Problem-based learning in business education: Investigating the process and dynamics of student motivation

Problem-based learning is an effective approach for integrating skills and knowledge in business education, yet the motivational processes it activates remain underexplored. In a semester-long problem-based learning project, we combined problem-based learning with a real-life, real-time business challenge and a competitive learning environment to examine how student motivation evolves over time. Using inductive analysis, we trace how social-contextual conditions embedded in the problem-based learning design shape students’ motivational responses across successive phases of the learning process. Our findings distinguish between early and late-phase motivational responses, showing a shift from externally guided, task-oriented engagement toward internalization and more autonomous, goal-oriented forms of motivation. The study contributes to problem-based learning research by conceptualizing motivation as a dynamic and relational process shaped by evolving social-contextual conditions throughout the problem-based learning experience.