Impacts of Educational Agritourism on Students’ Future Career Intentions: Evidence from Agricultural Exchange Programs

Destination tourists are a critical stakeholder for developing sustainable tourism. Exchange students as tourists have become a growing segment of the international tourism market. Students undertake courses, internships, or exchange programs at an overseas university for a period of time. Student exchange programs (SEPs) through educational tourism offer exchange students ample learning opportunities from local universities, industries, and other stakeholders. The purpose of this research was to assess the relationships between experiential benefits (including practical business benefits, rural environmental benefits, and personal sociocultural benefits), professional identity, career choice intentions, and support for educational tourism via SEPs. This study surveyed students from Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, and others who attended exchange programs in the field of agriculture in Taiwan and other host countries during the last 15 years and are back in their respective countries. Primary data on exchange students were collected using an online questionnaire survey with a sample size of 326 respondents. The results indicated that professional identity has a full intermediating influence on relationships among experiential benefits, career choice intentions, and support for educational tourism via SEPs. The findings are expected to contribute to the understanding of agricultural students’ SEP behaviors, and to provide suggestions for planning and managing relevant policy to encourage more students to join SEPs overseas.

Knowledge Sharing Imperatives on STEM Career Path Intentions among Secondary School Students in Northern-Central Nigeria

The study investigates knowledge sharing as a predictor of STEM career path choice intentions among secondary school girls in North-Central Nigeria. The study adopted survey research design. The population comprised 5,433 junior secondary school girls from Federal Government Colleges in the geo-political zone. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 361 girls for the study. Instrument for data collection was a validated questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and binary logistics regression. Findings showed that Knowledge sharing predicted girls STEM career path choice intentions (Cox and Snell R2 = 0.025; Nagelkerke R2 = 0.047, p < 0.05). The study concludes that secondary school students at the junior level have high intentions to choose STEM career path and that the varied indicators of knowledge sharing predicted STEM career path choice intentions of junior secondary school girls in North-Central Nigeria. It was recommended that secondary school authorities should give incentives and or introduce programmes that will motivate and sustain the students’ STEM career intentions such as prizes, awards and recognitions among others for practical projects, quizzes and STEM career debates. Additionally, they should create knowledge sharing opportunities such as playing learning games, group discussions and science clubs for the girls among others. Keywords: Knowledge sharing, STEM, career path, Secondary schools, Career choice intentions

Revisiting the phenomenon of "going green to be seen" with actual consumption

Purpose<br/> This research empirically reanalyses lab findings by Griskevicius, Tybur and Van den Bergh (2010) that activating status motives evokes increased desire for green products.<br/> Design/methodology/approach<br/> The researchers conduct an online and a field experiment with actual consumption. They compare the results of intended versus actual green consumption.<br/> Findings<br/> The results reveal a significantly reduced preference for green products in public settings that require actual consumption, compared with privately stated choice intentions.<br/> Limitations<br/> This study is limited to ice cream as a typical hedonic product. Future studies should investigate for further product categories (e. g., utilitarian, more expensive products) whether the difference between hypothetical and actual behaviour can also be confirmed there.<br/> Implications<br/> Marketers can use the insights of this study to define their strategy to approach potential customers who may have a true desire for green consumption or sustainability, but also those who mainly seek social status, because they can link sustainability to status.<br/> Contribution This study extends the original study by investigating actual instead of hypothetical consumption decisions, as well as addressing food instead of durable product choices. These studies take place about ten years later and in a different country than the original study.

Having Entrepreneurial Friends and Following Them? The Role of Friends’ Displayed Emotions in Students’ Career Choice Intentions

Emotions have a social effect in that individuals’ emotions, attitudes, decisions, and behavior are affected by their perceptions of others’ emotions through social interactions. We introduce the social influence of emotions perspective to the career intentions literature and demonstrate how entrepreneurial friends’ work-related emotions influence university students’ entrepreneurial career intentions. Using an experimental design ([Formula: see text]), we reveal that entrepreneurial friends’ displayed positive emotions directly encourage students’ entrepreneurial career intentions, whereas negative emotions discourage students’ intentions indirectly by reducing the perceived desirability of being an entrepreneur. Our research contributes to the literature on career intentions, entrepreneurial intention, and emotions in the entrepreneurship context.

Passengers’ Demand Characteristics Experimental Analysis of EMU Trains with Sleeping Cars in Northwest China

Passenger demand characteristics for electrical multiple unit (EMU) trains with sleeping cars will directly affect the train operation scheme in a long transportation corridor. Descriptive statistics of individual attributes and passenger choice intentions for EMU trains with sleeping cars are calculated based on the revealed preference (RP) and stated preference (SP) survey data in Northwest China to illustrate the overall conditions of passengers’ demands. Considering the higher dimensionality and multi-collinearity in the dataset of influencing factors, the factor analysis method was first adopted to reduce the number of dimensions of the raw dataset and obtain orthogonal common factors. Then, the ordinal logistic regression model was adopted to test and perform a regression analysis based on multinomial logit theory. The analysis shows that these influencing factors, such as income, profession, educational background and residence, would have a greater impact on the choice of an EMU train with sleeping cars. It is significant that passengers’ choice intentions are positively correlated with income and educational background. The result can provide some reference for the decision-making regarding operating an EMU train with sleeping cars in Northwest China. In addition, the proposed method can be applied to the analysis of passengers’ demand characteristics in similar situations.

Parental Influence and Undergraduates’ Career Choice Intentions

The underrepresentation of graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields has become a matter of grave concerns for many governments around the world, especially Malaysia, as STEM education is the key to economic progress. The aim of this study is to identify the effects of parental influence on undergraduate students’ career choices. For the purpose of this study, data were obtained with the use of structured questionnaires which were administered to 242 final year undergraduate students within STEM disciplines. The regression analysis revealed that continuous information and support from parents have a lasting positive impact on students’ interest in STEM careers. Results from this research can be useful for education policy-makers and carry valuable information for further research in education and career planning

Designing for Packaging Sustainability. The Effects of Appearance and a Better Eco-Label on Consumers’ Evaluations and Choice

The environmental burden of packaging is huge. However, redesigning packaging to make it more sustainable without damaging its other functions is not always easy and can have a negative impact on consumers’ choice. In this paper, we adopt a user-perspective and test the effects of packaging appearance and a better eco-label on consumers’ responses. Based on the literature, we designed an eco- label using a traffic light system with an objective sustainability score enabling to compare the sustainability of different packages. The results of our experimental study (N=120) show that while a sustainable (vs. typical) appearance in packaging has a positive effect on perceived sustainability, it has a negative effect on perceived usability. However, we demonstrate that the presence of a high score on the eco-label positively impacts the perceived sustainability of both the sustainable and the typical packages and the choice intentions. This eco-label also enabled to mitigate the negative effects of the sustainable appearance on perceived usability. Designers and policy-makers can use the results of this paper to positively influence evaluations of and choice for sustainable packaging.