The views of university students regarding entrepreneurship

In this study, it is aimed to determine the views of university students regarding entrepreneurship. The participants of this study consisted of 101 fourth year students studying at Kirikkale University Faculty of Arts and Science. In this study, students’ views regarding Entrepreneurship Form were developed by the researcher in order to determine the views of students. According to the findings of this research; the university students’ views regarding entrepreneurship which were frequently mentioned were work to realise his/her own beliefs rather than following what others say, work to produce new and out-of-the-ordinary products and be able to express him/herself effectively.


Introduction
Being a well-rounded and complete person requires individuals to come to terms with neglected aspects of their personality.Although not every individual may have such neglected aspects, there are many persons who have not achieved sufficient balance or development in various areas of their personality, and who are consequently unable to unlock their full hidden potential (Fordham, 2004).Entrepreneurship is defined as the ability of individuals to intuitively sense opportunities unseen or unnoticed by others; to transform these opportunities into viable and appealing business ideas and to take risks if need to realise these ideas (Guney, 2004).An individual's self-awareness also plays an important role in entrepreneurship.In a study that Bozkurt and Alparslan (2013) conducted on university students, they identified four entrepreneurial characteristics, which are self-esteem, honesty, willingness to take risks and innovative thinking.In another study that Kilic, Keklik and Calis (2012) conducted on university students, they found out that whereas there is a meaningful relation between the students' monthly incomes and the characteristics of inventiveness, self-esteem, willingness to take risks, openness and believing in success; no meaningful relation has been found between the students' monthly incomes and the characteristic of opportunism.In another study on entrepreneurship, which is again conducted on university students, Bilge and Bal (2012) identified six dimensions of entrepreneurship: willingness to take risks, utilising opportunities, having leadership skills, future-oriented behaviours, determination and being individually strong against external factors.In a study on entrepreneurial tendencies, Karabulut (2009) has observed that university students would like to set up their own business and become an entrepreneur after graduation.On the other hand, Ibicioglu, Tas and Ozmen (2010) acknowledged that university students who have taken entrepreneurship classes have more innovative and entrepreneurial thoughts compared to the ones that do not have taken such classes.In this respect, it was intended to identify university students' perspectives on entrepreneurship, which is important in terms of determining one's future.

Method
The studies aiming to define a situation, which already exists or existed in the past, are studies designed according to the scanning model (Karasar, 2003).In this study, an existing situation was analysed since the study aims to determine the views of university students on entrepreneurship.Therefore, this study is a patterned research designed according to the scanning model.

Participants
The sampling group consisted of 101 fourth year students studying at Kirikkale University Faculty of Arts and Science's biology, mathematics, and literature department during the spring 2014-2015 academic year.The number of female students participating in the study was 75 (72%) and the number of male students participating in the study was 26 (28%).

Research instrument
'Student Views about Entrepreneurship Form' was developed in order to determine the views of university students entrepreneurship.These forms consist of five open-ended questions to determine their views about entrepreneurship.

The analysis of the data
The answers given to the five open-ended questions in the form were combined and gathered under common headings.Frequencies and percentages will be calculated later on.

Results regarding university students' perception of entrepreneurship
In this section, you can see the frequency and percentage distributions according to the answers given to the items in the 'Student Views about Entrepreneurship Form'.As seen in Table 1, 25% of the students mentioned 'being self-confident' as the most important personal characteristics, whereas 5% of the students mentioned 'to believe in one's self and to be able to convince others' as the least important characteristics.As seen in Table 2, 30% of the students mentioned 'enjoys conversing with and listening to the opinions of other people' as the most important personal characteristics, whereas 11% of the students mentioned 'impressive, realist and convincing' as the least important characteristics.As seen in Table 3, 40% of the students mentioned 'works to produce new and out of the ordinary products' as the most important personal characteristics, whereas 15% of the students mentioned 'be able to look at things from a broader perspective' as the least important characteristics.As seen in Table 4, 49% of the students mentioned 'works to realise his/her own beliefs rather than following what others say' as the most important personal characteristics, whereas 19% of the students mentioned 'has practical intelligence' as the least important characteristics.As seen in Table 5, 35% of the students mentioned 'an innovative person must be able to express him/herself effectively' as the most important personal characteristics, whereas 10% of the students mentioned 'he/she must be able to develop him/herself not only in one area but also in many areas' as the least important characteristics.

Discussion
The views most frequently mentioned by the fourth-year university students regarding the features that entrepreneurial individuals must possess were as follows: being self-confident (25); enjoy conversing with and listening to the opinions of other people (30); work to produce new and out-ofthe-ordinary products (40); work to realise his/her own beliefs rather than following what others say (49) and be able to express him/herself effectively (35).In other words, having self-esteem, being open to communication, being able to make creative products, making an effort towards realising one's own convictions and expressing oneself properly are put forward as characteristics that need to be found in individuals with entrepreneurial skills.It could be argued that the results of this study are partially supported by the results of Bozkurt and Alparslan (2013), Kilic et al. (2012), Bilge and Bal (2012).Moreover, another longitudinal study could be realised in order to check the results of this study, regarding the characteristics of enjoying talking to people and listening to them, as well as expressing oneself.

Conclusions and recommendations
In conclusion, university students generally believe that entrepreneurial individuals must be selfconfident; enjoy conversing with and listening to the opinions of other people; work to produce new and out-of-the-ordinary products; working to realise their own beliefs rather than following what others say and be able to express themselves effectively.These are actually characteristics that can allow individuals to better utilise their own potential and contribute to society.Based on these results, we can make the following recommendations: During the education of university students, emphasis can be placed on ensuring that they become self-confident, developing their communication abilities and implementing classes and courses in which students can practice and apply the main ideas they learned in their discipline.In addition, it might also be beneficial to identify the opinions of parents and academicians on this subject and to determine whether their views support the findings of the present study.

Table 1 . Frequency and percentage distribution of student opinions regarding the main personality traits observed among students/persons considered as entrepreneurial
Being sufficiently knowledgeable about the relevant business/work area Be able to evaluate and understand all aspects of the work being performed To believe in one's self, and to be able to convince others

Table 5 . Frequency and percentage distribution of student opinions regarding the characteristics that are necessary for students/persons considered as entrepreneurial Opinions n %
An innovative person must be able to express him/herself effectively 35 34.65 He/she must be able pursue his/her beliefs, and fight for them if necessary 24 23.77He/she must be able take risks.He/she should not be deterred from work or difficulties, and believe that his/her effort will be rewarded one day.