Normative, social and cognitive predictors of entrepreneurial interest of college students in Turkey

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is an important concept of the strategic management. Entrepreneurs start their own businesses and try to build them up. The purpose of this study is to address normative, social and cognitive factors related to interest in becoming an entrepreneur in Turkey. It was inspired from the comparative study of Baughn et al. (2006; 57-77) related to China, Vietnam and The Philippines. This study was conducted on 163 business administration and international trade majors college students in a private foundation university in Istanbul in Turkey. The entrepreneurial interests of Turkish students were found and compared with the findings of Baughn et al. (2006; 57-77). The hypotheses and questionnaire used by Baughn et al. (2006; 59-74) were used for this study. There are 35 questions in five categories namely entrepreneurial interest, national norms, close support for entrepreneurship, parent/sibling ownership, family responsibilities and self efficacy in the questionnaire. A five point Likert Scale (attitude rating scale) was used to answer most of the questions. Yes/no (simple-dichotomy) questions were asked for determining parent/sibling ownership of their own business and family responsibilities of students. A frequency distribution analysis, mean analysis, two?? tailed t tests, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were applied to the data. The findings of this study were expected to emphasize the importance of developing both self-efficacy and close social support in enhancing potential for entrepreneurial activity in Turkey.