「人才流失」是指具有高學歷、高技能、優秀人才從一個國家或地區遷移到另一個國家或地區的現象，往往對原地經濟成長造成負面影響。海外學生是這現象的常見主體。這些學生透過帶來他們在國外學習時所獲得的知識、專業知識和經驗來支持本國經濟、科學和技術的進步儘管吸引這些優秀勞動力回國為國家做出貢獻很重要，但目前缺乏深入、全面分析影響發展中國家留學生、特別是越南留學生回國意願的因素的研 究。因此，在本研究中，我們運用了人才流失與回國意願研究領域中未曾考慮過的理論視角，即社會交換理論和資源節約理論，來揭示母國社會價值之間的關係機制、東道國的職業認知、及越南博士的回國意圖。此研究由 214 名在世界各地的越南博士生參與。研究結果證實了，聯繫喪失在社會價值和回報意圖之間的中介作用，以及職業感知在社會價值和聯繫喪失之關係中的調節作用。此研究還提出了吸引海外學生回國的實際措施，以及畢業後將國際學生留在東道國的措施。

"Brain drain" is a term that refers to the phenomenon of the migration of individuals with high education, skills, and talents from one country or region to another and often leaves a negative impact on the economic growth of the original places. Overseas students are a common subject of the phenomenon. These students support the advancement of their home nations' economies, sciences, and technologies by bringing with them the knowledge, expertise, and experience they have gained while studying abroad. Despite the importance of attracting this talented workforce back to the country, there is scarce in-depth research that thoroughly and comprehensively analyzes the factors that affect the return intentions of developing countries' overseas students in general and Vietnamese overseas students in particular. Therefore, in this study, we applied theoretical lenses that have not been previously considered in the research field of brain drain and return intention, namely social exchange theory and conservation of resources theory, to unveil the mechanism of the relationships between the perceived home country’s social worth, home country’s connection loss, the perceived host countries’ career perceptions, and return intentions of Vietnamese Ph.D. overseas students. The study was conducted with 214 Vietnamese Ph.D. overseas students worldwide. The findings confirmed the mediating role of the home country’s connection loss in the relationship between the perceived home country’s social worth and return intentions and the moderating role of the perceived host countries’ career perception in the relationship between the perceived home country’s social worth and the home country’s connection loss. The research also suggests practical measures to attract overseas students back to their home countries as well as measures to keep international students in the host countries after graduation.

Table of Contents

Thesis Validation Letter i
Acknowledgments ii
Abstract (Chinese) iii
Abstract (English) iv
1. Introduction 1
2. Literature review 3
2.1. Conceptual framework 3
2.2. Hypotheses development 5
3. Methodology 11
3.1. Design and method 11
3.2. Control variables 13
3.3. Scale measurements 14
3.4. Data analysis strategy 17
4. Results 17
4.1. Preliminary analyses 17
4.2. Hypotheses testing 23
4.3. Supplementary analyses 26
5. Discussions 30
6. Contributions 33
7. Limitations 35
8. Conclusion 36
9. References 37

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