Signals and Willingness to Purchase in Services

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to employ a signaling framework to investigate the role of marketing signals in customers’ willingness to purchase (WIP) a service brand. Based on a sample of 297 online shopping customers in Ho Chi Minh City, the findings produced by structural equation modeling show that brand investment together with signal credibility positively affects WTP. Signal clarity and consistency have a positive impact on signal credibility; signal consistency underlies signal clarity. Finally, brand investment plays it role in all three signal characteristics – clarity, consistency and credibility. The findings confirm the net effects of brand investment and signal characteristics on WTP. The results from necessary condition analysis demonstrate that brand investment and signal credibility have varying levels of necessity for the occurrence of WTP. Signal clarity, consistency and brand investment also exhibit different levels of necessity for the occurrence of signal credibility. The study findings offer a number of implications for theory, research and practice.