A new exploration of signaling theory in social commerce facilitated cross-border retailing: A four-stage approach

This study offers a holistic interpretation of signaling theory by demonstrating a four-stage research rationale innovatively to unveil the mechanism of five signaling elements in resolving the information asymmetry in social commerce-facilitated cross-border e-commerce. Using different data sources and methods, stages 1 and 2 cross-validate the significance of the signaling elements that are deconstructed as second-order constructs and mirror the dual routes in the elaborated likelihood model. The artificial neural networking analysis in stage 4 reveals the importance ranks of the information factors in three consumer segments that are identified via unobserved heterogeneity analysis regarding the receiver's moderating role in stage 3.