The motivational orientations of craftmarket stallholders

Abstract

A notion that women participate in the craftmarket environment in order to satisfy a range of human needs, crucial to their psychological development, prompted this study. An eight-cell typology, based initially on the existential need theory of Fromm and on Maslow's interpretation of the psychology of being, was presented as a conceptual framework against which to examine the motivational orientations of participants in six craftmarkets in the Wellington region. A stallholders motivation scale, which contained a range of motivations, was used to ascertain the degree of influence that each had on a stallholder's decision to take up a stall. 101 stallholders completed the scale. Data thus obtained were subjected to factor analysis and orthogonal rotation. The twenty-three readily interpretable factors which were produced, bore out the validity of the typology as a means of ordering needs and will contribute to the descriptive refinement of the need categories. Factor scores were related, by way of a chi-square test, to a number of profile variables. This showed that, predominantly, it was the less well-educated, older people, and housewives who sought to satisfy their needs in the craftmarket. Factor scores were also compared, using a T-test of correlated means, to see if different levels of influence could be detected amongst factors. The pattern of significant differences allowed three groups of influence to be identified. A growth orientation was evident in the most influential group of factors, suggesting that stallholders wish to participate in the craftmarket primarily because they see it as a health-giving environment.