A kutatás célja a külföldi hallgatók által választott akkulturációs stratégia feltérképezése, illetve annak elemzése, hogy az akkulturációs folyamat sikere mennyiben határozza meg a fogadó intézményhez kapcsolódó szájreklám erősségét és irányát. A szerzők húsz külföldi hallgatóval készítettek mélyinterjút, amelynek leiratát tartalomelemzéssel vizsgálták. Az elemzés alapján az európai és az Európán kívüli hallgatók hasonló mértékű kulturális sokk élményt éltek át, amelynek fő oka a mentális felkészületlenség. A külföldi hallgatók nagyobb része a saját kultúrájából hozott eszköztárral igyekezett megoldani a kulturális nehézségeket és alacsony szintű hajlandóságot mutatott a szociokulturális alkalmazkodásra. Ennek megfelelően az integráció sikertelen volt, a pozitív szájreklám elmaradt. A legnagyobb mértékű pozitív szájreklám azoknál a külföldi hallgatóknál volt megfigyelhető, akik nyitottak voltak a kulturális tanulásra és a külföldi tanulmányi program végére a személyiségük pozitív irányba fejlődött. Ezek a hallgatók a társas interakciók minden formáját kihasználták: a helyi és külföldi hallgatókkal is barátkoztak, továbbá kiváló kapcsolatot építettek ki a helyi professzorokkal és egyetemi koordinátorokkal is. Kulcsszavak: külföldi hallgatók, kulturális sokk, akkulturációs stratégia, szájreklám a felsőoktatásbanThe goal of the research is to explore the connection between international students' acculturation strategies, perceived success of acculturation and potential for subsequent word of mouth about the host institution and the host country. The qualitative research included 20 in-depth interviews with international students from Europe and outside Europe as well. According to the results both European and non-European citizens, who studied in Europe, suffered similar level of culture shock. The majority of students tried to solve intercultural difficulties based on their own cultural tools. That resulted in low levels of cultural integration and led to negative word of mouth. International students, who were willing to learn about foreign cultures and whose personality developed over the course of the program, produced the highest amount of positive word of mouth. These students maximized all forms of social interactions -they made local, international friends and built excellent relationships with local professors and coordinators.

No abstract

No abstract

Ahogy növekszik a Magyarországra érkező turisták és külföldi diákok száma, az országimázs és a kultúrsokk egyre fontosabb kutatási területekké válnak. Jelen kutatás célja a magyar és a külföldi diákok által Magyarország országimázsáról és a nálunk tapasztalható kultúrsokkról kialakult kép megismerése. A kutatásban összesen 27 magyar és 24 külföldi hallgató vett részt, akik összesen 102, 3 perces videót készítettek "Budapest imázs" és "Budapest kultúrsokk" címmel. A magyar diákok jellemzően ugyanazt vélték a külföldiek számára turisztikai szempontból érdekesnek, amit a külföldi diákok. A kultúrsokk esetén viszont szemléletbeli különbségeket tapasztalhatunk: a magyar diákok jellemzően negatívan, általánosságban írták le a helyzetet, míg a külföldi hallgatóknál megjelentek a személyes problémák, és általában pozitívabb hangnemben közelítették meg a kultúrsokk élményét. Az eredmények alapján két országimázs-építő kommunikációs lehetőséget azonosítottunk, az egyik a magyar hallgatók által említett "élmény" típusú országimázs elemek növelése és hangsúlyozása a kommunikációban, a másik pedig külföldi hallgatók által megjelenített, pozitív kulturális sokkot előidéző tényezők országimázs elemmé avanzsálása. Kulcsszavak országimázs, kulturális sokk, külföldi diákok, turizmus, felsőoktatás

The number of international students enrolled globally have surpassed 4.5 million by 2015 (OECD, 2017) and went above 5.5 million in 2018 (UNESCO 2020). Since there is fierce competition between higher education institutions to attract international students (IIE, 2017), institutions must go beyond providing high academic quality (Borzooei & Asgari, 2014). The dissertation aims to explore and analyse the influence of international students’ motivation for studying abroad on their satisfaction and loyalty towards their host institution. The dissertation also examines the mediating role of acculturation, considering the host country culture, and mediating role of perceived service quality, considering the services provided by the host institution. In the qualitative phase of the research 40 in-depth interviews were conducted with international students between 2018 and 2020, hence the second sampling was already impacted by the pandemic and it was accounted for. Following that, in the quantitative phase, 426 valid responses were collected (via Tempus Public Foundation) from international students studying in Hungary in 2021. The data was analysed with SmartPLS 3 (Ringle et al, 2015) and the results are summarized below. Research question 1 - motivations, satisfaction, and loyalty: based on the PLS path modelling there is a weak, but a significant direct connection between self-determined motivations for studying abroad and satisfaction, and there is a strong and significant direct connection between satisfaction and loyalty. Research question 2 - the mediating role of acculturation: based on the PLS analysis the acculturation (sociocultural adaptation) has a weak partial mediating effect on the relationship between self-determined motivations for studying abroad and satisfaction. The mediation is only partial because the direct connections of the construct were also significant. At the same time, acculturation was a moderately strong partial mediating construct between self-determined motivations for studying abroad and perceived service quality. Based on these partial mediations the importance of the host country culture had been proven. Research question 3 – the impact of culture shock: the path modelling confirmed that there is a moderately strong negative connection between culture shock and acculturation, meaning that a higher level of culture shock resulted in lower level of acculturation (sociocultural adaptation). Research question 4 – the mediating role of perceived service quality: the PLS path modelling analysis showed that perceived service quality had a partial mediating role between self-determined motivations for studying abroad and satisfaction. This finding confirms the importance of the services provided by institutions, and also that perceived service quality can be improved through identifying and managing the motivations of international students. Research question 5 – the impact of demographics, personal characteristics, and personality traits: the PLS path modelling found that international students who prepared more for the differences in teaching style, were more likely to reach a higher level of acculturation. Students who kept in touch with their friends and family daily also reached a higher level of acculturation. In case international students had to make significant sacrifices (Vangelis & Hill, 2019) to be able to study abroad, they were less loyal to the host institution. The satisfaction of international students was negatively moderated by the age group of the students and it was positively moderated by the academic performance of the students confirming the results of Brokaw et al (2004). Control variables such as gender, financial situation, host country choice, prior cultural exposure, program level, host city, program length, program start (pre or during COVID-19), time spent abroad, and the major study area did not moderate the examined relationships. The dissertation provided a synthesis for the extant literature of study abroad motivations, culture shock, acculturation, service quality, satisfaction, and loyalty in the international higher education context. The most important theoretical contribution of the dissertation that it found significant connections between these constructs in a single theoretical framework, providing a holistic view on the study abroad program satisfaction and overall experience. From the practical perspective, institutions must keep in mind that loyal international students are their top supporters when recruiting new international students. Based on the results, HEIs could measure the study abroad motivations, experienced culture shock, acculturation and the service quality perceptions of their students to understand how they could support their intrinsic motivations and acculturation process. By doing so, students will experience a higher level of service quality and satisfaction, which will lead to a loyal group of international students who will be glad to spread positive WOM about the institution.