The influences of seafaring advertising and shipping image on the willingness of students' seafaring career: A moderating effect of social information

Abstract

The forecasted growth of merchant fleet and its projected demand for seafarers continues to result in the challenge of a shortage of seafarers. Despite high salaries as incentives and improved working environments, the turnover of seafarers remains high. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify the influence of seafaring advertising on shipping image and to explore the moderating roles of social information from parents and teachers in the relationship between shipping image and willingness to have a seafaring career. Students in the navigation and engineering departments of a maritime vocational school were invited to participate in this research. We collected 202 valid samples, through a two-stage questionnaire survey, in order to investigate the changes of shipping image and willingness to have a seafaring career after watching advertising about seafaring. Hierarchical regression was used to verify the proposed conceptual framework. The results revealed that respondents' attitudes toward seafaring advertising significantly affects shipping image, which in turn influences their willingness to have a seafaring career. The effect of the planned intervention on the image of shipping and willingness to have a seafaring career was moderated by contextual factors (social information from parents and teachers). Managerial implications for encouraging students to seek employment in the shipping industry and occupational choices are discussed.