THE EFFECT OF THE CONVENTION SPECIFIC DIMENSIONS ON UNIVERSITIES TEACHING STAFF BEHAVIORAL INTENTION

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to assess the influence of participation frequency at the conventions on universities teaching staff's behavioral intentions. Design - The convention tourism attendees' behavioral intentions evaluation was conducted through the constructs of site-specific dimensions and convention-specific dimensions. Methodology - In order to test proposed hypotheses, following establishment of measurement invariance across groups, structural equation model was fitted to both groups of participants. Approach - The online questionnaire was conducted among the teaching staff of all universities in the Republic of Croatia. The final sample consisted of 978 correctly completed questionnaires. Findings - Two groups differ in the effect of accessibility. It does not predict behavioral intentions for those that visit one convention per year while it predicts behavioral intentions of the attendees that visit more than one convention per year. Both groups' behavioral intentions are predicted by their rating of conventions' social networking and professional education opportunities. Originality of the research - The research findings will help the convention organizers to better understand the needs of both groups' participants and thereby to encourage their repeated participation and dissemination of positive recommendations.