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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 examine the effects of oil price uncertainty on corporate investment of Islamic stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study uses a panel data set that covers 398 listed Islamic stocks from seven major Asia Pacific countries over the period of five years from 2017 to 2021, yielding 1,990 observations. Specifically, this paper investigates the said association by combining the real options theory regarding investment and the panel data-based econometric method that captures the dynamic relationship, the generalized method of moments estimators.

The findings show that the relationship between the oil price volatility and corporate investment of Islamic stocks is significant and nonlinear in nature, suggesting the presence of both the growth options and the waiting options. Overall, the results reveal that corporate investment of Islamic stocks is hindered during the unprecedented corona crash, when oil price increases at exponential rates.

The findings suggest that considering the information caused by unprecedented events like the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial for investment decisions of Islamic stocks. Therefore, policymakers and regulators should incorporate the impact of oil price uncertainties caused by unprecedented events like the COVID-19 pandemic on firm’s investment expansion and diversification strategies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to examine the relationship between the investment of Islamic stocks and the oil price uncertainty under compound options theory in top Asian oil-importing countries.

This study is based on the enforcement record from Canada’s natural mutual fund regulator. This record documented a small subset of mutual fund dealers who had been disciplined for their misconduct from 2007 to 2014. The purpose of this paper is to determine what factors contribute to mutual fund dealers’ time to first financial fraud offense. The longer the time to fraud, the healthier the mutual fund industry and the better a mutual fund dealer’s career.

Based on the belief that adversity reveals true character, the study approaches a mutual dealer’s career success from human capital, socio-demographic and organizational sponsorship points of view by measuring dealers’ success as their time from career beginning to first instance of financial fraud. Ordinary least square regression analysis was used to identify if those factors, including provision of supervisor reminders, gender, position and penalties, are related to career success within the Canadian mutual fund regulatory framework. The research is based on a small sample of mutual fund dealers who had been disciplined for their misconduct from 2007 to 2014.

The study finds that a supervisor’s reminders positively contribute to the career success of a mutual fund dealer in the form of extending their time to fraud. As well, being female is an adverse factor to career success even when both female and male dealers received about the same level of supervisor reminders. It also finds that being in a management position has no association with time to fraud.

The study establishes the statistically significant positive relationship between time to fraud and supervisor’s reminders for mutual fund dealers. At the same time, it shows that human capital and access to organizational resources, measured by being in a management position, have no significant relation to when fraud is committed. This result indicates the value of continuing education for all mutual fund dealers, both inexperienced and experienced.

Purpose of this study is to explore the nature of relationship between internationalization of firms, sustainability of their supply chains, and the extent of their green innovations. Understanding of the relationship between these constructs is important because of the ever increasing sustainability awareness of consumers in the leading economies of the world. This awareness is now compelling importers of goods from cheap-labor countries to ensure that their suppliers comply with sustainability regulations. This compliance becomes very challenging because of the lack of control on second-tier and third-tier suppliers in a supply chain. First-tier suppliers in this case may drive this effort but need to be motivated enough to do so. In case of environmental sustainability, green innovation (GI) may provide a gradual, and thus more affordable and practical, move toward more eco-friendly ways. As far as the motivation to commit to sustainability and GI is concerned, internationalization and export business expansion may act as one of the most effective motivators for these suppliers. However, the nature of relationship between these three constructs, i.e. internationalization of firms, sustainability of their supply chains and the extent of their GI requires a better understanding.

The work uses a novel data set collected from 146 medium and large textile firms operating in Pakistan. The partial least square-structural equation modeling approach is used for data analysis.

All three constructs of internationalization, GI and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) are significantly associated and thus complement each other.

This work uses a novel agency theory perspective to analyze the relationship between internationalization, GI and SSCM. In that sense, the findings indicate that internationalization could be one of the incentives that can be used by the principals to deal with agents’ goal conflict and information asymmetry.

Psychological and entrepreneurial traits have been widely studied as explicative variables of encouraging entrepreneurial behavior, while their impact on innovative activity is less explored. This study examines whether, how and why psycho-entrepreneurial traits and social networks effect innovativeness among women firm owners.

Analysis of data collected from 304 Saudi women entrepreneurs accompanied by business accelerators provides a wide support with some notable exceptions. We use Structural Equation Modeling technique to estimate how different constructs interact with each other and jointly affect directly or indirectly women's innovativeness behavior in Saudi Arabia.

Findings point out that innovativeness is positively and significantly affected by emotional intelligence, internal locus of control, entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The construct of entrepreneurial self-efficacy mediates the relationship between both business and personal networks and innovativeness. However, professional forums and mentors have no significant effect on innovativeness.

The sample selection is limited to two entrepreneurial support structures especially business accelerator and business incubator. Expanding the context to other support structures can reinforce the implications and provide more valuable results.

The findings are likely to be of applicability for improving women entrepreneurship by entrepreneurial support structures.

This research is original in the sense that it investigated useful insights of innovativeness among Saudi female entrepreneurs.

This study aims to investigate the effect of the Diamond Justice model on self-efficiency with the mediating role of job stress among the staff of Qazvin hospitals affiliated with Qazvin University of Medical Sciences. This study is a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study conducted among the staff of Qazvin hospitals affiliated with Qazvin University of Medical Sciences in 2020.

Sampling was performed using the structural equation method. Data collection tools included three sections: demographic information, justice and self-efficiency questionnaire and job stress questionnaire. Data were finally analyzed using SPSS software version 26 and AMOS version 23 at a significance level of 0.05.

The structural equation model’s standard estimation coefficients show that all existing paths are at a significant level. Finally, the regression analysis showed that justice is inversely related to stress level (ß = −0.185, p = 0.015). Justice is directly related with self-efficiency (ß = 0.282, p < 0.001).

Justice, stress and self-efficacy have been measured in various studies among health workers. However, a fitting model showing these three variables’ interaction was necessary. Therefore, this study tries to conceptualize the multifaceted relationships of the components of these concepts by presenting a model.

Researchers have widely explored and associated corporate social responsibility with firm success. Measuring the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR), service quality, corporate reputation, and brand preference by drawing on the stakeholder theory in healthcare industry and developing countries remains a substantial research gap.

Based on quantitative research and convenience sampling, data for the study were collected from 320 patients who have undergone treatments in 5 different private hospitals in Tehran, Iran. We analyzed the data using the Smart PLS 3.0 structural equation modeling technique.

The survey revealed that service quality and CSR are positively linked with corporate reputation, leading to brand preference in the healthcare sector. In addition, the mediating role of brand reputation in the relationship between corporate social responsibility, service quality and brand preference were confirmed.

The survey was performed in the context of the healthcare industry; however, additional studies are necessary to extrapolate the results to other fields, such as education and food. This research helps guide policymakers, administrators, healthcare managers, and researchers by highlighting the contribution and role of service quality, corporate social responsibility, and corporate reputation in achieving a hospital’s performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study also extends research in the diverse literature by examining the relationship between CSR, service quality, corporate reputation, and brand preference by illustrating the stakeholder theory in the context of the healthcare sector.

The purpose of this study is to test the relationship between mall relevance dimensions [(functional relevance (FNR), symbolic relevance (SYR), social relevance (SOR) and environmental relevance (ENR)] and shoppers' well-being (SWB), which in turn influences mall loyalty (ML). In addition, this study aims to investigate the moderating effect of social media celebrities (SMCs) on the association between SWB and ML.

A mall intercept survey was used to collect responses from mall shoppers. The authors received 426 valid responses from mall shoppers in Pakistan's three metropolitan cities (i.e. Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad). To test the hypotheses, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used.

Findings reveal that FNR, SYR, ENR and SOR significantly and positively influence SWB. Similarly, SWB significantly affects ML. Moreover, SMCs moderate the positive relationship between SWB and ML.

This study is one of the pioneer studies examining mall relevance dimensions on SWB. In addition, this study contributes to the retailing literature by testing the moderation effect of SMCs on the relationship between SWB and ML. Likewise, this study provides insights for mall administration to focus on mall relevance in terms of FNR, SYR, ENR and SOR to enhance the current and prospects' SWB. Next, SMCs play a key role in enhancing SWB and ML.

This study aims to integrate and extend leading contemporary underpinning frameworks such as the Stimulus Organism Response (S-O-R) model, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to assess the determinants of M-commerce usage during COVID-19 times. Besides direct effects, the study examines the mediating role of behavioral intention in affecting the relationship between a few external stimuli, internal states (of the organism) and M-commerce usage (the response). The study has also examined the moderating role of habitual behavior in the relationship between behavioral intention and M-commerce usage.

Data were gathered from 312 customers through an online survey using a structured questionnaire. PLS-based SEM, using Smart PLS 4.0, was employed to calibrate the measurement and structural models.

The study found that stimuli like social influence, perceived ease of use and perceived value substantially affected M-commerce usage. Behavioral intention has been found to mediate these cause-and-effect relationships partially or fully among the subject constructs. Additionally, a significant negative but weak moderating impact of habit (or habitual behavior) on the relationship between behavioral intentions and M-commerce usage has been corroborated.

Several studies have investigated the factors influencing the adoption and continued usage of M-commerce services while appealing to diverse theoretical frameworks. However, more research has yet to be expended to arrive at an integrated explanation grounded in these theoretical frameworks to examine the dynamics of M-commerce usage in tempestuous times like the COVID-19 outbreak. The most significant (counterintuitive) findings have been suppressing the effects of otherwise crucial elements like perceived security and habit in prompting M-commerce usage in the face of the socio-psychological pressures stemming from COVID-19 restrictions and consumers' lack of digital readiness. The study's outcomes offer several theoretical and practical implications for researchers, managers, practitioners, businesses and policymakers to develop effective strategies to mature M-commerce usage among the masses, especially during unusual times like COVID-19.

Cataract, or lens opacification, is a major public health burden accounting for more than half of all blindness worldwide. Plant-based dietary indices provide a unique approach to investigating a modifiable risk for age-related cataracts (ARC). The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between plant-based diet indices and risk of ARC.

This case-control study was conducted on 97 patients with newly diagnosed ARC and 198 healthy people (as a control group) in Iran. Convenience sampling and a food frequency questionnaire were used. Three plant-based dietary indices were used based on the health promoting qualities of food items, the overall plant-based diet index (PDI), healthful plant-based diet index (H-PDI) and unhealthful plant-based diet index (U-PDI) which comprised refined carbohydrates and highly processed foods. The plant-based dietary indices were used to investigate relationships with risk of ARC.

After adjusting for potential covariates, no significant association between a higher adherence to O-PDI and risk of ARC. As well, a higher adherence to H-PDI was inversely associated with the risk of ARC (OR = 0.35,95%CI:0.16–0.78). In contrast, there was a significant positive association between a higher adherence to U-PDI and the risk of ARC (OR = 3.67,95%CI:1.66 – 8.15).

The findings of this study have underscored the potential impact of the quality of plant-based food selections on the likelihood of developing ARC. Therefore, adopting a plant-based diet that is rich in nutrient-dense plant-based foods while being low in unhealthy options may have the potential to reduce the risk of ARC.