How Perceived University Support Shapes Marketing Students’ AI Self-Efficacy: A Multigroup Dual-Mediation TAM Analysis Across Three Chinese Universities

Abstract

The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing has prompted higher education institutions to invest substantially. However, a critical pedagogical question remains: whether and how these institutional investments translate into students’ psychological readiness to deploy AI tools effectively. Students’ AI self-efficacy constitutes a foundational prerequisite for technology adoption and career adaptability. A lack of such confidence can precipitate technology avoidance behaviors and diminish learning engagement. Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a cognitive-mediation framework, this study investigates how perceived university support (PUS) shapes marketing students'’ AI self-efficacy (AISE) through the dual mediating beliefs of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU),and whether this mechanism holds across institutionally heterogeneous settings. Using structural equation modeling with a sample of 538 marketing students from three Chinese universities, we find that PUS significantly enhanced both PU and PEOU in all samples,and that both beliefs carried the effect of support to self-efficacy.PU and PEOU mediated the PUS–AISE relationship: the indirect effect via PEOU was consistently stronger than that via PU,and the direct PUS–AISE path remained significant in two of the three institutions.This study bridges the gap between resource allocation and student psychological outcomes. The robust dual-mediation pathway offers actionable insights for universities: to build student confidence in AI, investments must be channeled not merely into infrastructure but also into pedagogical strategies that demonstrably reduce the perceived complexity of AI tools and illustrate the professional relevance of these tools.Limitations concerning the cross-sectional self-report design and the single-country sample are discussed.