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1 – 4 of 4Bình Nghiêm-Phú, Trang Thị-Thu Hoàng, Hương Thu Kiều and Hương Lan Vũ
Research about tourism impacts is abundant. However, existing studies often investigate tourism impacts from residents’ and tourists’ perspectives. The study targeting students is…
Abstract
Purpose
Research about tourism impacts is abundant. However, existing studies often investigate tourism impacts from residents’ and tourists’ perspectives. The study targeting students is absent. The students’ perception and evaluation of tourism impact must be investigated independently to have more insights into improving the current education curriculum, which covertly addresses the impacts. Therefore, this study aims to examine university students’ perception of tourism impacts as young tourists to provide implications for better teaching of such content in the future.
Design/methodology/approach
Vietnam was chosen as the context, and a mixed method was employed. First, free elicitation with 118 university students was carried out to identify the students’ perceived impacts (109 items, four categories). Second, structured surveys using the previously generated content with 243 and 224 university students were implemented to identify the latent structures of the impacts (3-4 factors per impact category).
Findings
Tourism impacts can be dually perceived. In other words, they can come in positive or negative forms or are directed toward the destinations or the residents. However, being positive or negative, or affecting the place or the people, tourism impacts have some general and universal elements concerning the economic, sociocultural and environmental ones. In addition, they have some specific and contextual aspects, such as cross-border marriages, child labor and economic autonomy loss.
Originality/value
Tourism impacts seen from the perspective of university students are relatable and valuable for tourism education. Educators in Vietnam should consider revising the current curriculum to address all the tourism impacts overtly.
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Thi Kieu Van Tran, Ehsan Elahi, Liqin Zhang, Habibullah Magsi, Quang Trung Pham and Tuan Minh Hoang
The purpose of this paper is to estimate a recent trend in climate change and its impact on livelihood of community living in Nam Dinh province, Vietnam. Further, it aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to estimate a recent trend in climate change and its impact on livelihood of community living in Nam Dinh province, Vietnam. Further, it aims to increase the government attention for adaptation measures by providing awareness of climate change and its negative impacts on livelihood.
Design/methodology/approach
For study purpose, cross-sectional and secondary data sets were used. The community perceptions about climate change were recorded by face-to-face interviews of 500 respondents from Nam Dinh province, Vietnam in April 2015 by using a well-structured questionnaire, whereas secondary data were collected from the statistical yearbook of General Statistics Office of Vietnam. To accomplish the study objectives, Cobb–Douglas production function and Likert scale were used to estimate the community perceptions of climate change and impact of climate change on livelihood, respectively.
Findings
Results depict that climate change negatively impacted on the productivity of rice and livestock. Particularly, frequently occurring of droughts, floods and salinity intrusion negatively impacted on rice productivity, while livestock productivity is decreased by frequent occurring of flood storms in study area.
Originality/value
The study results suggest a government support is essential to achieve sustainable livelihoods for coastal communities living in the Red River Delta, particularly some adaptation measures in the context of climate change are required in study area.
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Binh Tran-Nam, Cuong Le-Van, Van Pham-Hoang and Thai-Ha Le
The study applied the Unified Theory of Technology Acceptance and Use Theory 2 (UTAUT2) to predict blended learning acceptance by students in universities in Zimbabwe. Blended…
Abstract
Purpose
The study applied the Unified Theory of Technology Acceptance and Use Theory 2 (UTAUT2) to predict blended learning acceptance by students in universities in Zimbabwe. Blended learning is a heterogeneous mode of teaching and learning that combines face-to-face (F2F) and online modes. Owing to advances in technology, and recently, the advent of pandemics, such as COVID-19, the need for multimodal teaching approaches, such as blended learning, to enhance access to education in universities has become very important.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative approach that used a structured questionnaire for data collection from a sample of 432 postgraduate students was used. Data validation was done using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The structural equation modelling technique was used for data analysis.
Findings
Results showed that out of the seven factors of the UTAUT2, the factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influences, facilitating conditions and hedonic motivation significantly and positively influenced the behavioural intentions of students in universities to accept blended learning. On the other hand, habit and price value did not significantly influence university students' behavioural intentions to accept the bended learning mode. It was further shown in the study that behavioural intentions significantly influenced the acceptance of blended learning by university students. In light of the above results, it was concluded that the UTAUT2 could be used to predict the acceptance of blended learning by university students.
Research limitations/implications
The main study limitation was that it was only carried out at universities that had information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure challenges owing to the fact that the economic situation in Zimbabwe is depressed. Limited ICT infrastructure in the universities might have had some impact on the nature of behavioural intentions of students to accept blended learning as a learning mode. Further research could be carried out in countries with better economies that are able to fund ICT infrastructures of their universities and to establish whether the results of the current study could either be confirmed, disconfirmed or enriched.
Practical implications
The paper suggests that universities need to increase investment in ICT infrastructure as well as in capacitating students with the necessary ICT skills for the effective use of institutional ICT when learning using the blended learning mode. Without adequate and appropriate ICT infrastructure as well as necessary ICT skills, students may develop low motivation levels and negative attitudes towards blended learning, which may eventually may affect their acceptance of the learning mode.
Originality/value
There is no known study that has been conducted using the UTAUT2 to establish antecedents of behavioural intentions of students to accept blended learning in the context of Zimbabwean universities. This study therefore opens new ground on factors influencing the acceptance of blended learning in the context of Zimbabwean universities. Also, the results showed that habit and price value do not significantly contribute to the behavioural intentions of university students to accept blended learning, which is not consistent with findings of past studies. This inconsistency opens new opportunities for further studies on the conditions under which these two factors can be used to significantly contribute to the development of behavioural intentions of students to accept blended learning.
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