An Approximation of Trade Show Exhibitors’ Behavioral Intentions in Fuzzy Environment

Abstract

The study has two objectives mainly to estimate exhibitors' satisfaction with selfperformance, the organizers, and visitors to a trade show, which determines the behavioral intentions of exhibitors, thus providing the organizers with feedback on the perceptions and behavioral intentions of exhibitors and to use the fuzzy Likert scale method to overcome the shortcomings of the Likert scale and enhance its use in the social sciences. The sample included 396 managers who had participated in international trade shows. Fuzzy logic was adopted using linguistic terms to evaluate the satisfaction and intentions of the exhibitors to construct the regression model. Variables relating to satisfaction with self-performance, the organizers, and visitors were found to have a positive effect on the behavioral intentions of the exhibitors. Using fuzzy logic, the discrete ordinal variable was transformed into a continuous variable and its semantic meaning was preserved.