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The profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the film industry has underscored the growing significance of online movies. However, there is limited research available on the factors that influence the viewership of online films. Therefore, this study aims to use the signaling theory to investigate how signals of varying qualities affect online movie viewership, considering both signal transmission costs and prices.

This study uses a sample of 1,071 online movies released on the iQiyi from July 2020 to July 2022. It uses OLS regression and instrumental variable method to examine the impact of various quality indicators on the viewership of online movies, as well as the moderating effect of price.

After conducting a thorough analysis of this study, it can be deduced that the varying impacts on online movie viewership are attributed to disparities in signal transmission costs. Specifically, star influence and rating exhibit a positive effect on the viewership of online movies, whereas the number of raters has a detrimental impact. Furthermore, there exists an “inverted U-shaped” relationship between the number of reviews and online movie viewership. Additionally, within the consumer decision-making process, both price-cost and price-quality relationships coexist. This is evident as prices negatively affect online movie viewership but positively moderate the relationship between rating, number of reviews and online movie viewership.

The research findings of this study offer valuable insights for online film producers to effectively leverage quality signals and pricing, thereby capturing market attention and enhancing film profitability.

This study aims to examine the effect of financial inclusion (FI) and financial openness (FO) on the development of capital markets in Africa.

The study uses data from 34 countries over 18 years (2004–2021) and adopts the panel autoregressive distributed lag and pooled mean group approach, with economic growth, trade openness, government expenditure and institutional quality as control variables.

The analysis reveals that both FI and FO contribute to the long-term development of capital markets across all income levels within the sampled countries. The interaction between FI and FO enhances capital market development (CMD) over the long run. This finding indicates that FO particularly enhances the development of capital markets in economies with comparatively lower levels of FI.

The findings of this research underscore the importance for policymakers and professionals to adopt guidelines and regulations that promote FI and openness. Such measures can bolster the development of strong financial systems by improving access to the formal financial sector, and by contributing to the growth of capital markets.

The study is robust to the use of a multidimensional financial and CMD index. It is one of the pioneering studies that explore the relationship between FI and FO, and how this interaction influences CMD.