Motives Driving the Choice of a Business Concentration: A Four-Country Study of Marketing, Accounting and Finance, and Management Undergraduates

This four-country study compares business students concentrating in marketing, accounting and finance (AF), and management with respect to five motives: lifestyle aspirations, reputational effects, relative ease of completion, career outcomes, and developmental skills. We find that, except for the developmental skills motive, the importance of different motives varies with concentration choice. Lifestyle aspirations and relative ease of completion motives tend to be generally more important to marketing than AF and management concentrators, while career outcomes are more important to AF concentrators compared with marketing and management concentrators. Comparing marketing students in the United States to their counterparts elsewhere, those in China are significantly less attracted to lifestyle aspirations, reputation, and career outcomes, while those in the United Arab Emirates show no significant differences in career outcomes or reputation compared with those from the United States. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of variations in cognitive styles of concentrations, cultural norms, and market forces between tight and loose societies, with implications for managers of educational institutions.