The effect of individual values on entrepreneurial orientation: an investigation on public university and foundation university students in Istanbul

One of the elements in terms of the economic development of a country is the existence, quality and and quanitity of entrepeneurs in that country. In order to become an entreperenur, the individual should have entrepreneurial tendency. There are lots of factors affecting entrepreneurial tendency, and one of these important factors is individual values. Within the scope of this study, the effects of public university and foundation university students' individual values on their entrepreneurial tendencies were compared. In this respect, first of all a literature view was made on values, individual values, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial tendency, and previous studies on these isssues were investigated. As the data collection tool, a survey was conducted in order to gather primary data within the scope of this study. The survey has three sections. The first section is prepared to determine the demographic features of the respondents, and consists of 22 demographic questions. The second section is prepared to measure the individual values of the respondents through Schwartz Values Inventory which has 58-items. And the third section is prepared to determine the entrepreneurial tendencies of the respondents via a scale which has 50 items and is the combination of four different scales conducted by Yılmaz and Sünbül (2009), Börü (2006), Bozkurt and Baştürk (2011), and Bozkurt (t.y.). Istanbul University, Marmara University and Bogazici University were selected as public universities, and Bahcesehir University, Istanbul Aydin University, Istanbul Commerce University and Yeditepe University were chosen as foundation universities in the study. The survey was conducted on 620 final year students receiving education in Business Administration Department at these universities, and 504 of them were seen as valid for scientific analysis. In context to the findings gathered via survey, there were identified 6 factors for individual values scale, and 9 factors for entrepreneurial tendency scale. In variance analysis for individual values scale, there were determined significant differences in terms of gender, marital status, type of university, geographic region where the family lives, type of graduated high school, monthly income of the family and career goals of the students variables; however there were no significant differences determined in terms of age of the students and geographic region where the students were born variables. Moreover, in variance analysis for entrepreneurial tendency scale, there were determined significant differences in terms of gender, age, type of university, type of graduated high school, monthly income of the family and career goals of the students variables; however there were no significant differences determined in terms of marital status, geographic region where the students were born and geographic region where the family lives variable. As a result of conducted analysis, the respondents to have high-level of entrepreneurial tendencies, and foundation university students to have higher entrepreneurial tendencies than public university students were determined. In correlation analysis conducted in order to determine the relations between individual values scale and entrepreneurial tendency scale, all individual values factors to have significant relations with various entrepreneurial tendency factors, and Achievement and Power factor to have significant relations with all entrepreneurial tendency factors were determined. In consequence of the linear regression analysis conducted in order to determine the effects of individual values factors on entrepreneurial factors, the result that individual values of the respondents have effects on their entrepreneurial tendencies was achieved. Furthermore, the results that the most effective individual values factor is Achievement and Power which has effects on all entrepreneurial tendency factors, and some other individual values factors have also effects on some different entrepreneurial tendency factors were obtained. Lastly, in consequence of the linear regression analysis conducted in order to measure how the effects of individual values factors on entrepreneurial tendency factors according to the type of university variable differentiate, the result that the effects of individual values of the public university and foundation university students on 7 entrepreneurial tendency factors differentiate were reached. In conclusion, it can be said that the effects of individual values of foundation university and public university students on their entrepreneurial tendencies differentiate.