Students’ Motivation to Study Introductory Marketing |
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| Authors: | Juergen Gnoth Biljana Juric |
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| Institution: | Department of Marketing , University of Otago , New Zealand |
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| Abstract: | There has been little previous research into either students’ motivation to enrol into elective university courses or their motivation to enrol into marketing courses. Therefore in this exploratory study the motivation of 507 students to undertake an introductory elective marketing course was investigated. Factor analysis revealed seven motivational dimensions labelled as Competence, Broad Education, Job Prospects, Entrepreneurial Goals, ‘Non‐maths’, Social and Students’ Opportunism. T‐tests, MANOVAs and MANCOVAs indicated that the students who expressed an intention to major in marketing have a more intrinsically and vocationally based motivation than those students who decided to major in another subject or those who were undecided. While male students on average scored higher on the inner‐directed instrumental dimensions of Competence and Broad Education the outer‐directed dimensions of Students’ Opportunism and Entrepreneurial Goals were found to be significantly more important for female students. Analysis of impact of year of study on students’ motivation, however, indicated that these differences lessen over time. This research has implications for decision‐making in the areas of curriculum design, streaming procedures and teaching techniques. |
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