Entrepreneurship literacy : A study for scale development

This thesis aims to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool to determine the entrepreneurial literacy levels of university students. Entrepreneurial literacy is defined as an individual's capacity to access, understand, critically evaluate, and interpret information related to the field of entrepreneurship within a social context, as well as their level of awareness, sensitivity, and behavioral readiness to use this information in line with innovative, ethical, and sustainable value creation. The research is a mixed-methods scale development study consisting of qualitative and quantitative phases. In the qualitative phase, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with a total of 45 participants, including 10 academics/experts, 10 entrepreneurs, and 25 university students. Data were analyzed using a reflexive thematic analysis approach via MAXQDA; based on qualitative findings and the literature, entrepreneurial literacy was conceptualized as a five-dimensional structure. These dimensions were identified as: entrepreneurial knowledge and business processes, entrepreneurial thinking, entrepreneurial values and ethical awareness, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and psychological readiness, and entrepreneurial behavioral inclination. The item pool, created based on the conceptual structure, was evaluated with the opinions of language, measurement-evaluation, and field experts, and a draft scale of 41 items was prepared. After a preliminary trial and pilot application, one item was removed, and the 40-item form was prepared for the main application. In the quantitative phase, data was collected from 403 university students for Exploratory Factor Analysis and 576 university students for Confirmatory Factor Analysis. In the EFA, the principal axis factorization method and the direct oblimin rotation technique were used; the Kaiser criterion, scree plot, parallel analysis, and theoretical significance were evaluated together in determining the number of factors. As a result of the analysis, a five-factor structure with 35 items was obtained. In the CFA phase, this structure was tested on a different sample. Due to the Likert-type ordinal data structure, the WLSMV estimation method was used. In the CFA process, three items were removed, and a theoretically appropriate error covariance was defined. After revision, the final form of the scale consisted of five factors and 32 items. The fit indices of the final model were found to be at an acceptable level; Factor loadings, explained variance values, and model fit findings supported the construct validity of the scale. Convergent validity was examined using Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values, and discriminant validity using HTMT ratios. Composite reliability, Cronbach's alpha, and McDonald's omega coefficients were evaluated; the findings showed that the scale is valid and reliable. In conclusion, the developed Entrepreneurial Literacy Scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool that can be used to determine the entrepreneurial literacy levels of university students. The scale evaluates entrepreneurial literacy as a multidimensional construct that is not limited to knowledge level alone, but includes entrepreneurial thinking, knowledge of business processes, ethical awareness, psychological readiness, and behavioral tendencies.