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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.

Banks' service failures are a major determinant of bank customers' switching behavior, which ultimately affects the profitability and stability of banks. Guided by the expectancy violation theory (EVT), this study aims to examine whether and how bank reputation influences the relationship between service failure and customers' switching behavior in the Malaysian banking industry.

By distributing questionnaires to Malaysian bank account holders, the authors gathered 320 usable responses, which were subsequently subjected to explanatory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, Logit regression, Probit regression and independent-variables T-test to identify and elucidate the relationship existent between the dependent and independent variables.

This study discovered that bank reputation affects the bank customers' switching behavior directly and indirectly via banks' service failure, thereby verifying the application of EVT in the context of customer management.

Although the profile of respondents in this study presents a reasonable representation of the Malaysian population, the use of convenience (non-probability) sampling method via online survey may not provide generalizable results.

This study empirically revealed that bank reputation plays a moderator role between service failure in banks and customers' bank-switching behavior. This observation offers useful insights to bank managers into the role of bank reputation in managing customers' switching behavior.

The purpose of this study is to present a complete framework that defines the link between choices and decision criteria based on existing research on digital influencers (DIs) connected to consumer purchase intentions. The primary goal of this article is to assess the effect of DIs on customer purchase intentions via the creation of an integrated knowledge-based system (KBS).

The suggested KBS is based on the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which creates a link between DI elements and their overall effect on consumer purchase intentions.

With the help of a KBS, the performance of DIs may be evaluated. It demonstrates the link between choices connected to factors and decision criteria of various variables, demonstrating the beneficial effect of DIs in molding customer purchase intentions in the organic skincare industry.

The proposed KBS would aid marketing managers and decision makers in assessing the effect of DIs on customer purchase intentions. This research would also give decision makers with extensive information on influencer marketing and crucial elements that have a significant effect on customer purchase intentions.

This is the first research to employ the fuzzy AHP methodology and KBS in relation to influencers' effect. No prior research has targeted the organic skincare industry to assess the effect of Internet influencers on consumer purchase intentions. Furthermore, the KBS offers a holistic and complete way to studying influencers' effect on cost per impression (CPI) by establishing a linkage between choices and decision criteria.

The purpose is to assess the usefulness of creative vouchers, a specific kind of technology and innovation vouchers (small grants usually given to SMEs to acquire external knowledge) where the knowledge suppliers are creative firms such as design agencies.

A multiple case analysis of four EU-funded pilot voucher schemes was carried out through project reports and semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders.

The authors show that creative vouchers are effective policy instruments despite the limited amount of money involved because they trigger new innovation trajectories often in a serendipitous way. The authors also show that the quality of projects and satisfaction of the beneficiaries increase when both proposals and suppliers are screened.

The authors’ conclusions are based on four pilot projects in a specific region of the world (Western Europe). Though two of them were extended to a much bigger scale, their generalizability may be limited. Moreover, the limited number of cases does not permit an analytical evaluation of all the voucher schemes mechanisms.

The findings of this paper can be very useful to policymakers designing voucher schemes and to the companies involved, whether they are providers or beneficiaries. In particular, the voucher allocation mechanisms may have a strong impact on the success of the program.

The innovation spurred by the collaboration with creative firms is generally neither energy-intensive nor capital intensive, but brain intensive, and this is the best way to leverage on the talent of local creative and make companies create value based on immaterial resources.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of creative vouchers after Bakhsi et al., 2015, and the only one involving several schemes in different countries. It shows the innovation potential of such a little known policy instrument for SMEs. Moreover, it provides insight on how to design a voucher scheme in order to improve its effectiveness.

This paper establishes a quality model for automation assembly of range hood impeller based on generalized grey relational degree, it improves the debugging efficiency of the newly developed assembly workstation.

First, spot check the trial production impellers and obtain three indexes that reflect the assembly quality of the impellers. Then, analyze the parameters that affect the assembly quality of the impeller using grey relational analysis (GRA), establish a model for the assembly quality of the range hood impeller based on the generalized grey relational degree and identify the main parameters. After that, analyze the transmission structure of automation assembly workstation, identify the reasons that affect parameters and propose improvement plans. Finally, a trial production is conducted on the automation assembly workstation after adopting the improved plan to verify the quality model of impeller automation assembly.

The research shows that compared to manual assembly, the automation assembly quality of the impeller using GRA model has been improved, shortening the debugging cycle of the newly developed assembly workstation.

The newly developed automation equipment will have some problems in the trial production stage, which often rely on the experience of engineers for debugging. In this paper, the automation assembly quality model of range hood impeller based on GRA is established, which can not only ensure the quality of finished impeller but also shorten the debugging cycle of the equipment. In addition, GRA can be widely used in the commissioning of other automation equipment.

This study has developed a set of impeller automation assembly workstation. The debugging method in the trial production stage is beneficial to shorten the trial production time and improve the economic benefits.

Little is known about the external stimuli, which trigger a change in a consumer's cognitive and affective state and lead to a consumer's willingness to pay a premium price (WTPPP) behavioural response. This study aims to close this knowledge gap by providing insight into how a unique combination of antecedents affects consumer attitude toward purchasing free-range eggs and leads to a behavioural response, which is measured by consumer WTPPP for free-range eggs.

An online questionnaire was developed, with data collected from 392 Australian consumers. This study employs confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine the measurement model before testing the hypothesised relationships using covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM).

The study reveals that the tested customer perceived value (CPV) dimensions, animal welfare and source credibility are positive stimuli of consumer attitude towards purchasing free-range eggs, which subsequently promotes consumer WTPPP for free-range eggs.

Findings drawn from Australian consumers may not be generalisable to consumers from disparate contexts, and stimuli beyond those tested may influence consumer attitude and WTPPP.

This is one of the first studies to use the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) theory to investigate and contribute to extant knowledge and understanding of consumer behaviour relating to free-range eggs and specifically of consumer attitude towards purchasing and WTPPP for free-range eggs. This study offers practical implications for free-range egg farmers, retailers and policymakers.

The purpose of this study is to provide information on how citizens in nine countries across Europe perceive egg product quality and the importance of a product's sustainability attributes (animal welfare, country of origin and production method) in egg purchases.

The data were gathered in 2021 via an online survey in nine European countries (Finland, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Denmark). A total of 3,601 responses were collected. As methods of analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), independent samples t-test, paired samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted when investigating the quality dimensions of egg products and the differences amongst the sociodemographic groups.

Citizens in European countries considered animal welfare aspects, production method and country of origin important when purchasing egg products. Citizens' perceived quality of egg products was related to two dimensions (i.e. product properties and responsible production), and there were differences in perceptions by sociodemographic groups (i.e. age, gender, education and country of residence). Responsible production was most valued by younger women with higher education. Also in the Netherlands and Romania, citizens had stronger preferences for product properties compared to responsible production, whilst in Germany, responsible production was appreciated more than product properties.

The study provides new information on citizens' perceived egg product quality and the role of a product's sustainability attributes in egg purchases. Furthermore, the results bring novel insights on the differences in perceptions amongst citizens living in nine European countries.

To study these issues, the authors chose a GFSC with one producer and one material supplier as research object, the supplier will offer green material to the producer and the producer will make green food using green production technology. Then, the authors proposed that consumers' perceived value was determined by the trustworthiness levels of the related green and quality-safety information provided by the supplier and the producer. Then, considering the trustworthiness levels of the green and quality information provided by the supplier and the producer, the authors improved the demand function. Afterwards, we constructed four investment models and their income models are built and then a cost-sharing and revenue-sharing contract (hereafter, CSRS) was adopted to coordinate the GFSC.

With the growth of consumers environmental awareness and life level, consumers' requirements for green and high quality food are growing. In recently years, to increase consumers' perceived trustworthiness on the product greenness and quality levels, stakeholders in green food supply chain (hereafter, GFSC) start to adopt the blockchain-based traceability system (hereafter, BLTS). For investors, they need to know the investment conditions and how to coordinate the GFSC.

(1) When the revenue-sharing coefficient is less than three-fourths and higher then a certain vaule, the cost-sharing and revenue-sharing contract can make the GFSC coordinate. (2) The investment cost threshold of the BLTS has a positive relationship with the trustworthiness improvement levels of the green and quality information, the green degree of food products and the quality of food products. (3) In the proposed four investment situations, as the growth of consumers perceived credibility coefficient about the greenness information and the quality information, chain members' revenues will increase. In addition, comparing with co-investing the BLTS, benefits of chain members are lower than them in the sole investment model.

(1) The demand function we proposed can help chain members forecast market demand to support production or ordering decisions. (2) The investment decision policies can offer a theoretical reference for chain members to use the BLTS. (3) The CSRS will offer the theoretical reference for coordinating the supply chain after using the BLTS. Furthermore, our study method can be referenced by other scholars. (4) The study method can offer a method reference for researchers who do a similar discussion in a manufacturing supply chain. Although, our research cannot guide the industrial practices, it can serve as a reference of the similar research in industry.

This study aims to investigate whether frugality increases customer complaints via the mediating role of the zone of tolerance (ZOT) of quality for Shanzhai products. Additionally, the study seeks to explore how customer empathy as a boundary condition affects the relationship between the ZOT of quality and customer complaints.

Based on the purchasing data of 241 low-income customers from business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce and social platforms in China, hierarchical analysis was conducted in the study. Moreover, “PROCESS SPSS Macro” was used to test the mediation effect of the ZOT of quality and the moderated mediation effect with customer empathy as a moderator.

The results indicate a positive impact of frugality on customer complaints, which is mediated by the ZOT of quality. Moreover, with an increase in customer empathy, the negative effect of the ZOT of quality on customer complaints increases, and the positive influence of frugality on customer complaints, through the mediation of the ZOT of quality, also becomes stronger.

Drawing upon the principle of cognitive consistency, this study not only extends the stream of research on frugality by exploring how frugality influences customer complaints via the mediation of the ZOT of quality but also sheds new light on the research on customer empathy by exploring its moderating role in the relationship between the ZOT of quality and customer complaints.