EXAMINATION OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP CHARACTERISTICS AND TYPE A PERSONALITY

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between type A personality structure and entrepreneurship characteristics. For that purpose, a research was conducted on students who are being educated in a public university in Turkey and the will to succeed, determination, practical intelligence, innovation, independence and self-confidence, which make up the entrepreneurship characteristics, and type A personality characteristics is studied. In the literature screening conducted in relation to the research subject, no sufficient number of studies were encountered which dealt with type A personality structure and entrepreneurship characteristics. In this regard, it is considered that the research will have a great contribution for both the academicians and implementers who are working in the field, as well as for the literature. Quantitative research method was adopted and used for the research. Face to face survey technique is used in this research for data collection. In the research, “Entrepreneurship Characteristics” scale was used based on the study carried out by Solmaz et al. (2014) in order to measure entrepreneurship characteristics. In order to determine type A personality characteristics, 8 rated Likert type scale and 7-article short form included in the studies conducted by Aktaş (2001), Erdoğan and Zengin (2012) and Yıldız and Özsoy (2013) and developed by Bortner (1966) were used. The universe of the study comprises the students of management faculty who are being educated in 2016 – 2017 academic calendar of a public university. For collecting he data related to the research, easy sampling method on 247 students was adopted, face to face survey was applied and 14 of the surveys were not included in the data set since these were not completely filled out. Data obtained from 233 participants was analyzed in SPSS 21.0 statistical analysis package software. In the research, definitive statistics were used in order to demonstrate the general characteristics of the sample; correlation analysis was used in order to examine the relationship between will to succeed, determination, practical intelligence, innovation, independence and self-confidence, which constitute the characteristics of entrepreneurship and type A personality, and reliability analysis was conducted towards scales used in the research. Results of the correlation analysis carried out demonstrate that there is a r =0,647, p=0,001 level statistically significant, positive direction and medium level relationship between type A personality structure and entrepreneurship characteristics. Besides, the dimensions of practical intelligence (r=0,517; p=0,000), will to succeed (r =0,547; p=0,000) and independence (r=0,508; p=0,000) which constitute entrepreneurship characteristics, have a statistically significant, medium level and positive relationship with type A personality structure. The relationship between innovation (r=0,398 p=0,000) determination (r =0,497; p=0,000) and self-confidence (r =0,501; p=0,002) dimensions and type A personality structure was found to be statistically significant, positive direction and medium level.