Business students’ intentions to apply to business-to-business sales jobs: A case study

Abstract As modern business-to-business (B2B) sales have become more complex; recruiters are turning to business schools to find educated and motivated sales professionals to fill the employment demand gap that has risen. This study provides important information about business students’ intentions regarding pursuing careers in B2B sales, as there are no up-to-date studies investigating the phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to investigate how business students’ attitudes and perceptions of personal sales competence affect their intentions to apply to B2B sales positions. The empirical data for the present study was collected by an online survey from business school students (n = 243). The conceptual framework was constructed by integrating the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and self-determination theory (SDT) and therefore this study contributes to aforementioned research. The results from structural equation modelling (SEM) indicate that the students were not eager to apply for B2B sales jobs. However, students’ attitudes positively influenced their intentions to apply for B2B sales jobs. The students’ intentions to apply for B2B sales jobs were also positively influenced by their perceptions of personal sales competence. The results of the study show that the industry and the business educators still have work to do to increase the appeal of professional sales jobs to attract business students to work in B2B sales jobs. Furthermore, the results inform companies’ human resource management to enhance B2B sales force recruitment.


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
Due to digitalization, business-to-business (B2B) sales jobs are becoming increasingly complex and demanding.Firms experiencing challenges in recruiting B2B sales force employees are now turning to business schools to find educated and work-ready sales professionals.Our quantitative study (n = 243) investigated how interested the business students were in working in B2B sales.An online survey was sent to Finnish business school students.The results of the study indicated that Finnish business school students are not eager to work in B2B sales jobs.However, their attitudes toward B2B sales can positively influence their intentions to work in B2B sales.In addition, students' perceived personal sales competence can positively impact their likelihood of applying for B2B sales jobs.Previous studies have indicated that by introducing sales courses into the marketing curriculum, business schools can positively impact students' intentions to pursue a sales career.Firms still have much work to do to make B2B sales careers more attractive to business school graduates, such as telling students what modern B2B sales job is really like.

Introduction
In their latest talent shortage survey, ManpowerGroup (2021) reported that marketing and sales talent are the third-most in demand in the global workforce.A recent Wall Street Journal article (Thomas, 2021) highlighted the dilemma that companies face today: organizations need talented salespeople, but few college graduates are interested in high-paying sales careers.As the demand for sales professionals persists, companies are increasingly turning to business schools to find skilled and motivated salespeople (Cummins & Peltier, 2020).Therefore, there is a need to consider increasing the amount of business-to-business (B2B) marketing and sales teaching in marketing curricula-an area that has been less researched and taught in business schools (Cortez, 2019;Lilien, 2016).Currently, we also lack an up-to-date understanding of business students' attitudes and intentions regarding pursuing careers in B2B sales.This information may help marketing educators in re-designing marketing curricula to match the needs of the labor market.
As we try to navigate our way to a post-COVID-19 era, more and more companies are moving toward digital technologies in sales (Guenzi & Nijssen, 2021).For example, digital sales channels continue to gain popularity (Bongers et al., 2021).Organizations are benefiting from digitalization because it enables them to more easily be part of a global network, and the associated technologies can help salespeople set goals and monitor their customer communication (Guenzi & Nijssen, 2021).There can also be negative effects-for example, increases in available data can also increase workloads, and new technologies require employees to learn new skills to succeed in sales (Guenzi & Habel, 2020).
While demands and requirements in the sales profession continue to increase and change, concerns about how attractive sales jobs are among students have remained consistent for decades (see, e.g., Bristow et al., 2006;Karakaya et al., 2014).New approaches to teaching sales focus on improving students' skills in sales as well as their understanding of the profession (see, e.g., Bolander et al., 2014;O'Hara & Shaffer, 1995).In addition, attention has begun to shift from assessing perceptions of sales and salespeople to students' intentions to work in sales (e.g., Ballestra et al., 2017;Karakaya et al., 2011).Recent findings have indicated that sales education (see e.g., Cummins & Peltier, 2020;Nielson & Cummins, 2019) and sales competitions (Johnson et al., 2021;Magnotta et al., 2020) can positively affect students' intentions to work in sales.
The purpose of this study was to investigate how business students' attitudes (perceptions of extrinsic job rewards, attitudes toward applying, and subjective norms) and perceptions of personal sales competence affect their intentions to apply to B2B sales positions.Furthermore, we developed and empirically tested an integrative model combining attitudinal approaches, such as the theory of reasoned action (TRA) theory, and the motivational approach to self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985).The predominant research approach utilized for this kind of topic has focused on perceptions, attitudes, and intentions.Attitude-intention theories (e.g., TRA [Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975] and the theory of planned behavior or TPB, [Ajzen, 1991]) have formed the foundation of numerous studies (e.g., Cummins & Peltier, 2020).We have chosen TRA as it is a seminal theory on investigating attitudes (see, e.g., Fishbein, 1979;Hale et al., 2002;Sheppard et al., 1988).TRA has also been applied in previous studies investigating business students' attitudes (see e.g., Kumar & Kumar, 2013), which provides evidence that it is a suitable theory to investigate business students' attitudes, as we do in the present study.Therefore, we also applied TRA to this study.
In addition, we selected SDT as it has been found to be suitable to investigate motivation in previous sales research (Good et al., 2022).Furthermore, SDT is a well-established theory applied in research focusing on social studies, education (see e.g., Chiu, 2022;Filak & Sheldon, 2003) and work engagement (Schreurs et al., 2014).SDT has been widely applied to explain career choices in many fields (see Al-Jubari et al., 2019;Hsu, 2013;Messineo et al., 2019), but it has not been integrated in investigating business students' intentions to work in B2B sales.Therefore, the combination of TRA and SDT in the present study makes up a novel approach to investigating business students' intentions to work in B2B sales.

Conceptual framework and hypotheses
For this study, we developed the following two research questions: 1) How do business students' attitudes (perceptions of extrinsic job rewards, attitudes toward applying, and subjective norms) relate to their intentions to apply to B2B sales jobs? 2) Does perceived personal sales competence influence students' intention to apply to B2B sales jobs?To answer the research questions, we developed our integrative conceptual framework and research hypotheses.To empirically test our hypotheses, we presented students with a real-life replica of a B2B sales job advertisement.We saw this as an appropriate method to identify answers to our research questions.In previous studies, job advertisements have been used for many different purposes such as to investigate the development of working skills and requirements (Harper, 2012), measure the impact of specific messages in advertisements (Jones et al., 2006), analyze the content of advertisements (Feldman et al., 2006), and investigate the critical skill demands of the 21st century (Rios et al., 2020).
In the theoretical foundation of this study, we discuss attitudes and their relationship to behavioral intentions, as well as how competence is related to motivation and behavioral intentions.The central factor in the TRA is the individual's intention (antecedent of any behavior) to perform a given behavior, which is influenced by two "independent determinants of intention": (1) attitude toward behavior and (2) perceived subjective norms (Ajzen, 1991;Ajzen & Madden, 1986).We based our conceptual framework on the TRA, complementing it with additional perceptions of extrinsic job rewards and the competence concept of SDT.The integrative conceptual model is depicted in Figure 1.Next, we developed the hypotheses of the framework in detail.
When making early career choices, it can be tempting to choose a job based on a potentially high salary.When we talk about how valuable or high-status a job is, we are talking about instrumental attitudes (Bristow et al., 2011;Cummins & Peltier, 2020) or job outcomes (Karakaya et al., 2011).In their study, Karakaya et al. (2011, p.23) found that positive job outcomes positively impacted feelings towards selling, which in turn had a positive influence on the intention to pursue a sales career.There is also empirical support regarding the way positive perceptions of instrumental attitudes increase intentions to pursue a sales career (Bristow et al., 2011).In Cummins and Peltier's (2020, p.10) study, the path from perceptions of the sales profession to the intent to pursue a sales career was supported.This finding led us to develop the following hypothesis: H1: Students' positive perceptions of extrinsic job rewards in B2B sales jobs will increase students' intentions to apply for the B2B sales job in the study.
According to Ajzen's (1991) TRA, a more favorable attitude toward a behavior results in a stronger intention to perform a behavior.Flanagan and Palmer (2021) investigated students' intentions to pursue a top managerial position in a company, and they found that the attitudes were correlated with the students' intentions to one day be a top executive.Fu et al. (2010) investigated attitudes toward intentions to sell, and the results supported the hypothesis that attitudes were positively related to behavioral intentions.Thus, we developed the following hypothesis: H2: Students' positive attitudes toward applying to B2B sales jobs will strengthen their intentions to apply to the B2B sales job in the study.
Subjective norms that are based on normative beliefs refer to the perceived social pressures to perform or not perform a given behavior (Ajzen, 1991).Flanagan and Palmer (2021) found that subjective norms influenced students' intentions to pursue a top executive position.Maheshwari (2021) and Al-Jubari et al. (2019) studied the factors influencing students' entrepreneurial intentions and found a significant correlation between subjective norms and behavioral intentions.Accordingly, we developed the following hypothesis: H3: Favorable subjective norms will increase students' intentions to apply to the B2B sales job in the study.
We introduced the competence concept from the SDT into the present work to add a motivational layer to the TRA.SDT (Deci & Ryan, 1985) is a theory about human motivation, development, and wellness that has received strong empirical support in the education field (Deci & Ryan, 2008).A person has a perception of personal competence if they can use their capabilities to succeed in the task at hand (Deci & Ryan, 2008).The sense of competence toward a task can increase the enjoyment of the task and therefore result in raised intrinsic motivation (Gagné & Deci, 2005).Ryan (1995) concluded that universal psychological needs, such as competence, are important in motivation research because they can affect intrinsic motivation and control action.Prior studies of sales attitudes have not combined the TRA and SDT.However, the integration of these two theories has been investigated and discussed in other domains (see Chatzisarantis & Biddle, 1998;Roca & Gagné, 2008).
Perceptions of competence can also be looked at from the perspective of self-efficacy.Bandura (1977) defined self-efficacy as a person's belief in success regarding the performance of a certain behavior.If a person is confident in the belief that they can perform a task, they believe they have the competence to be successful in this behavior.Hsu and Chiu (2004) studied internet selfefficacy and internet use, and their results supported the claim that self-efficacy is positively associated with intention.Further, Cummins and Peltier (2020) found support for the hypothesis that the perception of sales knowledge increases students' intentions to pursue a career in sales.Thus, we hypothesize the following: H4: Students' perceptions of personal high competence regarding the B2B sales position will increase students' intentions to apply to the B2B sales job in the study.

Research methodology
This investigation is an explanatory case study.We selected a case study to elucidate the defined relationships between chosen variables in the study.In prior research, case studies within a certain context have been used to advance theoretical arguments that are based on empirical confirmation (e.g., Patsiotis et al., 2013).Our purpose is to explain how the chosen variables affect one another and interpret the case through quantitative analysis.As Yin (2014, p. 19) explains, "case study research can include, and even be limited to, quantitative evidence.In fact, any contrast between quantitative and qualitative evidence does not set apart the various research methods."Also, Woodside (2010) argues that quantitative methods are appropriate for case study research.Furthermore, we explore a contemporary phenomenon by studying the intentions of business students in real-life context, which is in line with the idea of a case study (Yin, 2014(Yin, , 2002)).

Units of analysis
The empirical data for this study were collected by Qualtrics via an online survey in a Finnish business school at the beginning of the 2020 and 2021 academic years.An email survey was sent to both undergraduate and graduate students in 2020 (n = 320), and another survey was collected from the Marketing Basics course during the introduction lecture in 2021 to supplement the previous year's data (n = 232).Participation was voluntary, students did not receive any rewards for taking part in the survey, and responses were anonymous.The survey system allowed one response per student.
We received 243 complete and fully qualified responses from the 552 students who were eligible to participate in the survey.This gave us a response rate of 44%.Out of the respondents, 45.3% were female and 54.7% were male.In addition, 85.6% of the students were undergraduates and 14.4% were graduate students.Most of the students, 60.5%, had no previous sales experience (see Table 1).

Selection of critical case
Well-educated sales professionals are in high demand (ManpowerGroup, 2021;Thomas, 2021), and companies are turning to universities to obtain future sales talent (Cummins & Peltier, 2020).It is our aim to provide valuable data and insights to the board of the Finnish business school to provide an understanding of how interested the business school students are in working in B2B sales.As well, we were interested to see if the students' sales competence was related to their intentions to apply to B2B sales jobs.This information is important in determining whether more sales courses should be added to the relevant marketing curricula.

Measure development
In this section, we explain the scale development for this study.We performed a thorough literature search and followed a procedure suggested by Churchill (1979) to find appropriate validated measures if available and then modified them to fit our context.A 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) was used to measure all items.We also used the applicable theory to form questions that would provide information related to our hypotheses.
The extrinsic job rewards in B2B sales jobs were measured with a modified version of Karakaya et al.'s (2011Karakaya et al.'s ( , 2006) job outcomes scale.The students evaluated claims such as the following: "A professional sales job offers career growth opportunities."Nine items were initially created for this scale, and after the CFA, three items were accepted for the final model.
After the extrinsic job rewards items, the students read a B2B sales job advertisement that was created for this study based on real-life B2B sales job advertisements to answer the claims in the attitude and motivation items.The advertisement is included in Appendix A. To compose this advertisement, we studied 15 actual B2B sales job positions that were being advertised at the time on various online job advertisement platforms.We then merged the most common job tasks and required characteristics that were mentioned in the sales job advertisements into one imaginary position.
To develop measures to address students' attitudes toward applying for B2B sales jobs, subjective norms, and students' intentions to apply for the B2B sales jobs, we modified Ajzen's (2019) questionnaire to fit our context.Four items were created for each of the following variables: attitude, subjective norms, and intention to act.The claims included the following: "It would be important for me to get the application in on time so I would not miss out on the professional B2B sales job as an account manager" (attitude toward applying); "I think my closest friends in university would approve of my decision to apply for that type of professional B2B sales position after I graduate" (normative beliefs); and "When I graduate, I would be likely to apply for this type of B2B sales position as soon as possible" (intention to apply).The study utilized a 7-point Likert scale (1 = extremely unimportant, 7 = extremely important) to measure importance, agreement, and the likelihood of acting on intention; after the CFA, three items remained for each variable.
Measures for perceptions of personal sales competence were designed using the principles of SDT to measure need satisfaction (Ryan & Deci, 2000a, 2000b).After analyzing the measurement items regarding need satisfaction in work organizations (e.g., Broeck et al., 2010;Deci et al., 2001), we formed our items accordingly and created five items for competence.Sense of competence refers to having confidence in the successful execution of a given job ("I have confidence that I would achieve the set sales quotas as a B2B sales account manager").After the CFA, we approved three items for competence.All the confirmed measurement items are presented in Appendix B, Table A1.We chose not to include the autonomy and the relatedness components of SDT in this study.To gain a sense of autonomy, one needs to experience the work climate, the management, and the leadership of a company.In terms of relatedness, one will know how one is received and what kind of team one will be working with once one begins the job.We originally attempted to measure autonomy and relatedness, but the autonomy component presented some issues in item loadings.After careful consideration, we concluded that one can only truly know how a given work atmosphere exists regarding autonomy and teamwork (relatedness) by experiencing it first-hand; however, one can get a general sense of them when being interviewed for a given position and asking relevant questions.
To develop the instrument further, we used the suggestions and feedback of five students who tested it.We validated the measures using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) by LISREL 8.80.Here, see the designed CFA model in Figure 2 and SEM model with factor loadings, t-values, standardized estimates, and control variables in Figure 3.

Evaluation and analysis of data
First, we used LISREL 8.80 for CFA to analyze the validation and reliability of the measures.Items with CFA loadings below 0.6 were removed; thus, the remaining items had a composite reliability greater than 0.6, which is considered to be a good level for factor loadings (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988).After the creation of a correlation matrix with the latent variables, we compared the values with extracted squared average variance (SQRT AVE).As the SQRT AVE was greater than the correlation between those compared variables, discriminant validity for the measures was achieved (see Table 2).Statistics for the items' CFA loadings, means, standard deviation, and skewness are presented in Appendix B.
Following the CFA, we performed SEM using LISREL 8.80 to test the model fit, as well as the control items sales experience and level of studies.The goodness of fit statistics for the model returned an excellent fit with chi-square = 192.645;df = 100; p = 0.00; non-normed fit index (NNFI) = 0.969; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.977; incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.977; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.0610; and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.0478 (see Table 3).The control items had non-significant influence on the model with low standardized estimates (see Table 4 and Figure 3

Results
We tested the hypotheses by estimating a structural model.The results of the tests with standardized estimates, t-values, and squared multiple correlations are presented in Table 3 (see also Figure 3).Overall, 53% of the variance in intentions to apply to B2B sales jobs was explained by the model.The model fit well with the data.Although the chi-square was significant, the other fit indices met the commonly accepted cutoff values (e.g., NNFI, CFI, and IFI were above 0.95, whereas RMSEA was below 0.07, and SRMR was below 0.05).
The data supported H1, which asserted that students' positive perceptions of extrinsic job rewards in B2B sales jobs will increase students' intentions to apply to the B2B sales job (γ = 0.17, p < .05).We can therefore expect that students' positive perceptions of extrinsic job rewards in B2B sales jobs will increase their intentions to apply to B2B sales jobs.H2 was also supported by the data (γ = .34,p < .05),but H3 (γ = .09,p > .05)was not supported.Students' positive attitudes toward applying to B2B sales jobs had a positive influence on their intentions to apply to the B2B sales job.Subjective norms did not have a significant influence on their intentions to apply for the B2B sales job.
The perceived sales competence hypothesis about work motivation, H4 (γ = .26,p < .05),was supported by the data.This indicated that the students' perceptions of high personal sales competence regarding the B2B sales job influenced their intentions to apply to the B2B sales job.
The standardized estimate (γ = 0.26) and the t-value (3.57) of perceived personal sales competence were higher than the standardized estimate (γ = 0.17) and the t-value (2.05) of the perceived extrinsic rewards in B2B sales jobs.This indicated that personal sales competence had a slightly higher positive relationship than the perceived extrinsic rewards with the intention of applying to the B2B sales job.However, the attitude toward applying (γ = 0.26, t-value = 4.73) had a stronger relationship to intention to apply than the two previously mentioned.
The means of intentions to apply for the B2B sales jobs were below neutral ("When I graduate, I would be likely to apply for this type of B2B sales position as soon as possible" = 3.7; "When I graduate, I would be likely to make it my priority to apply for this type of B2B sales position" = 3.3; and "After I graduate, I would be likely to apply for as many B2B sales positions of this type as possible until I got the sales job" = 3.4).A 7-point Likert-scale was used (1 = extremely unlikely, 7 = extremely likely).The means indicated that the students were slightly unlikely to apply for the presented B2B sales job.

Discussion
The purpose of this study was to investigate how business students' attitudes (perceptions of extrinsic job rewards, attitudes toward applying, and subjective norms) and perceptions of personal sales competence affect their intentions to apply to B2B sales positions.Furthermore, we developed and empirically tested an integrative model combining the attitudinal approaches, such as TRA theory, and the motivational approach of SDT (Deci & Ryan, 1985).We took a novel approach by investigating business students' intentions to apply for a specific B2B sales job that was presented to them as a replica of a real-life job advertisement.Next, we discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our study.

Theoretical contributions
First, this study contributes to attitude research by confirming that the perceptions of the extrinsic job rewards in B2B sales jobs matter and affect students' behaviors (Bristow et al., 2011;Cummins & Peltier, 2020;Karakaya et al., 2011).More specifically, the results of the present study indicate that students' perceptions of extrinsic job rewards in B2B sales jobs have a impact on their intentions to apply for such jobs.As previous studies have found, attitudes correlate with intentions (Flanagan & Palmer, 2021;Fu et al., 2010), and our results also supported the hypothesis that attitudes were positively related to behavioral intentions.
Second, while extant research has suggested that subjective norms positively influence students' intentions to pursue a career in a top executive position (Flanagan & Palmer, 2021) or entrepreneurship (Al-Jubari et al., 2019;Maheshwari, 2021), we did not find support in our study for the effects of subjective norms on intentions to pursue a career in sales.In this study, attitudes were better predictors of intentions than were the subjective norms.
Third, this study contributes to the literature on motivation, especially SDT and the perception of personal sales competence in work research (Ryan & Deci, 2000a, 2000b).The students' perceptions of their ability to do the work (i.e., their work competence) presented in the B2B sales job advertisement influenced their intentions to apply for the job.This was in line with SDT findings by Ryan (1982) and Ryan and Deci (2000a): when people have a sense of competence in executing a task, they feel more intrinsically motivated.Hsu and Chiu (2004) and Cummins and Peltier (2020) also found support in their studies that perceptions of competence are positively associated with intentions.This means that raising students' competence in B2B sales could influence their intentions to apply for jobs in and to work in B2B sales in the future.
Fourth, this study contributes to the literature on the topic of business students' intentions to work in B2B sales by integrating two theoretical approaches-attitude-intention (Ajzen, 1991;Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) and motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985)-for work-related intention research.By integrating these theories, we extend both theories.The perceived competence of SDT explains the students' intentions to work in B2B sales.The perception of personal sales competence regarding the sales job position was an important motivational factor when considering whether to apply.By considering the need-satisfaction variables, we gained a more complete understanding of the students' work intentions and can thus better explain their behavioral intentions.The means for intentions to apply for the B2B sales job were low in all measurement items, indicating that the students were not willing to apply to the B2B sales job that was presented to them.Similar findings of positive attitudes toward but unwillingness to work in sales were reported in a study by Karakaya et al. (2014).For the means of all items, see Appendix B.

Managerial implications and future research
The findings of this study can be used to inform marketing educators and practitioners.We have shown that business students' perceptions of their personal sales competence affect their intentions to apply to B2B sales jobs, indicating that it would be valuable to add more B2B sales education to the marketing curricula.In prior research, there have been promising findings suggesting that sales education affects students' sales competence levels (Bristow et al., 2006).
As Bristow et al. (2006) concluded, students who have taken sales courses perceive selling more positively.Cummins et al. (2015) found that the most effective way to change students' intentions toward pursuing a career in sales is to have experienced salespeople from companies give presentations in classes about their sales careers (see also Cummins & Peltier, 2020).
Furthermore, the results of this study showed that business students' previous sales experience did not have either a positive or a negative impact on students' intentions to apply to B2B sales jobs.Half of the business students participating in this study had previous sales job experience.It is worth noting that in Finland, where this study was conducted, it is common for business students to work during their undergraduate and graduate studies.However, our study does not provide an understanding of what kinds of sales jobs these students had experienced and what those experiences entailed.Furthermore, the present study does not explain if the business students were willingly or unwillingly working in B2B sales.Therefore, this topic warrants further investigations.
Moreover, the results of this study increased concerns that the business school still has work to do to respond to the demands of companies to provide motivated and skilled professionals who are eager for a career in sales.This is in line with the Wall Street Journal article (Thomas, 2021) reporting that college graduates are not interested in sales jobs, as well as with other findings of students' positive attitudes toward sales with low intentions to work in sales (e.g., Karakaya et al., 2014).The sales field and sales associations should consider what can be done to increase the attractiveness of sales careers.The findings in this study indicate that European business students in one business school-in this case, Finnish students-have positive perceptions of B2B sales jobs, but they are not very likely to apply to a particular type of B2B sales job.
In addition, our results indicate that business schools should ensure that their sales education matches the current industry requirements.The sales profession has undergone many changes, especially during the last decade, and companies are digitalizing their sales processes and business systems (Bongers et al., 2021;Guenzi & Nijssen, 2021).This presents challenges for the recruitment of sales staff who are willing and able to work with new technologies (Mattila et al., 2021).Students and younger people in general are more used to operating in a digital world and therefore could be good candidates for modern work environments.Therefore, business schools should ensure that their B2B sales education is up to date.Finally, our results can inform companies' human resources management and job advertising.Clearly it is important to pay attention to job advertisements, as they can affect students' willingness to apply for B2B sales positions (Deeter-Schmelz et al., 2020).According to the work of Deeter-Schmelz et al. (2020), companies should craft job advertisements that are truthful, provide enough "deep" information about the job, and are clearly focused on the applicants' characteristics or on the work process-not both at the same time.Based on our results, we encourage organizations to compose their B2B sales job advertisements carefully to match the job description and to explain clearly what kind of work the sales professional will do and what will be required of them.
Future studies could investigate business students' understandings of a B2B salesperson's roles and work tasks.A qualitative study of business students' attitudes about and motivations toward B2B sales jobs would provide a more in-depth understanding of why a career in B2B sales does not appeal to them.Some limitations in this study should be considered.The presented results are based on a case study in one Finnish business school and may not be generalizable to other business schools or countries.In addition, only one replica of a real-life B2B sales position advertisement was presented to the business students as an example of an open sales position.A different B2B sales position and differently worded advertisement could give different responses and results.We also found it interesting that even if there was significant discussion about the digital transformation of B2B sales, this was hardly seen in the job advertisements we modeled, and it was completely missing in most of the advertisements we modelled for our study.
When investigating the motivational factors of SDT need satisfaction (Ryan & Deci, 2000a, 2000b), we focused on competence, omitting autonomy and relatedness.After careful consideration, we concluded that the culture, leadership, and team composition in the workplace will have a great impact on the sense of autonomy and relatedness and can be evaluated once a person experiences it first-hand by working at the job.Autonomy and relatedness could be topics to discuss in a job interview if one wishes to find out more about a given job.

Conclusion
In this single case-study, our purpose was to investigate business students attitudes and motivation to work in B2B sales.There is a growing demand of professional salespeople in the industry.Our results show that the business students are not very likely to apply to B2B sales jobs.However, the attitudes and the students' perceived sales competence can positively influence their B2B sales career intentions.Previous studies (see e.g., Bristow et al., 2006;Cummins et al., 2015) show that by offering more sales education in their marketing curriculum, the business schools could help increase the students' interest in B2B sales.The firms could benefit from stating clearly in B2B sales job advertisements which competences are needed for the job and educate business students about modern B2B sales.Additionally, more research is needed in investigating why business students' have low interest in B2B sales jobs.
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Figure
Figure 3. SEM model with factor loadings, T-Values, standardized estimates, and control variables (level of studies and sales experience).

Table 3 . Structural equation model, goodness of fit statistics, and hypothesis testing Path Standardized Estimate t-value* Hypothesis Testing
*critical value (p = .05)= 1.645 (because all hypotheses are directional, we used one-tailed tests).