Zen, Kuo-Chang

In Taiwan\ue2s college education, especially the technical and vocational sectors, internship has become a vital part of the training. The experience of a students in the internship often affects a student\ue2s future career decision. In the working environments of the internship, interns can also understand the approach and demand of the industry early and gain rich work experience.
This research aims to explore the impact of the internship experience of catering students on entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a planned behavior that can be predicted by the intentions of behavior (Krueger & Carsrud, 1993). Also, cognitive psychology has an important influence on entrepreneurship itself. Therefore, this study uses perceived self-efficacy, perceived desirability, and perceived feasibility as a mediator to explore whether internship experience has an impact on the entrepreneurial intentions.
The investigation was based on purposive sampling. The research subjects were students from the Food and Beverage Management Department of three technological universities in southern Taiwan and a Culinary Arts Department of a comprehensive university who have complete an internship course. The effective sample size was 191. The data obtained were analyzed by the partial least square method-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).
The results obtained in this study are as follows:
1. The direct effect of internship experience to the entrepreneurship intention reaches a significant level.
2. The perception of desirability and perception of feasibility significantly achieves the effects of complete mediation from the internship experience to the entrepreneurial intention. Nevertheless, the mediation effect of perceived feasibility is not significant.
3. There are no significant differences in gender subgroups between the internship experience and entrepreneurial intentions, even though the internship experience to perceived self-efficacy, desirability, and feasibility presents significant differences.
Based on the results of this study, the suggestions are as follows:
1. The Food and Beverage Management Departments can strengthen the implementation of entrepreneurship courses and coordinate with internships to permit students to seek out their future entrepreneurial positioning.
2. Bridge external resources with the varsity, individual students, or groups can conduct entrepreneurship drills and on-campus training to reinforce students\u27 interests and confidence in entrepreneurship.
3. Provide entrepreneurial competitions and scholarships to enable students to achieve their entrepreneurial goals

Impact of Internship Experience on Entrepreneurial Intentions: A Survey of Undergraduates from Department of Food and Beverage in Southern Taiwan

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