Diferencia del servicio público entre estudiantes de maestrías de administración de empresas y de administración pública

Abstract

CONDITIONING OF PROJECT PUBLICATION. This research analyzes the differences in motivation toward public service among students of Master´s programs in Public Administration (MPA) and Business Administration (MBA) in Ecuador. The general objective is to examine how public service motivation, together with intrinsic and extrinsic factors, is related to the choice of a postgraduate program. The study is justified by the weakness of the Ecuadorian public sector in attracting talent with a genuine vocation for service. The analysis combined Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to identify configurations of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and Logit models to determine their significance in the choice of a master´s degree. Among the main results, it was found that MPA students were not primarily motivated by economic rewards, which reflected a more altruistic orientation toward public service. In addition, they tended to come from the public sector or from undergraduate programs linked to this field. In contrast, among MBA students, economic rewards were relevant and a lower presence of civic duty was observed. The study concludes that the choice of a master´s program responds to combinations of career trajectory, sector, and institutional environment, evidencing equifinality, asymmetric causality, and hybrid configurations, rather than isolated intrinsic motivations. Keywords: public service, factors, QCA, logit, motivation