What Motivates Students to Study Enterprise Systems? A Social Cognitive Perspective

Over the past three decades companies of all sizes have been implementing Enterprise Systems (ES). The inherent appeal of ES has not gone unnoticed in the business curriculum either. Several business schools have made systematic changes across their curricula to ensure that they graduate students with an integrated understanding of cross-functional business processes and ES. An ES education can provide significant benefits to students as well as to their potential employers. Yet, there is a lack of research that investigates what motivates students to take ES courses. Therefore, leveraging Social Cognitive Career Theory, this study examines the factors that influence students’ decisions to enroll in ES courses. The findings suggest that domain specific self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interest in ES courses independently and cumulatively shape students’ aspirations to take ES courses. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings, implications, limitations, and directions for future research.