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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 problem of environmental pollution is becoming increasingly severe, and international consensus confirms the need for eco-friendly consumption. Worldwide, the eco-friendly food market is booming, so understanding consumers’ motivations to purchase these foods is crucial. This paper aimed to construct a model explaining consumers’ intentions to purchase eco-friendly food by combining stimuli-organism-response (SOR) and signalling theories and exploring the mechanisms by which macro- and micro-signals impact perceptions of value and consumers’ subsequent willingness to purchase eco-friendly food.

An online questionnaire was distributed through the Qualtrics platform, and the completed questionnaires were collected in March and April 2023. The study used partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to analyse the 331 valid responses received.

The results indicated that trustworthy eco-labels for high-quality and health-promoting products, as conveyed in macro signals, significantly enhanced consumers’ perceptions of functional value. The peer effect and a moderate level of food anthropomorphism conveyed in micro-signals substantially improved their perceptions of social value, whilst the perceived value of products significantly and positively influenced their purchase intentions.

This study explains consumers’ motivations to purchase eco-friendly products. This provides an explanation for the effect of macro- and micro-signals on value perceptions. By integrating the different dimensions of these signals to create a unified research perspective, the paper provides an integrated model, thereby filling a research gap concerning the influence of two-dimensional signals on purchase intention. By supporting eco-friendly food use, the paper contributes to environmental protection and sustainable development.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of online reviews on answer adoption in virtual Q&A communities, with an eye toward extending knowledge exchange and community management.

Online reviews contain rich cognitive and emotional information about community members regarding the provided answers. As feedback information on answers, it is crucial to explore how online reviews affect answer adoption. Based on signaling theory, a research model reflecting the influence of online reviews on answer adoption is established and empirically examined by using secondary data with 69,597 Q&A data and user data collected from Zhihu. Meanwhile, the moderating effects of the informational and emotional consistency of reviews and answers are examined.

The negative binomial regression results show that both answer-related signals (informational support and emotional support) and answerers-related signals (answerers’ reputations and expertise) positively impact answer adoption. The informational consistency of reviews and answers negatively moderates the relationships among information support, emotional support and answer adoption but positively moderates the effect of answerers’ expertise on answer adoption. Furthermore, the emotional consistency of reviews and answers positively moderates the effect of information support and answerers’ reputations on answer adoption.

Although previous studies have investigated the impacts of answer content, answer source credibility and personal characteristics of knowledge seekers on answer adoption in virtual Q&A communities, few have examined the impact of online reviews on answer adoption. This study explores the impacts of informational and emotional feedback in online reviews on answer adoption from a signaling theory perspective. The results not only provide unique ideas for community managers to optimize community design and operation but also inspire community users to provide or utilize knowledge, thereby reducing knowledge search costs and improving knowledge exchange efficiency.

This study empirically investigates how ambidextrous innovations and their balancing affect the supply chain financing performance (SCFP) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), based on signaling theory. Moreover, this study explores the moderating effect of the breadth and depth of digital technology deployment on the relationship between ambidextrous innovations and the SCFP of SMEs.

A mixed-methods design is used, including a qualitative study and a quantitative study. Qualitative data have been collected from six multi-cases in different industries. Questionnaire data have been collected from 259 SMEs in China, and a multiple regression model is used to verify the research hypotheses.

The findings indicate that, in supply chain financing, both exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation are helpful in improving the SCFP of SMEs. For resource-constrained SMEs, a relative balance between exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation can help improve SCFP. The breadth of digital technology deployment can strengthen the relationship between exploitative innovation and SCFP, while the depth of digital technology deployment can weaken the relationship between exploratory innovation and SCFP. In addition, increasing the depth of digital technology deployment strengthens the positive correlation between the relative balance of ambidextrous innovations and SCFP.

To effectively obtain supply chain financing, SMEs can either concentrate their limited resources on a single type of innovation or use relative balance strategies to simultaneously pursue two innovations. In addition, in the process of obtaining supply chain financing by ambidextrous innovations, SMEs should appropriately deploy digital technologies.

This study first deconstructs the impact mechanism of ambidextrous innovation capabilities on SCFP based on signaling theory, and then discusses the balancing effect of ambidextrous innovations on SCFP in the cases of resource-constrained SMEs. This study also goes further and finds the negative moderating effect of digital technology deployment in the process of supply chain financing.

Based on signaling theory, this paper aims to explore the impact of supply chain transparency (SCT) on firms' bank loan (BL) and supply chain financing (SCF) in the context of voluntary disclosure of supplier and customer lists.

Based on panel data collected from Chinese-listed firms between 2012 and 2021, fixed-effect models and a series of robustness checks are used to test the predictions.

First, improving SCT by disclosing major suppliers and customers promotes BL but inhibits SCF. Specifically, customer transparency (CT) is more influential in SCF than supplier transparency (ST). Second, supplier concentration (SC) weakens SCT’s positive impact on BL while reducing its negative impact on SCF. Third, customer concentration (CC) strengthens the positive impact of SCT on BL but intensifies its negative impact on SCF. Last, these findings are basically more pronounced in highly competitive industries.

This study contributes to the SCT literature by investigating the under-explored practice of supply chain list disclosure and revealing its dual impact on firms' access to financing offerings (i.e. BL and SCF) based on signaling theory. Additionally, it expands the understanding of the boundary conditions affecting the relationship between SCT and firm financing, focusing on supply chain concentration. Moreover, it advances signaling theory by exploring how financing providers interpret the SCT signal and enriches the understanding of BL and SCF antecedents from a supply chain perspective.

Drawing on signaling theory and the “signal transmission–interpretation–feedback” framework, this study explores the effects of perceived distributive justice and respect from managers on nurses' work meaningfulness and work effort in public hospitals in China and examines the moderating role of work self-efficacy.

We collected 341 paired questionnaires for nurses and managers from four public hospitals in China. The data were analyzed by structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analysis.

Distributive justice and managers' respect for employees are positively related to work meaningfulness. Additionally, work self-efficacy negatively moderates this relationship. Work meaningfulness is positively related to work effort and fully mediates the relationships between perceived distributive justice and respect from the manager and work effort.

This study provides useful insights for healthcare organizations to improve nurses' work meaningfulness from the perspectives of their material and emotional needs, according to their work self-efficacy characteristics, thus promoting their work effort. The findings offer important guidance for improving the effectiveness of grass-roots human resources to cope with unpredictable situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study focuses on the organization's environmental factors that affect the primary staff's work meaningfulness. Further, it analyzes the differences in signal interpretation among nurses with different work self-efficacy characteristics, thus providing new insights into work meaningfulness. Through manager–nurse pairing data, it reveals the important role of work meaningfulness in motivating work effort.

Signals, e.g. information released by firms about new products attract the attention and scrutiny of customers, competitors and other stakeholders. In product management, an important area of research focuses on the economic value of such signals. However, extant studies consider valuation effects of product signals independently, and largely ignore how the value of a product signal at launch depends upon prior preannouncements. This study aims to investigate how the dependence of new product development (NPD) signals on past preannouncements affects firms’ security prices.

The study develops a conceptual model that draws upon information asymmetry theories, i.e. signaling and agency theory to hypothesize the effect of firms’ product introduction announcements on security prices given two antecedent preannouncement types (costless and costly signals). Hypotheses are tested by conducting an event study analysis on a sample of 149 matched observations (product introduction announcement preceded by a certain type of preannouncement).

Empirical results confirm the hypothesis that positive valuation effects are observed during product launch that is preceded by initial costless product signaling. In contrast, for ex ante costly product signaling, launch events are not diagnostic enough to affect value. Since organizations’ NPD communications can revise investors’ prior beliefs, they need to be understood in more detail and managed strategically.

Valuation metrics can be noisy with a potential to influence information events. In addition, product introduction signals may be deployed more frequently in certain fast-paced industries, e.g. hi-tech.

Managers can incorporate signal dependence in product communications. For example, in costless ex ante product signaling situations, initial economic loss may be recovered through launch announcements. Furthermore, when costly signals have been used earlier, firms may economize on promotion costs during launch.

Past research has focused on assessing the economic value of new product signals independently, i.e. as discrete events. Absent is an examination of valuation effects due to the dependence of launch signals on prior preannouncements. This paper addresses the dependence gap, and empirical results show that even if firms do not deploy product signals ex ante, value can be created through ex post launch announcements.

Leveraging signalling theory and institutional environment theory, this study aims to examine how the entrepreneurial orientation of emerging market firms impacts initial public offering (IPO) performance.

The authors conduct regression analysis based on archival data from 312 firms’ IPOs in India.

The results in the Indian context suggest it differs from IPO performance in developed markets. In an emerging market context, the findings suggest that only competitive aggressiveness is valued by investors in IPOs. The findings further show that proactiveness and autonomy negatively influence IPO underpricing.

The research propositions imply that, owing to institutional voids in emerging markets, investors’ risk propensity and, hence, rewarding a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation differ from those in developed markets.

Extant literature has given limited attention to the dynamics of entrepreneurial orientation and the effect of each dimension of entrepreneurial orientation on IPO performance in emerging markets.

Although the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) on firms' innovation has attracted attention, the existing research findings diverge. The authors believe that failure to consider both innovation input and output is an important reason for the divergence of conclusions in the extant literature when discussing the impact of ESG and firm innovation. Thus, based on signaling theory, this study aims to reconcile these divergent findings by examining the impact of ESG performance on firms' innovation efficiency.

To seek empirical evidence to support the authors’ theoretical view, the authors conduct an empirical test based on the Tobit model using 8 years of data from Chinese listed companies.

Although ESG performance effectively improves firms' innovation efficiency, the institutional-level signaling environment (including state-owned firms and regional market development) weakens the positive effect of ESG performance on firms' innovation efficiency. Further tests suggest that financing constraints partially mediate the relationship between ESG performance and firms' innovation efficiency.

By systematically revealing whether, how and under what circumstances ESG performance improves firms' innovation advantages, this study bridges the gap in the existing literature and highlights important implications to suggest how firms can better capture the value associated with ESG.

This study elucidates the interactive relationship of sustainability assurance (SA) quality with corporate environmental sustainability performance (CESP) and firm value and explores the moderating impact of CESP on the SA quality–firm value relationship.

The sample comprises 320 firm-year observations of 40 companies listed on the Cotation Assistée en Continu (CAC 40) from 2010 to 2019. The authors use the simultaneous equations model to capture the CESP and SA quality–firm value relationship and apply the three-stage regression and generalised method of moments approaches to address possible endogeneity.

The results show that CESP, as assessed by International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 14001 certification, has a significant positive effect on firm value, the relevance of which implies that in the case of good environmental performance, society's perception of a firm is much more favourable; consequently, the firm is likely to be rewarded with a premium value in capital markets. In addition, environmental performance has a stronger interaction with SA quality, acting as a moderator variable; thus, greater SA quality signals credibility owing to increased eco-efficiency. The authors interpret their findings within a multi-theoretical framework that draws insights from legitimacy, stakeholders and signalling theoretical perspectives.

This study contributes to the literature by re-examining the relationship between SA quality and firm value. It also provides new evidence of the moderating effect of CESP on the SA quality–firm value nexus. Specifically, this study explores the joint effects of credibility and eco-efficiency on market confidence in sustainability information. The authors use a simultaneous equation model to capture the reciprocal association between SA quality and firm value, whereas prior studies on SA quality and market performance have frequently used single-equation regression. The authors also find that CESP positively moderates the relationship between SA quality and firm value. Including CESP and exploring the moderating impact of eco-efficiency on the SA quality–firm value relationship is a novel approach.