Vocational Commitment and Postgraduate Intentions of Gastronomy Students: Mediating Role of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Service Automation (RAISA)-based Economy Concerns

Abstract

This study developed a model that examines the nexus between gastronomy students’ vocational commitment, postgraduate intentions, and level of concern regarding how RAISA can replace their profession. We adopted a survey to collect data from undergraduate gastronomy students in Turkey to measure the association between the designed constructs by adopting PLS-SEM (partial least squares-structural equation modeling) approach. The results revealed that vocational commitment influences RAISA-based economy concerns and students’ intention to join the food industry and academia (i.e., postgraduate study). In contrast, RAISA-based economy concerns did not influence students’ intention to join the food industry but directly influenced their intention to join academia. Furthermore, RAISA-based economy concern only mediated the link between vocational commitment and students’ intention to join academia. Following the results, we suggested imperative implications that transpired from the analyses and proffer directions for future research.