Motivation Differences Between Different Groups of International Business Students in Guangdong Communication Polytechnic

Abstract

This study investigated the motivations of 332 students from Guangdong Communication Polytechnic, conceptualizing the students’ motivations for studying international business. The students answered a motivation questionnaire with 30 Likert-type questions. This questionnaire was built to collect information about students’ motivations to study international business for international business teachers and researchers. The questionnaire was adopted from Glynn (2009). The grading of the questionnaire was reliable and related to the students’ preparation before entering the polytechnic, their grade point averages in international business courses, and their faith in the relevance of international business courses for their future occupations. The conceptualization of motivation for studying international business was divided into five aspects, including internal motivation and individual relevance, self-efficiency and judgement anxiety, independence, occupation motivation, and degree motivation (Glynn, 2009). The result of this study showed that in their final year, international business students achieved the best performance in internal motivation and individual relevance, self-efficiency, and independence for international business learning. Second-year students had the best extrinsic motivation. The freshmen reported the most anxiety in assessments.