In the first session (9:00-10:30), it is our great pleasure to welcome Dr. Phan Vo Minh Thang, from Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy, to Hoa Sen Research Seminar. In this session, Dr. Thang will present his research paper “Enhancing the Employability of IT Graduates in Vietnam”. This research would be very useful for ones who are interested in what we need to do to help students improve their skills and employability.

Abstract:

• Purpose – This paper identifies the key determinants of employability of Information Technology (IT) graduates in Vietnam and examines their impact on self-perceived employability and the duration of the job search.
• Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on data collected from the responses to an online survey from more than 500 IT graduates from different higher education institutions (HEIs) in Vietnam.Employability, employment outcome and key determinants were integrated into one model. Exploratory factor, confirmatory factor and path analyses were conducted to test the model by means of structural equation modeling.
• Findings – The self-perceived employability of IT graduates in Vietnam was determined by graduates’ English language skills, soft skills, adaptability skills, the quality of the institution’s IT program and job seeking efforts. Results also indicated that work experience, professional competencies and employability made the job search duration shorter, but job seeking efforts made job search duration longer.
• Research limitations – Only determinants from individual and institutional aspects were considered, and the sample was also limited to one profession in one country.
• Practical implications – Results can inform students and educators about the improvable areas of employability enhancement.
• Originality/value – This study fills a gap in the employability research by providing a quantitative explanation about relationships among the employability, the job search duration and their key predictors from different aspects.

In the second session (from 10:30), one of our favourite presenters, Mr. Le Minh Thanh, from Department of Hospitality HSU, will discuss his research topic “Toward a Consumer-perceived Brand Value Positioning: a comparative study of top ranked hotels on TripAdvisor between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam”. For those who are not familiar with Mr. Thanh, his research focuses on social media and how it may help to improve hotel operations and marketing.

Abstract:

Online guest reviews are becoming a useful source of information for travelers who prefer to design personalized tourism packages and trip itineraries. The content and ratings of the reviews strongly affect rankings of hotels and other service providers in their efforts to attract potential customers to the properties. Given such a significant impact of consumer reviews on the user-generated content sites, this study attempts to investigate possible linkages between hotel operations and marketing from hotel consumers’ perspective and their perceptions. Essentially, how hotel operators are providing brand value associated benefits would further be examined by marketing teams to identify and select the best possible brand position for competition. Whereas determining competitive positioning is one of the most important tasks and a powerful tool to unify and align efforts of all involved stakeholders. This study contributes a proposed model with hypothesized paths to discussion of the concept of consumer-perceived brand value in the hospitality industry. From this value perspective, this study highlights the critical roles of new entrepreneur’s generation at the top ranked boutique hotels in efforts to demonstrate firm competitive capabilities in creating trusted brand value for consumers. In addition, the funware generated gamification used by the TripAdvisor has shown its mediational roles in associating the human-computer interaction of user’s motivational and experiential values into their preferred hotel brand experience. The findings also highlighted the cumulative effects of gameful experiences with the funware and the brand experiences with the hotels under study.