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The purpose of this paper is to analyze to what extent and in what ways signaling theory has been explored within the field of international marketing. This paper systematically reviews the use of signaling theory in the field of international marketing. Communication is a core aspect of the international marketing process. Research in this field has explored effective and unique ways of improving the communication flow to reduce the asymmetry of information between international consumers and the firm. This notion is adopted, enhanced and strengthened by signaling theory. Signaling theory has recently received the attention of international marketing scholars.

The systematic review methodology was applied for the purpose of identifying the relevant studies. We extracted academic articles over the last 23 years from the domain of international marketing that directly contribute to signaling theory based on 57 journal articles extracted through the systematic review process.

Based on systematic research the results reveal that the topic has grown and continues to expand within the broader international marketing field. We offer a theoretical conceptual framework to better understand signaling theory in the context of international marketing.

The authors map and critically evaluate the use of signaling theory in international marketing. Relevance of signaling theory in international marketing is growing and authors present an integrative framework that organizes the existing literature, and provides scholars to further expand on emerging themes of the domain. The paper offers some useful future research directions.

The objectives of this study are threefold: to delineate the phenomenon of “You Share, We Donate” (YSWD) campaigns and what distinguishes them from sales-based cause-related marketing; to contrast the effectiveness of YSWD and sales-based cause-related marketing campaigns and provide an explanation for the differences in the effectiveness; to explore boundary conditions of the proposed differences.

Three experiments were conducted to empirically test the differential effect of campaign formats (i.e. YSWD vs sales-based cause-related marketing), the underlying mechanism and structural as well as contextual features moderating the differential effect.

The findings suggest that YSWD messages elicit consumers’ message-sharing intentions more than traditional cause-related marketing messages. The effect is explained by consumers’ sense of empowerment and can be enhanced through donation cap non-specification. The findings further indicate that YSWD campaigns are especially fruitful in low power distance cultures.

This study contributes toward corporate donation campaign literature by focusing on the usage of social media.

From a managerial perspective, this research provides marketers with guidelines on how to choose between the two cause-related marketing campaign formats and how to enhance the effectiveness of YSWD campaigns.

This paper extends cause-related marketing literature by not only introducing the phenomenon of YSWD campaigns to the literature but also exploring strategies to enhance the effectiveness of such campaigns and shedding light on an outcome beyond the sales impact of cause-related marketing campaigns, i.e. an increase of visibility in social media. From a managerial perspective, this research provides marketers with guidelines on how to choose between the two cause-related marketing campaign formats and how to enhance the effectiveness of YSWD campaigns.

This study aims to investigate the effect of social influence and value-driven mobile marketing activities on consumers’ acceptance of mobile marketing offers.

The method used is survey questionnaire. A proposed model was tested by using structural model analysis and data gathered from 356 Mexico consumers and 346 US consumers.

The study shows the number of peers and providing information are the main predictor variables of consumer acceptance of mobile marketing offers in both countries. These results suggest that social value factors are important variables for explaining consumers’ responses to mobile marketing offers across two countries characterized by dissimilar macro-environmental conditions.

The study’s overall implication about standardization vs adaptation is that social value messages can be standardized across countries. However, the marketing tools and touch points required to communicate any message appeal must be adapted across countries. One limitation in this study is the use of a convenience sample of undergraduate college students. This study did not control for different types of mobile phones and the screen sizes of mobile phones.

The overall implication of standardization vs adaptation from the study results is that social value messages can be standardized across countries. However, the marketing tools and touch points required to communicate any message appeal must be adapted across countries.

Unlike previous studies where the emphasis is to explicate the effect of value-oriented mobile activity, this study examines the combined effect of social influence and value-driven mobile activities on acceptance of mobile marketing.

Social media marketing has become a powerful strategic tool for many brands, but scholarly research in this domain is still in its infancy. This study aims to examine the effects of social media marketing activities on consumer online impulse buying intentions via brand resonance and emotional responses by incorporating the direct and moderating effects of social network proneness toward fashion retail brands.

By using snowball sampling, this study recruited 441 netizens (who were using fashion retail brands) and obtained their responses through an online survey. Structural equation modeling was applied to 394 responses for analysis.

The findings discovered that social media marketing activities significantly influenced brand resonance, consumer emotional responses and online impulse buying intentions. Likewise, brand resonance and emotional responses were positively associated with online impulse buying intentions and acted as decisive mediators. Social network proneness’s direct and moderating effects significantly increased consumer online impulse-buying intentions toward fashion retail brands.

This study provides recommendations to retail managers for creating and executing brand positioning, segmenting and targeting strategies to enhance consumers’ intentions for engaging in online impulsive purchases for fashion brands.

This original research contributes to the branding literature and stimulus–organism–response theory by focusing on social media marketing activities, brand resonance, emotional responses, social network proneness and consumer online impulse buying intentions toward fashion retail brands.

This study explores how businesses can effectively market functional and emotional benefits through virtual corporate social responsibility co-creation (VCSRC) initiatives. The aim is to enhance customer engagement through these initiatives.

The initial phase of this study involved recruiting 185 Chinese university students as participants. These individuals were randomly distributed into four distinct experimental groups, each designed to investigate the influence of varied marketing appeals and common in-group identity (CIGI) on consumer engagement willingness. This phase also sought to elucidate the mediating role of CSR associations in these dynamics. Following this, the second study engaged 570 individuals, recruited through “Credamo,” for a group-based experiment. This subsequent phase was intended to validate the findings of the preliminary study and explore the varying intensities of interaction between different marketing appeals and CIGI, with a particular focus on the dichotomy of independent and interdependent self-construals.

The study delineates a detailed relationship between consumers' willingness to participate in VCSRC, marketing appeals, and common in-group identity, revealing that strong common in-group identity correlates with a preference for functional appeals, while a weaker in-group identity inclines towards emotional appeals. Notably, interdependent self-construal significantly influences consumer responses, intensifying the interaction between in-group identity and marketing appeal and thereby influencing participation willingness. Moreover, CSR associations emerge as key mediators in this interaction, underscoring their role in enhancing the effectiveness of VCSRC strategies. These insights provide a new understanding of the crucial impact of consumer identity traits on marketing strategy efficacy.

This research stands as a trailblazing endeavor in evaluating the effects of varied advertising appeals under the VCSR paradigm. It probes into the foundational mechanisms, leveraging insights from interaction alignment theory and persuasion theory to elucidate the processes involved.

Purpose: This chapter aims to find the impact of cultural marketing on consumer buying behaviour and analyse the cultural factors affecting consumers’ buying behaviour. Cultural marketing aims to offer and promote a product, a message, or a service to a group of people who may be their potential purchasers and belong to the same culture or particular demographic.

Methodology: This study uses the published research for different countries viz. India, Canada, Germany, the UAE, the UK, the USA, Japan, etc., in the field of culture, cross-culture, and consumer buying behaviour considering various factors and their impact; but in particular, this study focussed on the cultural factors only and analysed their impact on the consumer behaviour of the different countries.

Findings: The study revealed that different countries have their own unique culture. Cultural factors have a positive relationship with consumers’ buying behaviour and exhibit that consumers behave differently towards the same product as per their perception developed by their culture.

Need of the study: Today, the world has become global, and to become a successful consumer oriented market service provider, marketers have to study the psychology of the customers to procure them. This study focusses on one of the essential factors, that is, culture and how cultural factors affect consumer buying behaviour. The study of culture is the gateway to attracting consumers in the market.

Practical implications: The study would help multinational companies in segmentation, targeting, and positioning and developing several marketing strategies for their products. Companies would be able to understand changes in consumer purchasing behaviours that arise from cultural differences, which helps them cater to the needs of their global consumers.

Recent studies have observed rise in consumer’s ethical concerns about the online retailers while making a purchase decision. The impetus for businesses to use corporate social responsibility (CSR) is evident, but the effects of CSR motives on corresponding processes underlying cause-related marketing (CRM) patronage intention have not been thoroughly examined. This study, anchored on attribution theory, established a research model that better explains the influence of CSR motives on patronage intentions toward CRM-oriented online retailers. Additionally, this study aims to examine the moderating role of spirituality (SPT) on CSR motives and CRM patronage intention (CPI).

Primary data has been collected from 722 respondents and analyzed by using deep neural-network architecture by using the innovative PLS-SEM-ANN method to predict/rank the factors impacting CPI.

The results revealed the normalized importance of the predictors of CPI and found that value-driven motive was the strongest predictor, followed by strategic motive, SPT, age and stakeholder-driven motive. In contrast, egoistic motive, education and income were found insignificant.

The pandemic has transformed the way consumers shop and fortified the online economy, thereby resulting in a paradigm shift toward usage of e-commerce platforms. The results offer valuable insights to online retailers and practitioners for predicting patronage intentions by CSR motives and, thus, effectively engage CRM consumers by designing promotions in a way that would deeply resonate with them. This study assessed and predicted the factors influencing the CPI s, thereby guiding the online retailers to design CSR strategies and manage crucial CRM decisions.

The purpose of this study is threefold: firstly, to compare Pakistani and French consumers’ perceptions of well-being; secondly, to investigate how consumers in both countries relate to food; and thirdly, to assess whether they associate food with well-being.

Thirty participants (15 French and 15 Pakistani) between the ages of 24 and 35 were interviewed, using convenience and snow bowling sampling. Data triangulation was performed by combining three qualitative techniques, word association, photo-elicitation-based interviewing and open-ended questions to explore consumer perceptions of well-being, food and food well-being.

The study’s findings suggest that well-being is a broad concept in which food is an ingredient. Food and well-being share common elements, and food well-being can be defined as an individual’s psychological, physical, social and societal relationship with food ascribed by affordability and food literacy.

Pleasure, sharing and respect emerged as dimensions of food well-being that can be applied to transfigure consumer behaviour and reduce over-consumption, food waste and hunger. The dimensions of well-being and food were explored for both countries to understand their cultural nuances and determine the influence of food on well-being. This comparative analysis will help researchers understand consumers’ preferences for food in various aspects from two regions. This study can potentially contribute to scale development in food and well-being, which can help researchers measure the effects of food and well-being in different sectors of the economy, particularly in health care. The most aspiring aspect of the current research is the insights unveiled during interactions with research participants, which will help develop consumer baseline feelings.

This study aims to reveal the knowledge structure of social media influencer marketing literature by performing science mapping analysis through a state-of-the-art bibliometric approach to determine the current and future trends. Social media influencer marketing is one of the most effective approaches to presenting a brand and offering value to consumers via social media.

This study evaluates the knowledge structure to uncover the emerging trends and future predictions in social media influencer marketing through bibliographic coupling and co-word analysis. In total, 917 journal publications were retrieved from the Web of Science database and analyzed using VOSviewer software.

The central theme in social media influencer marketing reflects digital engagement between influencers and followers and communication between influencers and followers. The theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

This study unleashes the knowledge structure according to the fundamental literature of social media influencer marketing and the underlying themes related to the phenomenon.

Increasingly brands are performing several activities on social media in order to alter consumer consumption towards their offering. However, limited studies have attempted to understand as how activities on social media influence usage intentions and brand loyalty. Thus, this study aims to examine the influence of social media marketing activities (SMMA) on brand experience and its association with continued usage intentions (CUI) and brand loyalty.

The study conceptualized a research model by using the theoretical premise of stimulus-organism-response theory. SMMA acts as stimulus, four (sensory, affective, behavioral and intellectual) elements of brand experience act as organism, and CUI and brand loyalty act as response. A survey-based questionnaire is used to collect data from 309 respondents. The hypothesized associations of research model were examined using the structural equation modeling approach.

Results of the study are in line with hypothesized associations among constructs. Results suggest that SMMA is associated with all four elements of brand experience. Also, affective, behavioral and intellectual aspects of brand experience are associated with CUI which influence brand loyalty. The moderating role of education on hypothesized association and the mediating role of organism are also confirmed.

Using stimulus-organism-response theory, this study confirms that SMMA are associated with sensory, affective, behavioral and intellectual aspect of brand experience which has not been examined so far. Also, the novel findings of study add to existing literature of SMMA, brand experience and brand loyalty. The study further contributes to literature by showing the moderation effect of education.