Culture, self-esteem and entrepreneurial intention: A comparison study between American and Turkish university studens

In this study entrepreneurship intention which has an effect on entrepreneurship behavior occurrence was examined on American and Turkish university students. Initially, the relationship between the dimensions of individualism-collectivism, which are used frequently to explain cross-cultural dissimilarities/similarities, and self-esteem was investigated. Then the relationship between self-esteem and entrepreneurship intention was examined on two country sample. Findings indicate that Turkish university students’ horizontal individualism and vertical collectivism dimensions are higher than that of Americans. Besides no difference was found between self-esteem levels of participants, and also no relationship was found between self-esteem and entrepreneurship intention. It was determined that entrepreneurial intention of American university students was higher than that of Turkish university students, and there is a positive relationship between this intention and vertical individualism.