The impact of perceived education quality on tourism and hospitality students’ career choice: The mediating effects of academic self-efficacy

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Abstract

Despite the importance of understanding tourism and hospitality (T&H) students' career choices for both high education institutions and industry practitioners, scarce empirical research exists which limits drawing reliable conclusions on the antecedents of T&H students' post graduate behavioral intentions. Drawing on data collected from 267 undergraduate T&H students in Turkey, the results show that perceived education quality is positively associated with T&H students' intention to join the industry but not to pursue a postgraduate degree. The findings also confirm the mediating role of academic self-efficacy on the relationship between perceived education quality and T&H students’ intention to pursue postgraduate degree.

Introduction

There is a wide agreement that tourism and hospitality is a labor-intensive industry and thus successful tourism service delivery is largely dependent on quality human resources (Kusluvan & Kusluvan, 2000; Unguren & Huseyinli, 2020). However, working in the industry may not be appealing to all tourism and hospitality (T&H) students (Walsh et al., 2015) and thus other paths including pursuing higher education may be considered. Regardless of students' career choices, the role of education quality in determining post-graduate outcomes is acknowledged across a wide range of disciplines (McGuinness, 2003; Agarwala, 2008). In the realm of tourism and hospitality, education quality is also argued to play a crucial role in shaping students' behaviors and plans (Lee et al., 2016). Understanding what determines career choices of T&H students can be of a significant importance as students may be reluctant to consider careers within the industry due to their inherent difficulties including long working hours and fluctuating schedules (Jiang & Tribe, 2009; Walsh et al., 2015). Previous research focusing on T&H students addresses various topics including students' career intentions and attitudes, perceptions of education quality, career planning behavior, self-efficacy, and academic performance (Unguren & Huseyinli, 2020; Lee et al., 2019; Jiang & Tribe, 2009; Choi & Kim, 2013; Chen et al., 2021). While these studies provide valuable insights into T&H students’ experiences, preferences, and expectations, education quality in T&H and its outcomes remain largely under-studied (Xu et al., 2018). Specifically, a comprehensive modeling of relationships between perceived education quality, academic self-efficacy, and post-graduate choices is lacking.

Against these knowledge gaps, the present study aims to empirically assess a framework linking perceived education quality, academic self-efficacy, intention to join the industry, and intention to pursue a post-graduate degree in tourism. The proposed conceptual model (Fig. 1) suggests that perceived education quality has a direct effect on academic self-efficacy, intention to join the industry, and intention to pursue a post-graduate degree. In addition, academic self-efficacy is proposed to have a direct effect on the intention to join the industry, and intention to pursue a post-graduate degree. Moreover, the study proposes academic self-efficacy as a mediator between perceived education quality and intention to join the industry on the one hand, and perceived education quality and intention to pursue a post-graduate degree, on the other hand. By modeling these relationships, the study aims to provide higher education institutions with empirical insights into the determinants that influence tourism and hospitality students’ career choice.

The study contributes in two key directions. First, by examining the intersection between perceived quality education and T&H students' career choice, the current investigation extends existing theoretical assessments into the outcomes of education quality (Lee et al., 2016, 2019). Second, using academic self-efficacy as a mediator variable, the study examines the underlying mechanism between perceived education quality and students’ career choices. The paper proceeds as follows: The next section focuses on the theoretical background of the study by reviewing existing literature on perceived education quality, academic self-efficacy, and career choice. Following this section, the methodological procedures adopted are discussed. Finally, the findings of the study are presented, followed by a discussion and conclusion.

Section snippets

Perceived quality in higher education

The concept of service quality has been extensively investigated in different fields (Habibi & Rasoolimanesh, 2020; Malik et al., 2020; Tahanisaz, 2020) and higher education is no exception (Elassy, 2015). Different conceptualizations on quality in higher education have emerged (Mizikaci, 2006; Wittek & Kvernbekk, 2011) with no consensus on the definition of quality in higher education (Green, 1994). It is widely accepted, however, that higher education has a positive effect on students'

Measures

To collect the data for the present study, a self-administered questionnaire was developed. The data collection instrument consisted of two sections; the first section aimed to collect demographic data about T&H students (e.g., gender, age). The second section aimed to measure the constructs employed in the study. Perceived education quality was measured using 15 items adopted from Annamdevula and Bellamkonda (2016). Academic self-efficacy was operationalized using 10 items adopted from

Measurement model

In order to evaluate the measurement model, outer loadings, average variance extracted (AVE) and composite reliability were examined. Convergent validity was tested through factor loadings, AVE and CR (Hair et al., 2017). During the confirmatory factor analysis, four items from perceived education quality and two items from academic self-efficacy were dropped. Table 2 shows that all factor loadings are above 0.603 and thus within the recommended values (Hair et al., 2017). As stated by Fornell

Discussion

The present study was intended to examine the relationships between perceived education quality, academic self-efficacy, intention to join industry, and intention to pursue postgraduate study. Several studies have highlighted the importance of perceived education quality (Calvo-Porral et al., 2013; Latif et al., 2019), academic self-efficacy (Elias & MacDonald, 2007; Alt, 2015) and career choices of T&H students (Kusluvan & Kusluvan, 2000; Jepsen & Neumann, 2010). This study shows that

Implications and conclusion

The present study proposed and empirically tested a theoretical model suggesting relationships between perceived education quality, academic self-efficacy, intention to join the industry, and intention to pursue a post-graduate degree in tourism. Using data from undergraduate T&H students in six major universities in Turkey, the study largely confirmed the proposed model showing that perceived education quality was positively associated with T&H students' intention to join the industry but not

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Onur Cuneyt Kahraman: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Data curation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing- Reviewing and Editing. Derya Demirdelen Alrawadieh: Conceptualization, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing- Reviewing and Editing.

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