Author(s): Eric Brat, Inmaculada Buendía Martinez and Carolina Hidalgo-Lopez
Subject : Cooperatives, entrepreneurship and Millennials
Date of publication : September 2020
The Institute is proud to announce the publication of the academic article “Are Cooperatives an Employment Option? A Job Preference Study of Millennial University Students” in the Special Issue “The Contribution of the Social Economy to the Sustainable Development Goals” of the open access Sustainability journal. Written by Associate Professor and Institute team member Inmaculada Buendía Martínez in collaboration with Carolina Hidalgo-Lopez and Éric Brat, the article examines the potential for compatibility between Millennials’ profiles, and cooperative vs non-cooperative job preferences.
In order to predict this compatibility, a multinomial logit model was developed based on a survey initially conducted on Millennial college students with a concentration in business administration. The goal was to find out whether a preference in working in a cooperative is linked to specific personal attributes, business perception, sociodemographic characteristics and differentiated societal perception.
Key findings reveal that knowledge about the cooperative model is the factor with the most significant impact on whether Millennials consider cooperatives as a valid job option. Knowing this has important implications for the continuing development of the cooperative movement.
Although cooperatives’ principles, values, social character, and governance specificities can be seen as competitive advantages, a global communication approach involving the cooperative movement and policy makers is required. This is particularly important considering the economic and social importance of cooperatives around the world.
Sustainability is a semi-monthly peer-reviewed journal published online by MDPI. A recognized academic publication, it holds an impact factor of 2.576 and is ranked Q2 in the Journal Citation Report published by Clarivate.