the new workforce—which includes Generation Z—is considering a new style of employment that gives opportunities to learn new things, to work in an innovative work place, and to allow Generation Zers to take calculated risks (Schulman 2007). Scholars have widely researched Generation Y’s expectations of work compared with Generation X. Studies comparing Generation Y and Z’s work needs and expectations have also increased. According to research, Gen Y has had work experience while they were going to school (Alp et al. 2019). They are well-educated, so they expect their salary to be in direct proportion to their education level. In other words, they want a fair effort-reward balance from the organization (Maxwell et al. 2010). However, Gen Y want a work-life balance in their life. Their motto is ‘First live, then work’. They are able to keep pace with changes and they can easily access information and solve problems at work. They are able to compile and filter information from different sources and use the appropriate one in order to solve problems. They use social media not only for entertainment and communication but also for information for their business. They can adapt themselves to different cultures and diversities in an organization (Berkup 2014) and they do not suffer when adapting to a new job, as their characters are open to new ideas. They are always active in their organization and want their managers caring about their ideas, and they need feedback about their job performance from their managers. They want to be a part of critical decisions and innovative work of the organization, as well as having ambitions to get swiftly promoted in their career. If they don’t get promoted, their attitude is that they can give up their job and look for a new one (Schawbel 2012).

Generation Zers, on the other hand, have different motivations in terms of business. They have more advantages, so these advantages make them capable of multi-tasking. By means of this, they can quickly move from one task to another (Levickaite 2010). For example, they are able to manage e-mails and messages, view their favourite programme and look up items relevant for their tasks at the same time through digital devices (Hoque 2018). Generation Z’s preferences are transparency, self-reliance, flexibility and personal freedom. If this does not happen, frustration among peers, low morale and productivity, and a lack of engagement with the work occurs (Bascha 2011). They need enough independence to prove themselves (Agarwal and Vaghela 2018). Unlike Erickson’s (2012) idea, which asserts that Generation Z avoids face-to-face communication with society, Schawbel (2014) states their face-to-face communication preferences, which contrast with their technology addiction. On one hand, according to Bridges (2015), they have a good education, but they believe that this education doesn’t meet the required skills needed for real-life problems. On the other hand, they also want their managers to listen to them and value their ideas. Opinions are more important than age for them (Schawbel 2014).

The common points of Generation Y and Z are working with technology in order to reach their aims. They both prefer to be working on hands-on projects (Millennial Branding 2014). They both want to work in an organization integrated with technology, which matches their entrepreneurial and innovative soul, but there are some differences between the two generations in the perspective of work. For example, extrinsic rewards such as salary payments and organizational politics are more important for Generation Y. Innovation (inner motivation) is more important than money (extrinsic motivation) for Generation Z. Having a meaningful job is a crucial motivational factor for them. They care about liking and interiorizing their job more than extrinsic rewards. If Generation Z doesn’t like their job, they can easily change it for a more satisfactory job (Alp et al. 2019). Generation Z is more trustworthy, tolerant and less motivated by money compared with Generation Y (Schawbel 2014). Generation Z is described as a cautious generation (NDP Group 2017). Recent research by CivicScience (2017) shows that Generation Z has a more negative outlook on their financial future compared to Generation Y. This generation has a circumspect reputation. Thus, Generation Z wants to have guarantees for their future as well as happiness in their workplaces (Özkan and Solmaz 2015) (Table 3.5).

Table 3.5 The features and thoughts of Gen Y and Gen Z about business
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The level of expectations of Generation Z is also an important subject for their managers. Scholars have studied their expectations for a business workplace, working hours and management. Generation Z wants a flexible and connected workplace, without hierarchy (Micoleta 2012). Because individualism is important for them, they prefer to work alone (Peterson 2014). They also want to reach meaningful and tangible aims, and they don’t attach importance to the place of work. They prefer free and flexible working models and places more. In other words, they don’t want traditional offices and office conditions that can be an obstacle to their productivity (Alp et al. 2019). While Generation Y prefers traditional offices, Generation Z may select corporate office space. Generation Z has greater interest in personalizing their own workplaces than Generation Y. However, their second office preferences are identical, in that they both prefer second offices to be a co-working space (Millennial Branding 2014). Telecommuting, in other words home offices, is also suitable for Generation Z (Arar 2016). They prefer teamwork and knowledge sharing at the virtual level (Bencsik et al. 2012), and they want technological equipment and multiple technology solutions in their workplace, as they have been brought up with them (Convene 2019). They also prefer a friendly workplace that encourages their entrepreneurial skills (Bridges 2015).

Generation Z is more aware of their personal needs. Therefore, they want flexible working hours in order to develop themselves and make a better career plan (Mitchell 2008). Long working hours, for example the standard 40 hours for a week, is not interesting for this generation. They see themselves as permanent freelancers. Generation Z has also some expectations from management. Generation Zers who have a liberal nature want to work in a place that has knowledge sharing. Therefore, they want an organic organization structure where there is less emphasis on authority and rules (Arar 2016). They know their own mind, they can express themselves well, they have a spirit of entrepreneurship, and they want a colourful business life, supporting distinctness and less hierarchy (Taş et al. 2017). Having their managers listen to their ideas is crucial for Generation Z (Millennial Branding 2014). Feedback is essential for all generations, including Generation Z, but the frequency of feedback is particularly more important for Generation Z (Prossack 2019). Arar (2016) also explains the expectations of Generation Z from business in general:

  • Flexibility in working hours and the workplace, specially mobility

  • Work-life balance

  • Organic organizations rather than hierarchy

  • Both vertical and horizontal career planning

  • Duties without monotony, integrated with creativity and technology

  • Meaningful duties

  • Job evaluation with performance, not time

  • Both material and non-material satisfactory opportunities and gains

  • Personal office rooms

  • Technological devices dedicated to themselves.

Organizations should modify their workplaces and working models according to Generation Zers’ different motivations and expectations. For example, organizations should use mobile applications for better management of Generation Z in their workplace. Generation Z wants to have fun in their busy schedule. Organizations need to create more entertaining workplaces. Managers need to be aware that Gen Zers want there to be more screens, less papers and procedures, more flexible working hours and models, and new tasks occurring in their organizations (Taş et al. 2017). When this generation’s lines between work and life are blurred, they start to strive for work to be integrated into their lives. They need flexible office times: for example, 08:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. instead of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Thus, employees who have enough time to finish work in their lives will be more productive (Prossack 2019). They don’t want to be a cubicle worker, working 40 hours in a week (Renfro 2012). Generation Z prefers ‘office workspace that is easy to orient within, understand and use’. Therefore, organizations should organize offices with clear functionality in a more flexible environment. Managers also need to provide private phones and rooms, rather than rooms suitable for group meetings (Convene 2019). Feedback is very important for this generation. When feedback comes rarely, it becomes meaningless for them. Therefore, Prossack (2019) proposes that managers deliver feedback more than twice a year. The author has two more pieces of advice for organizations. First, managers may give career opportunities to their employees who want rapid achievement. The second advice is implementing formal, online or app-based learning domains for their employees, because learning and development is this generation’s priority and mentoring will be very productive for them.

Generation Z Careers: An Entrepreneur or an Intrapreneur

Bruce (2013) stated that it is difficult to manage Generation Y and Z because of their attitudinal differences. Ghura (2017) confirms that attitude of Generation Z, that providing quality at work and employee retention are three challenges of managers who are faced with working with this generation. Thus, organizations that desire to be entrepreneurial have to learn how to manage this new generation. The organizations have to learn Generation Zers’ motivations, then they have to engage, inspire and then rethink and reorganize their existing structure (Grafton 2011).

According to the researchers, Generation Z is more entrepreneurial than Generation Y, because they have a mindset that is not restricted by geopolitical borders. Therefore, they can capture niche areas in the greater ‘noise’ that will help them to survive in the global area and digital era (Schawbel 2014; Singh 2014; Hoque et al. 2018). Research conducted by BNP Paribas and the Boson Project in France, among 3,200 French people aged between 15 and 20, showed that Generation Z has different views about business life and the business climate. According to this French Generation Z, working in an organization can be ‘very hard’, ‘very complex’, ‘boring’, ‘pitiless’, ‘a wild forest’, and 36 out of 100 young people evaluate organizations as stressful. Networking is the key success for 40% of participants (Taş et al. 2017). A study by the Northeastern University demonstrates that 42% of teenagers want to work for themselves (Gayeski 2015). According to another item of research, 50% of Generation Z participants want to start their own company one day (Convene 2019). This rate goes up 72% for high school students, who want to have their individual business, with 76% of them wanting to convert their hobbies into a professional, full-time job (Ghura 2017). However, they are more risk averse (Erlam et al. 2018) and less trusting (Trzesniewski and Donnellan 2010). Generation Z, which has a need for achievement, has higher intentions of engaging in their own business (Frunzaru and Cismaru 2018). A need for achievement is one of the indicators of being an entrepreneur, and is explained as ‘the capacity to set high personal, though obtainable goals, the concern for personal achievement rather than the rewards for success and the desire for job-relevant feedback (“how well am I doing?”) rather than for attitudinal feedback (“how well do you like me?”)’ (European Commission 2012: 48). Generation Zers, who have self-efficacy and tend to have at least one parental entrepreneur, also have a tendency to start their own business (Frunzaru and Cismaru 2018). Self-efficacy, which is one of the crucial personal attributes of entrepreneurship, plays an important role in the ability to perform tasks successfully (European Commission 2012).

Most Generation Zers prefer to demonstrate their entrepreneurial skill through social media branding (Spencer 2019). Generation Z is evaluated as being more ambitious, while Generation Y are generally more entrepreneurial. Their adaptable mentality makes them valuable entrepreneurs. They have been mini-CEOs from a very early age and need to follow their own visions. They are willing to solve innovation challenges (Robertson 2019). Schawbel (2014) gives five reasons why Generation Z are more entrepreneurial than Generation Y:

  • More opportunity to access resources;

  • More opportunity to access programmes;

  • More pressure from their parents about their careers;

  • More opportunity to communicate with mentors;

  • Organizations are engaging high school students.

Millennial Branding (2014) reveals that high school students are more entrepreneurial than college students. According to the report, Generation Zers’ parents push them to gain a professional career during high school, and don’t seem to need help to do this. High school students are more willing to volunteer in order to acquire work experience, compared with college students. Their top three reasons in looking for an internship are to gain new skills, work experience and mentorship/networking. In a similar vein, Cho et al. (2018) record that career and learning motivations are stronger incentives than value and self-esteem motives in Generation Z’s attitudes towards volunteering.

Generation Z is more concerned about environmental issues and has a high responsibility towards the conservation of natural resources (Agarwal and Vaghela 2018). This situation shows Generation Z’s sensitivity. According to the researchers, younger employees are more likely to behave ethically in their workplaces (Lee and Tsang 2013; Goh and Kong 2018). For example, Lee and Tsang (2013) revealed that workplace ethics are very important for tourism and hotel management students. The authors studied subdegree, bachelor’s and master’s degree students. All degree students reported the importance of ethics in hotels. In addition, subdegree students who are 1st-year students or newcomers to university support strong moral and civic concepts being embedded in their workplaces. Another piece of research conducted by Goh and Jie (2019) found that Generation Z hospitality employees had a tendency to reduce food wastage but they were attached to management directives such as a no take-away policy for unfinished food. In addition, Generation Z hospitality employees seek a reference group in order to approve such things as their food wastage behaviour, such as friends and colleagues, who are the strongest group. Their family, hotel management and teachers form this reference group, respectively. The majority of Generation Zers, who have family as a reference group, have to behave differently at work. They have to engage in food wastage because of workplace pressure. As a result, Generation Z feels guilty and accepts the consequences of wasting food. While they see alternative ways of food wastage in their family, their friends and colleagues as a reference group push them towards waste reduction behaviour at work. Therefore, this situation prompts them to behave differently in the workplace.

Tourism is now one of the biggest industries, all over the world. It is also a multidimensional and multigenerational industry, with the general working age decreasing. This means that the tourism industry will be dominated by younger employees in the future, as they replace older workers. Accordingly, the hospitality workforce has been expanding and 123,000 new employees are needed by 2020. With the majority of younger employees about to graduate and enter the industry, Generation Z will start to generate 20% of total jobs, as Generation Z is more adapted to business life. This trend has been defined as a ‘perfect storm’ by some academics (Deloitte 2015; Solnet et al. 2016; Goh and Lee 2018). These demographic and generational changes will continue in the tourism industry (Goh and Lee 2018). The question is: Will Generation Z prefer to be an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur in the tourism industry?

Generation Z will work in a business world that is continuously and rapidly changing. Thus, they always have to think about the next idea and/or next opportunity, which makes them perfect for entrepreneurship (Grafton 2011). They also search for jobs that give them new opportunities, such as learning new things, working in innovative ways and allowing them to take calculated risks (Schulman 2007). However, the study results show that Generation Z has low self-efficacy, therefore they need more self-confidence in order to develop their entrepreneurship abilities (Frunzaru and Cismaru 2018). These explanations reinforce the argument that Generation Z is the best-suited generation to be intrapreneurs in the workforce, especially in the tourism industry.

According to research results conducted by Goh and Lee (2018), Generation Z has some positive attitudes, such as searching for fulfilment and seeking travel opportunities, stable careers and opportunities to work in different aspects of the tourism industry. These results show the intrapreneurship characteristics of Generation Z, such as innovativeness, diversity, and searching for new opportunities. However, there can be some negative attitudes of Generation Zers working in the tourism industry, with some of them seeing the industry as having long working hours, being exhausting, rigid and having low pay. Pressure to perform is also an interesting finding of Generation Zers’ perceived difficulties of working in the tourism industry. That means that Generation Z has a fear of working with a team. This fear also shows that Generation Z is concerned about their ability to live up to customers’ expectations in a live environment. However, human resource managers in tourism should give importance to career counselling in order to engage with Generation Z, such as graduated management traineeship programmes and professional advancement programmes (Goh and Okumuş 2020), because Generation Zers who work in the tourism industry are impatient to climb their career ladder, and are more likely to quit their job if they’re not promoted within six months (Smith et al. 2018).

There are only a small number of studies about Generation Z, because this generation is currently maturing. Most of the studies about Generation Z involve studies comparing the three generations, X, Y and Z. Therefore, more research is needed about Generation Z, their entrepreneurship intentions and behaviours, and their situation in the tourism industry. Taking into consideration that leaving a job is easy for Generation Z, and that there is a high workforce turnover in the tourism industry, managers have to think how to deal with this generation in their organizations. Managers in the tourism industry have to rectify the lack of career planning and progression opportunities and dispense with the attitude of treating young employees as cheap labour (Casado-Diaz and Simon 2016).

Conclusion

This chapter has discussed the meaning of tourism entrepreneurship and tourism intrapreneurship for Generation Z. It has presented the main concepts, features and characteristics of tourism entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and Gen Z. The first part of the chapter was focused on the typology of tourism entrepreneurs. Different types of tourism entrepreneurs were discussed in detail. Then, intrapreneurship was carefully examined. This chapter searched for the answer to Gen Z’s careers as tourism entrepreneurs. In short, the main idea of this chapter was to highlight how generations’ career choices and business perspectives will change tourism entrepreneurship or vice versa.

Consequently, this chapter intended to find the link between tourism entrepreneurship and Gen Z future careers. Despite a growing interest in future jobs like being a Youtuber and/or blogger in tourism, tourism entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs will continue to play a vital role. They may decide to be an entrepreneur but in their own way. If the tourism companies have an entrepreneurial ecosystem, this generation will work as an intrapreneur. Gen Z will have many different options in the tourism world. These generations have all alternatives to choose to be any type of tourism entrepreneurs. Moreover, they may create a new typology of tourism entrepreneurs.

In conclusion, Gen Z may choose to be one or a combination of two types of tourism entrepreneurs. Some Gen Zers will be more interested in being social tourism entrepreneurs because it suits better their characteristics. Some of them will prefer to be nascent because it is more interesting for them. Gen Z will have a strong link with growth-oriented tourism entrepreneurs. Some of them may be interested in being marginal tourism entrepreneurs. However, Gen Z likes to be free and do things their own way. Intrapreneurship may be more suitable for them in the future. Therefore, tourism companies and management must change their style to suit new intrapreneurs who will be working with them very soon. As a result, Gen Z may count as a unique generation where people fit many types of entrepreneurial styles. Gen Z is the future of the workforce who may be an intrapreneur in the early stage of their career will be highly likely to be an entrepreneur in their later career.