Benzer bir zaman aralığında doğmuş, benzer yaş ve hayat dönemlerini paylaşarak, belirli bir dönemin olayları tarafından şekillenmiş insan topluluğu olarak ifade edilen kuşakların kendilerine özgü özellikleri, değer yargıları ve tutumlarının olduğu görüşünden yola çıkarak, girişimcilik eğilimlerinin de farklılaşabileceği düşüncesi bu çalışmanın ortaya çıkmasında etkili olmuştur. Bu araştırmanın temel amacı girişimcilik eğilimini kuşak farkına göre incelemektir. Araştırma kapsamında İstanbul ilinde ikamet eden farklı kuşaklardan kişilerin girişimcilik eğilimleri incelenmiştir. Örneklemin etkinliğini sağlamak için seçilen kişilerin yaş aralıklarının birbirine yakın olmamasına dikkat edilmiştir. Araştırmanın veri toplama aracı olarak 1988’de Dr. Sally Caird tarafından geliştirilen “General Enterprising Tendency (GET) Test” kullanılmıştır. Girişimciliği anlama yönünde oluşturulan GET testi girişimciliği oluşturabilecek bileşenleri başarma ihtiyacı, bağımsızlık ihtiyacı, yaratıcılık eğilimi, öngörülebilir risk alma eğilimi ve içsel kontrol odaklılık olarak 5 bileşenle değerlendirmektedir.

Described as a group of people born into a similar time period and shaped by the incidents of a certain era, generations are known to have their own characteristics, standards of judgment and attitudes. According to the literature, the Baby Boomer Generation covers the time period between 1946 and 1964 and refers to people born during the baby boom soon after World War II. This is the first generation to be acknowledged to have a comprehensive attention span. Several sociological studies have pointed out that baby boomers are spoilt and made to consider themselves special (Baskir and Strauss, 1978). Their managerial styles are often based on face-to-face communication and ideologies (Luidens vd., 1994). Demographic researchers have been so interested in baby boomers that they have failed to neglect the fact that the subsequent generation grew up unattended (Howe and Strauss, 1993). People born between 1965 and 1980 are called Generation X. Having ploughed through their careers and suffered from the obligation to get separated from their parents, member of Generation X will probably be the first generation of the century to settle for lower standards of living than those of their parents (Harper, 1993). What they have in common are loyalty to working life, high feelings of contentment and serving for the same job for long years. They seek better career opportunities and become obliged to start using technology because of their time coinciding with technological revolution. They are sensitive to social problems, have high levels of job motivation and respect authority. Women entering labor force and having fewer children can be attributed to the generation, too (Mengi, 2013). According to Tulgan (2000), members of Generation X are accustomed to dealing with their problems on their own and, therefore, they have more self-confidence than baby boomers who need group support to function better. Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation (Horovitz, 2012), is a demographic community that follows Generation X. Born roughly between 1981 and 1994, the generation is a “digital” one and accustomed to integrating ever-changing technology with their own lives (Galentine, 2013) and people of this generation have highly differentiated behaviors, values and attitudes than previous ones partly because of the effects of the reflections of the Internet on economy and technology (Draves and Coates, 2007). The rationale for the present study is the idea that the generation gap might lead to a difference in enterprising tendency. The primary purpose of the study is to investigate enterprising tendency in reference to the generation gap. In this respect, an analysis was made of the enterprising tendencies of people from different generations in Istanbul. To ensure the efficiency of the sample, great care was taken to make sure that the participants’ age ranges would not approximate to each other too much. The data for the study were collected through a 54-item scale developed by Sally Caird and Cliff Johnson (1988) to measure the enterprising tendencies of people from different generations. The participants were required to choose one of the two options for each statement, namely “tend to agree” or “tend to disagree”. Known as GET, the test groups the components of enterprising under five headings, namely the need for achievement, the need for autonomy, creative tendency, tendency to take calculated risks, and internal locus of control. Component 1: The Need for Achievement Enterprising people are highly motivated, energetic and capable of hard work. With their high motivation and high need for achievement, they exhibit their eagerness to be a leader. People with a high need for achievement have the following characteristics: - Futurism - Confidence in their ability - An optimistic perspective compared to a pessimistic one, - Strong task-orientation, - Effective time management, - Result-orientation for others, - Quickness and high energy, - Determination to defend opinions, - Determination to attain objectives despite hardship, - Insistence on and responsibility for attaining objectives, - Willingness to work for long hours when necessary. Component 2: The Need for Autonomy According to Caird (1992), enterprising individuals are highly motivated and energetic, exhibit leadership, and have their distinctive methods. They choose to be autonomous, to come to the fore, and to work on their own. People with a high need for autonomy have the following characteristics: - Desire for autonomy and solitary work, - Ability to self-express, - Need for exhibiting their own styles instead of working for projects led by others, - Individualism and indifference to group pressure, - Dissimilarity, - Readiness to stand out from others at any time, - Insistence on their opinions and beliefs, - Resolution concerning things that are interesting to them. Component 3: Creative Tendency Enterprising people offer creative solutions to problems and perceive life not in the way others do. Their creative tendency and need for achievement help them to develop new products and processes. People with a creative tendency have the following characteristics: - Creativity and genuineness in offering new ideas, - Strong intuition and ability to make well-directed predictions when necessary, - Change-orientation, - Versatility. Component 4: Risk-Taking It was reported in the Caird’s study (1992) that enterprising individuals seize opportunities and try to find whether such opportunities are worth the risk. People who take risks have the following characteristics: - Resolution, - Awareness to make the best of self-capacity, - Analytical thinking, - Ability to make profit/loss analysis, - Target-orientation, - Set challenging but attainable goals. Component 5: Internal locus of control People with an internal locus of control have the following characteristics: - Ability to seize opportunities, - Conviction that their fortune and luck are influenced by their own efforts, not by fate, - Ability to assume responsibility for obstacles in the way of achievement, - Belief in willpower to control their life. The purpose of the present study, in which business establishment was considered as a sign of enterprising tendency, was “to investigate enterprising tendency in reference to the generation gap” and the following hypotheses were formed: H1: The need for achievement differs depending on the generation gap. H2: The need for autonomy differs depending on the generation gap. H3: Creative tendency differs depending on the generation gap. H4: Risk-taking differs depending on the generation gap. H5: Internal locus of control differs depending on the generation gap. The findings suggested a difference in the need for autonomy between Generation Y and baby boomers. The former scored higher than the latter in the items that measured the need for autonomy. The finding suggests that Generation Y has a higher need for achievement. The difference in creative tendency and risk-taking was in favor of Generation Y. The significant difference suggests that Generation Y has a higher tendency toward creativity and takes more risks.