Answer:
The answer to the question: What is the key incentive that drives business owners to make sure their firms are operating at their highest level of efficiency, would be: Profit Motive.
Step-by-step explanation:
Business owners have two goals in mind: providing goods and services to consumers, and, making profit from it. In order to achieve this, they will establish the procedures, policies, and actions that will be necessary to increase, and continue increasing, the production of profit out of the provision of a good, or a service. More than the competition, or being aware of them, business owners wish to increase their profitability and thus alineate their batteries towards that goal. That is why the answer is Profit Motive. It is this motive that moves most of the decisions made by business owners and entrepeneurs.