The Role of Individual Absorptive Capacity, Subjective-Wellbeing and Cultural Fit in Predicting International Student’s Academic Achievement and Novelty in China

Abstract

This study investigated the role of cognitive-(absorptive capacity), psychological-(subjective-wellbeing) and cultural-fit-factors as predictors of academic achievement-novelty in a Chinese-C9-league-University. We addressed the question of what drive student’s achievement of high graduations requirements and innovativeness in their Host-University; focusing mainly on whether interactionistic-nature-(fit-capabilities) are better mechanisms. The quantitative approach was adopted; collect 234 valid data via survey questionnaire, and conduct analysis via structural equation modeling technique. We found that individual-absorptive-capacity has significant effect on supervisor-fit, but a non-significant effect on university-fit dimensions of cultural-fit. Subjective-wellbeing significantly affects both dimensions of cultural-fit. The findings further show how supervisor-fit and university-fit indirectly mediate the (absorptive-capacity, subjective-wellbeing)-achievement-novelty relationship. We highlight the importance of cultural-diversity-awareness; considering supervisor-institutional-fit-factors in research-mentorship-development to support international-students ‘induction for research productivity in educational-settings.