Examining Entrepreneurship Characteristics of Hospitality and Tourism Management Students

Abstract

Entrepreneurs are an important factor that contributes to the development and growth rate of countries. Considering the tourism as a driver of economy, it is important to train potential entrepreneurs who can establish and manage businesses. The purpose of this research is to measure the entrepreneur characteristics of students majoring in Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM). For this purpose, the scale developed by Koh (1996) was used. The scale originally contained 36 statements and was adopted to Turkish by Bozkurt (2005). The data was collected using a structured questionnaire. Out of 400 questionnaire distributed, a total of 280 were considered usable for further analysis. The results of this study show that there is no significant differences between the demographic variables and entrepreneurship characteristic of the HTM students. Moreover, findings indicate that students have moderate level of tolerance of ambiguity, need for achievement, propensity to take risk, locus of control, innovativeness and self-confidence.