This study examined the effects of South Korean university students’ multicultural experiences on their acceptance of international students inflow and the serial mediating roles of cultural openness and cultural self-efficacy. The study conceptualized the acceptance of international students inflow in terms of institutional, social, and cultural acceptance. Data were collected from 295 students enrolled at four-year universities who had directly interacted with international students through communication, collaborative projects, or club activities. The data were analyzed using Model 6 of the PROCESS macro for SPSS. The results indicated that multicultural experiences exerted no significant direct effect on overall acceptance of international students inflow. However, the indirect effect through cultural openness was significant for overall acceptance, and for institutional, social, and cultural acceptance. The serial indirect effect through cultural openness and cultural self-efficacy was significant only for cultural acceptance. These findings suggest that multicultural experiences contribute to acceptance primarily through fostering cultural openness, whereas cultural self-efficacy plays an additional role in the cultural domain. The results highlight the importance of structured intercultural programs, providing domestic students with opportunities for meaningful interaction and reflection with international students. Such programs may help universities promote students’ cultural competencies and pursue quality-oriented internationalization beyond numerical enrollment targets.
Kim et al. (Sat,) studied this question.