A Business Motives among Students: A Qualitative Appraisal of Drive Theory

Abstract

The main purpose of conducting this exploratory qualitative research was to determine the nature of drive theory among business students, where drive is a motivation for some behavior based on a biological need. The target population of the study was university-level business students. Existing literature on drive theory was used to develop the interview protocol. After finalizing the protocol, six semi-structured interviews were conducted with business students enrolled in different programs with different fields of specialization. The data were analyzed using ATLAS.ti version 8. The study found that business-related motivation was driven by six factors: aggressiveness, acquisition, achievement, social recognition, personal goals, and desire for power.