Eco-friendly performance as a determining factor of the Adoption of Virtual Reality Applications in National Parks

The purpose of this study is to find the key factors of influence for the use and acceptance of Virtual Reality (VR) by tourists visiting National Parks in Costa Rica. The aim is to find whether tourists are willing to use VR to contribute to the eco-friendly performance of the area they visit and to determine whether they are willing to use VR in environmental tourism to protect flora and fauna. This study is quantitative and uses the theoretical Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) Model and a survey as the research instrument to obtain data. Data analysis was carried out using a PLS-SEM statistical analysis. The data collection procedure consisted of 50 people being surveyed in the initial pre-test phase and later 455 tourists in the fieldwork phase with national or foreign people over the age of 18 who visit or have visited the national parks of Costa Rica. The results show that there is a positive relationship between eco-friendly performance and the intention to use VR technology, as well as the actual use of VR for the benefit of the environment. The UTAUT2 model was used to find the effect of eco-friendly performance on the intention to use VR, as well as the use of this technology during visits to tourist destinations. The originality of the work is in answering the question of how to develop sustainable tourism in Costa Rica with the use of VR devices and applications that also allow the conservation of flora and fauna.

Understanding and Predicting Students’ Entrepreneurial Intention through Business Simulation Games: A Perspective of COVID-19

COVID-19 has disrupted educational institutes across the world. Teachers and students are now forced to teach and study online for an unidentified period, which severely hampers the learning capacity as well the student’s intention toward entrepreneurship. This study compared the impact of traditional teaching and teaching through online management simulation games on student learning performance and further leads to entrepreneurial intention. To further understand the desirability of business simulation games, we used the technology acceptance model (TAM) and extended it by employing knowledge sharing, knowledge application, learnability, perceived pleasure, and self-efficacy as exogenous variables. For this purpose, time-lagged data were collected from 277 students enrolled in entrepreneurship courses in public sector universities. To deal with homogeneity and generalizability issues, students from different collaborative universities were asked to participate in the study. Structural equation modeling was employed for analysis, where the results depict that the students learning performance was enhanced after using simulation games compared to regular theoretical online lectures, which further encouraged them to be entrepreneurs. We also concluded that simulation games are novel and effective online teaching methodology for students during a time of crisis. The study concludes with its theoretical, practical implications, and directions for future researchers.