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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.

This paper aims to propose various theoretical lenses to explore the relationship between internal communication (IC) and its impact on employee loyalty.

A systematic review followed by a synthesis of the literature is adopted after identifying articles from various databases such as Scopus, Google Scholar and EBSCO and found that employee loyalty remains a significant gap in organisational IC research. The review will bring greater attention and focus for scholars to check how IC can help increase employee loyalty using the proposed theories – more so for IC in the Asia-Pacific.

The findings from this paper explicitly highlight that both individual/managerial theories (social cognitive, social identity, social exchange, expectancy and socio-analytic theories) and organisational theories (network, resource-based view and sensemaking theories) are close and relevant to study the IC and employee loyalty.

The value of this review is to move forward the debate on how IC can significantly contribute to developing employee outcomes (loyalty), how it can further enhance employee performance and commitment and what theories better explain this relationship. This review will inspire and inform future scholars to explore IC’s role in employee loyalty in the Asia-Pacific context.

The authors assessed the following six popular online theories: Cognitivism, connectivism, heutagogy, social learning, transformative learning theories and Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZPD). The theories were selected because of their relevance to improving online instruction.

To compare them, the authors reviewed literature on adult learning theories from the following databases: Academic Search Premier, ERIC and ProQuest. They chose the most relevant articles about each theory published between 2007 and 2017, summarized them and extracted relevant information.

The theories suggest various pointers to help course designers to improve online learning. Based on cognitivism, instructors can use media-based instruction designed especially for the working memory. Similarly, connectivism informs instructors to design instruction integrated with technology. Heutagogy also promotes the integration of technology with online learning and encourages self-directed learning. Meanwhile, social learning theory informs instructors to design group discussions and activities to foster collaboration. The other three theories - cognitivism, connectivism and heutagogy – promote the integration of technology.

The authors said the paper was useful as it provided a theoretical framework for adult instructors and theory designers. The paper was a follow-up to another study by the sane authors of online theories. There are also research implications. While pedagogical frameworks are well-established for online learning, studies on learner motivation would establish a wider understanding of richer design formats, the authors say.

With the popularity of electronic commerce, many organizations are facing unprecedented security challenges. Security techniques and management tools have caught a lot of attention from both academia and practitioners. However, there is lacking a theoretical framework for information security management. This paper attempts to integrate security policy theory, risk management theory, control and auditing theory, management system theory and contingency theory in order to build a comprehensive theory of information security management (ISM). This paper suggests that an integrated system theory is useful for understanding information security management, explaining information security management strategies, and predicting management outcomes. This theory may lay a solid theoretical foundation for further empirical research and application.

Theory testing is part of sociological analysis and the procedural aspects of problem solving are bounded, to a certain extent, by an “explicit set of operations” (Dubin, 1969). Broadly stated, validation assessment is judged to be satisfactory if the researcher interprets the theoretical constructs of the paradigm correctly, if he has used adequate methods to test the paradigm, and if the results are interpreted correctly (Whitsett and Winslow, 1967: 413). Unfortunately, most attempts at theory testing merely serve to highlight the discrepancy between what the researcher is obliged to do and what occurs in practice. On this basis, the research situation invariably leads to the prolongation of controversies in the social sciences. Importantly, if the prolongment of a controversy is taken as the gauge of the prevalence of interpretative and testing errors, then controversies are deserving of close scrutiny for the lessons they provide concerning the ways in which “the breakdown of a paradigm” (Kuhn, 1962) is inhibited. In making the assumption that a lengthy (and sometimes heated) controversy would provide a more varied lesson content, it follows that the means is provided for approaching the issue of theory testing from the standpoint of the inadequacy of the repeated tests of certain theories.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of context and its implications for theory and research in service.

This is a conceptual paper based on exploring existing research and theory related to context in service research.

The characteristics of service make context both important and challenging, there is great contextual diversity in service research as reflected, for example in ecosystems made up of multiple contextual variables. There is a need to identify the context-specific nature of middle range theory and the contextual logic of general theory. The authors explore the challenges of context for service theory and how we might learn from theory in a particular context and test or adapt it in other contexts.

The findings of this paper are of value to researchers seeking to develop and justify theory in service research (general, middle range or theory in use).

In relation to the critical problem, this paper aims to present an understanding of the agency theory and the stakeholder theory from the perspective of the Islamic principles. Indeed, a thorough examination of the theoretical background explaining corporate governance from the Islamic perspective is necessary to conduct research analysing corporate governance in Islamic banks.

The authors followed a critical review discussion; this method takes into consideration presenting important theories and comparing those theories with Islamic perspective.

The authors presented important arguments on the difference between ordinary theories to explaining corporate governance and Islamic perspective. The paper browsed into whether the Shariah Supervisory Board is a fit with the agency theory by explaining the agency theory and how it differs from the Islamic banking concepts. The paper involved an analytical review on stakeholder theory and presented a critique and the rationale as to why there is ample room for the Shariah Supervisory Board to be considered a fit with the stakeholder theory, as the Shariah Supervisory Board is an independent body influencing the firm.

The paper is of important value to those conducting research in the area of governance in Islamic banks; they may find it beneficial in terms of underlining theory building their research framework.

The focus of this article is a cross‐national comparison of the role the study of marketing theory should play in the marketing education process. This study also examines whether the status of marketing theory differs from marketing academicians in the United States, Europe, and the Pacific Basin.

Compares the views of European and US marketing lenders on a select group of marketing theory attitudinal statements. Gives attention to the approach taken to teaching marketing at undergraduate and graduate levels. Concludes that European and US respondents reacted overall similarly.

It has been suggested that, if pedagogical and learning theories are integrated into lesson and learning study, a systematic construction of pedagogical knowledge is possible (Elliott, 2012). In this Special Issue, it is reported how theory and theoretical concepts can add value to lesson and learning study. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Special Issue and explore the above concepts.

This paper presents the Special Issue papers thematically and the main issues are discussed.

Together the papers suggest that pedagogical theories and theorizing practice may contribute to the improvement of teachers’ practical knowledge and knowledge about teachers’ professional tasks and objects. Furthermore, some theories and theoretical concepts hitherto under-exploited in lesson and learning study are presented and discussed from the point of view how these might improve the quality of the studies.

As a total, this collection of papers bring out issues about the role of pedagogical and learning theories and how these could inform lesson and learning study.