What motivates volunteers to help at business events? Reciprocal altruism and reflexivity

ABSTRACT

Volunteering literature is yet to examine the motivations for helping at business events. This paper contributes to closing this research gap by on-the-ground investigation of volunteer motivations at business events. Drawing upon 22 volunteers from different business events in China, the results identify a variety of functional motives related to self-development. The analysis gives emphasis to the subjectivity and reflexivity with which individuals give meaning to their motivations and suggests that reciprocal altruism and reflexivity are evident among volunteers. This paper provides insights into the salience of business event volunteering and suggests implications for event organisers dealing with volunteers.

KEYWORDS:

• Volunteer motivation
• reciprocal altruism
• reflexivity
• functional motives
• business events
• event volunteering
• host volunteers
• China
• Chinese volunteers
• event organiser

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.