Navigating precarity: what motivates young freelancers in Morocco

Purpose This study examines what motivates young Moroccan freelancers and, more specifically, how the psychological needs underlying freelance motivation are experienced and gratified across different levels of systemic activity. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts an exploratory qualitative design based on semi-structured interviews with 25 freelancers in Morocco. Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT) and a systems perspective, thematic analysis was conducted through an iterative coding process. Findings Autonomy, competence and relatedness emerged as central motivational needs, but their meaning and gratification differed across systemic layers. Autonomy enabled freelancers to integrate work with personal life while exercising professional and commercial discretion. On the other hand, competence was developed through learning, mastery and client outcomes. Relatedness was enacted through client relationships, professional networks and wider digital communities. The findings therefore show that freelance motivation cannot be adequately represented as a flat configuration of individual motivational factors. Originality/value The study develops the concept of systemically embedded needs gratification to bridge SDT and systems thinking. Rather than asking only which psychological needs motivate freelancers, it demonstrates how the same needs acquire different meanings and modes of gratification as freelancers participate simultaneously in personal-life, professional, business-relational and community/systemic domains. This provides a multi-level explanation of freelance motivation suited to the increasingly boundary-blurring character of digital knowledge work.