Investigating the relationship between personality traits and entrepreneurial intention in terms of proactive personality dimension

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between personal characteristics and entrepreneurial intention in terms of proactive personality dimension. The study is completed in three chapters for this aim. Information about the concept of entrepreneurship is given in the first chapter. In this chapter, the definition of the concept of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs, historical development of entrepreneurship in Turkey and in the world, the social and economic importance of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship types are explained. Then the concept of entrepreneurial intention is discussed, the definition of the concept and factors affecting this intention are explained. In the second chapter, the relationship between entrepreneurship and the concepts of personality and proactive personality is examined Firstly the definition and dimensions of personality as well as the factors affecting personality formation are explained. Then, the concept of personality was discussed in the context of the five factor model. Once the personality traits were explained within the framework of five factor model, the detailed information concerning entrepreneurial personality traits has been given. Finally, as an entrepreneurial personality trait, proactivity concept and the relationship between this concept and the five factor model are examined. In the meantime, the entrepreneurship has been dealt with in terms of personality and the praoctive personality in the final part of this chapter. The third chapter is the section where the method and findings of the study are presented. Firstly the sample, the measuring tool and the analysis method are explained here. Then the findings of the study are included. For the conceptual and theoretical framework presented in the first two chapters of the study, the sources were obtained from various databases and these two chapters are completed in the light of these sources. The data used in the study is obtained from the students of business administration and engineering faculties studying at Hacettepe University and Bilkent University by using questionnaire method. The total number of these students constitutes the population of this study and 280 individuals, who are selected among this population with convenience sampling method, constitute the sampling of the study. The data obtained is analyzed in the SPSS statistical software. The study results reveal that proactive personality features positively affect entrepreneurial intention and that the students of business administration are more entrepreneurial than students of engineering.