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Factors of the Employment Behavioral Intention of Leisure and Hospitality Management College Students in Taiwan

Jin-Li Hu

This study examined the factors of the employment behavioral intention of leisure and hospitality management college students in Taiwan. The research framework was based on a literature review and relevant research variables. This study added an additional construct (perceived behavioral control) and a moderator (individual difference) into the theory of reasoned action (TRA) model. The subjects were college students in Taiwan. Questionnaires were administered and a total of 450 valid samples were collected. This study adopted twostep structural equation modeling (SEM), and both SAS and AMOS were adopted as the tools for analyzing the data for reconfirmation. A conceptual model was then proposed, in which the employment behavioral intention was influenced by positive internship experiences and negative internship experiences. Moreover, the relationship between positive internship experiences and employment behavioral intention was moderated by the internship system. A moderating test revealed that the influence of internship experiences on employment behavioral intention was stronger for leisure and hospitality management students working shorter hours than for students working longer hours. Over the past decade, the total number of colleges and universities in Taiwan has increased every year. According to the statistical information from the Census and Statistics Department of the Ministry of Education, the number of colleges and universities increased from 155 in the academic year of 2001 to 163 in the academic year of 2010. Moreover, the number of universities nearly doubled, from 57 to 112, and the number of universities (institutes) of science and technology increased from 67 to 77. In addition, the number of students in colleges and universities increased from 1,084,012 in the academic year of 2001 to 1,124,425 in the 9 academic year of 2010, which was a growth of nearly 4% (National Statistics, Taiwan). The above statistics indicated that it is a popular trend to pursue college or university education. However, according to the national statistics of Taiwan, the unemployment rate of individuals with a college degree or above from 2007 to 2011 was 4.51%, 4.78%, 5.98%, 5.62% and 5.18%, respectively, which was higher than the average unemployment rate. Moreover, according to the statistical information of the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics of the Executive Yuan (National Statistics, Taiwan) the youth unemployment rate was higher than that in neighboring Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea. Therefore, the Ministry of Education has begun promoting school internship programs as an important policy to enhance the employability of college graduates. The National Youth Commission and individual colleges have also devoted themselves to similar programs. For example, the Ministry of Education has set industry-academy cooperation information to spe