J. International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, Vol. 10, No. 3, 2017 209 Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Young adults and sustainable entrepreneurship: the role of culture and demographic factors Anna Vuorio School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, Skinnarilankatu 34, 53851 Lappeenranta, Finland Email: anna.vuorio@lut.fi Abstract: Entrepreneurial activity has been proposed to play a significant role in societies, although recently its role has been extended to include societal and environmental issues. As a response, new forms of entrepreneurship, such as social, environmental and sustainable entrepreneurship, have emerged. Simultaneously, young adults are said to be more prone towards entrepreneurship than previous generations and that they also possess more environmentally and socially conscious values. Analysing data from 29 countries, the results show that young adults are more likely to have a sustainable entrepreneurial goal than older adults, although this differs depending on the type of value emphasised. Moreover, education has an important role in enhancing the likelihood of an individual having a sustainable entrepreneurial goal rather than commercial one. These results imply that the generation subculture theory provides an explanation for sustainable entrepreneurship. Keywords: sustainable entrepreneurship; generation subculture theory; demographics; postmaterialism. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Vuorio, A. (2017) ‘Young adults and sustainable entrepreneurship: the role of culture and demographic factors’, J. International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp.209–230. Biographical notes: Anna Vuorio (nee Kunttu) holds a MSc in Economics and Business Administration. She is a doctoral student at the School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), Finland. Her research interests include sustainable entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial opportunities and entrepreneurial cognition. This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled ‘Social and sustainable entrepreneurship activity among young adults – a global perspective’ presented at ACERE 2015 Conference, Adelaide, Australia, 3–6 February 2015.