The Effect of Artificial Intelligence Anxiety on Entrepreneurial Orientation: A Study on University Students

Abstract

This study examines the effect of artificial intelligence anxiety and its four subdimensions (learning, job replacement, sociotechnical blindness, and AI configuration) on individual entrepreneurial orientation among university students in Türkiye. Designed as a quantitative study based on a relational survey model, data were collected via an online survey in March 2026 through convenience sampling, and the analyses were conducted on 214 valid responses. The AI Anxiety Scale (Wang & Wang, 2019; Turkish adaptation by Akkaya, Özkan, & Özkan, 2021) and the Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation (IEO) Scale (Bolton & Lane, 2012; Turkish adaptation by Ercan & Yıldıran, 2021) were used. The data were analysed through correlation, multiple regression, t-tests, and one-way ANOVA. The findings reveal that AI anxiety has a positive and statistically significant effect on IEO (β = 0.330; p .001), explaining 10.9% of the total variance. Among the four AI anxiety subdimensions, sociotechnical blindness emerged as the only significant positive predictor (β = 0.428; p .001). The learning subdimension had a significant negative predictive effect on proactiveness (β = -0.176; p = .014). Demographic analyses showed that AI anxiety differs significantly by gender, education level, and work experience, while IEO differs only by the desire to start one's own business. The study contributes theoretically by providing the first empirical test of a hybrid conceptual model integrating the facilitating–debilitating anxiety framework with Conservation of Resources theory in the context of AI anxiety, and empirically by being among the first to demonstrate this effect in the Turkish context.