IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE CONCERN ON ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION

As a country significantly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, Turkey made an ambitious climate change commitment by ratifying the Paris Agreement in October 2021 and set a target of net zero emissions by 2053. Both climate change and the targets set by our country in this context make the issue important in terms of sectors and entrepreneurship. In this study, the effect of climate change on entrepreneurial intention was examined. The study aims to analyze the perceptions of active and potential entrepreneurs about climate change concerns and reveal the effects of the said concern on entrepreneurial intention. The study surveyed active and potential entrepreneurs of different ages, genders, and sector groups to measure the participants' attitudes toward climate change concerns and entrepreneurial intentions. The scale was applied online to a total of 103 entrepreneurs, 56 of whom were female (54%) and 47 of whom were male (46%), with potential and existing enterprises in Izmir province. During the study, the participants administered a 10-question "climate change concern scale" consisting of anxiety and helplessness dimensions and a 6-question "entrepreneurial intention scale" consisting of a single dimension. The study revealed that the data were normally distributed, and the internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha) coefficient was more significant than 0.70 in reliability tests. The study's main finding is that climate change concern affects female participants more than males.