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This research reviews numerous studies of the relationship between consumer knowledge and external search in conventional marketing channels to investigate differences among these studies that have produced conflicting results. The findings provide a benchmark for future researchers and practitioners seeking to gain insight into consumer information search processes unfolding in the new environment of online, mobile, and social networking channels.

A meta-analysis of an extensive array of empirical studies of the relationship between consumer knowledge and external information search was conducted. Regression analysis was used to test whether certain characteristics in the studies can explain variability in the effect sizes in which effect sizes are entered as dependent variables and moderators as independent variables.

Objective and subjective knowledge tend to increase search, while direct experience tends to reduce search. Consumers with higher objective knowledge search more when pursuing credence products. However, they search relatively less when pursuing search products. Consumers with higher subjective knowledge are much more likely to search in the context of experience products, but as is the case for objective knowledge having little effect on search for experience products, subjective knowledge has no significant effect on information seeking for search products. In addition, objective knowledge facilitates more information search in a complex decision-making context while higher subjective knowledge fosters more external information search in a simple decision-marketing context. Finally, the findings indicate that the knowledge search relationship reflects strong linkage in the pre-Internet era.

Relatively little is known about how the relationship between knowledge and information search varies across different types of products in simple or complex decision-making contexts. This study begins to fill this gap by providing insight into the relative importance of objective knowledge, subjective knowledge, and direct experience in influencing consumer information search activities for search, experience, and credence products in simple or complex decision-making contexts.

Purpose – Although some literature exists on how consumers may interpret firm-generated signals about the unobservable quality of their product, there has been little effort to examine whether and how managers deploy signals about unobservable quality to compete.Design/methodology/approach – In this chapter, we address this issue by examining whether managers consciously use signals to compete with other firms, and how they choose between the vast number of signals available to them. We develop a formal model that allows us to generate a set of predictions drawn from information economics and behavioral decision theory. The predictions specify a pattern of managerial behavior according to which signals belonging to some categories are relatively attractive (for economic as well as psychological reasons).Findings – We report on the results of a series of three experiments in which executives are given the opportunity to deploy signals to communicate unobservable quality to skeptical consumers in a competitive market.Value/originality – The results of the studies provide compelling evidence in support of the formal argument.

Buyers assessing bids from suppliers of experience services face both an adverse selection and a potential moral hazard problem. The purpose of this study is to examine the relative importance of various signals of supplier reputation conveying information about unobserved supplier quality, which is important for identifying the best tender; and whether price is contingent on supplier reputation and on buyer's quality sensitiveness in a competitive bidding situation.

This study builds on a conjoint experiment where 19 contractors consider alternative scenarios representing tenders from subcontractors of plumbing services. In the scenarios the subcontractors differ on their reputation and price variables, while the contractors differ in their quality sensitiveness. Multiple regressions analyzes the contingent price effects.

Although low price is generally important for subcontractor selection, quality-sensitive buyers are willing to pay subcontractors a price premium to prevent quality debasement. On the other hand, despite the combined significance of supplier reputation on choice, buyers are not willing to pay price premiums to suppliers with a quality reputation.

Conjoint studies produce multiple cases but the underlying sample is limited. Therefore, this study should be regarded as preliminary and a basis for further validation on larger samples.

In competitive bidding situations, suppliers with strong quality reputations may benefit most by low price offers. Thus, suppliers with a strong reputation should achieve profitability through a volume premium rather than a price premium effect. Suppliers opting for price premiums should target the quality sensitive segment of the market.

In contrast to previous findings in B2B brand equity studies, but in line with findings in information economics, this study suggests that suppliers with a reputation for quality will not receive price premiums. The results indicate that in bidding contexts in B2B markets, the reputation variables may enhance rather than reduce buyers' price sensitivity, because supplier reputation increases low price credibility.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of thermal radiation interaction with Hall current, buoyancy force, and oscillatory surface temperature on hydromagnetic-mixed convective heat exchange stream of an electrically conducting nanofluid past a moving permeable plate in a porous medium within a rotating system.

Analytical closed-form solutions are obtained for both the momentum and the energy equations using the perturbation method.

The effects of various important parameters on velocity and temperature fields within the boundary layer are discussed for three different water-based nanofluids containing copper (Cu), aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃), and titanium dioxide (TiO₂) as nanoparticles. Local skin friction and Nusselt number are illustrated graphically and discussed quantitatively. The results show that Hall current significantly affects the flow system. Results for some special cases of the present analysis are in good agreement with the existing literature.

The problem is relatively original to study the hydromagnetic-oscillatory flow of a nanofluid with Hall effect and thermal radiation past a vertical plate in a rotating porous medium.

In online exchange platforms' sponsored search advertising, the array of product quality signals within a keyword search results list plays a crucial role in shaping buyers' purchasing decisions. This research seeks to explore the impact of various quality signals – namely, ranking position, seller reputation and product price – on ad clicks. Additionally, it examines the role of keyword attributes, such as specificity and popularity, in modulating the effects of these quality signals on advertising clicks.

A total of 5,763 effective data points were collected from a leading B2B electronic platform company, and we employed negative binomial regression with Heckman correction methods to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that in online exchange platforms, search ad clicks are significantly and positively affected by displayed signals such as ranking position, seller reputation and product price information. Notably, a U-shaped relationship emerges between product price and ad clicks. Furthermore, keyword specificity and popularity distinctly moderate the impact of these displayed signals on ad clicks within online exchange platforms.

This paper addresses the gap in existing research on search advertising by methodically analyzing the impact of various signals displayed in search results and how keyword attributes moderate ad clicks, all through a signaling theory lens.

The purpose of this paper is to extend an analysis presented in earlier work which investigated the dynamical behavior of a network of oscillatory units described by the amplitude of and phase of oscillations, and to present an objective function that can be successfully applied to multi‐layer networks.

In this paper, an objective function is presented that can be successfully applied to multi‐layer networks. The behavior of the objective function is explained through its ability to achieve a sparse representation of the inputs in complex‐valued space.

It is found that if the activity of each network unit is represented by a phasor in the complex plane, then sparsity is achieved when there is maximal phase separation in the complex plane. Increasing the spread of feedback connections is shown to improve segmentation performance significantly but does not affect separation performance. This enables a quantitative approach to characterizing and understanding cortical function.

The formulation of the multi‐layer objective function and the interpretation of its behavior through sparsity in complex space are novel contributions of this paper.

High-growth firms (HGFs) make a considerable contribution to economic growth, and in recent years they have received increasing interest from entrepreneurship scholars. By analysing recent findings in the literature of high-growth firms, this study identifies some Stylized Facts, as well as contradictory findings, and also some unknowns regarding the determinants and internal strategies of HGFs, particularly on the persistence of their superior growth performance and the implications of recent findings for economic policy.

The peristaltic motion for Carreau fluid by means of an infinite train of sinusoidal waves traveling along the walls of a circular cylindrical flexible tube is investigated. The fluid is subjected to a constant transverse magnetic field. A perturbation solution is obtained for the case in which Weissenberg number is small. The effects of Hartmann number, Weissenberg number, power‐law index and amplitude ratio on the pressure rise and the friction force are discussed. The trapping limit and the trapping occurrence region at the centerline decrease by increasing Hartmann number but they are independent approximately of Weissenberg number and power‐law index.

Innovation is regarded as a crucial determinant of growth and development in South Africa, and small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) have been earmarked as instruments for the achievement of the socio-economic goals and innovation as set out in the National Development Plan. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of innovation on SMME performance in South Africa.

The empirical analysis was conducted using the quantile regression technique to examine the effect of innovation on the performance of firms at different sales levels. Data from the World Bank's enterprise survey was used for the analysis.

The results of the empirical analysis showed that R & D expenditures have a positive and significant effect on performance for firms with higher sales (high growth or larger firms). There is evidence that the introduction of new products/services promotes performance for low growth/ smaller firms.

The empirical results imply that innovation is crucial for SMMEs’ development and growth. However, smaller/low growth firms are not able to spend on R & D due to a lack of funds which could be the reason for their low survival rate. More support needs to be provided to smaller firms with lower sales growth, given the large financial outlay required for R & D expenditures. Despite the lack of funding for R & D expenditure, smaller firms are encouraged to introduce new products and methods of production that do not require major financial outlays.

There is scant empirical evidence on the impact of innovation on firm performance in South Africa. Most studies investigate the challenges faced by SMMEs and the different types of innovation approaches used by firms. Furthermore, the study employs the quantile regression approach which highlights the effect of innovation on firms of different sizes.