Factors affecting consumers' responses to mobile advertising from a social norm theoretical perspective

As mobile technology continues to diffuse, the numbers of mobile subscribers continue to grow. With a high penetration of mobile subscribers in the United States, the mobile phone and network is promptly becoming a feasible marketing channel as mobile phones facilitate the exposure to advertisements deliver through a variety of mobile technologies. The purpose of this study was to examine whether misperceptions of social norms of mobile advertising play any role in predicting consumers' responses to mobile advertising. The study used a questionnaire survey method to measure mobile users' attitudes, perceived usefulness (PU), perceived-ease-of-use (PEOU), and adoption intention of mobile advertising. A total of 343 college students from a large southwestern public university were recruited to participate in this study. The study demonstrated that misperceptions of social norms predicted consumers' perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) of mobile advertising. Both PU and PEOU are critical variables predicting consumers' adoption of technologies. The study also found that PU predicted attitude towards mobile advertising, whereas PEOU did not predict attitude towards mobile advertising. Lastly attitude towards mobile advertising significantly predicted the intention to adopt mobile advertising.

[1]  S. Godin Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers , 1999 .

[2]  L. Ross,et al.  The “false consensus effect”: An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes , 1977 .

[3]  Fred D. Davis Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology , 1989, MIS Q..

[4]  Ting-Peng Liang,et al.  Consumer Attitudes Toward Mobile Advertising: An Empirical Study , 2004, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[5]  Alan D. Berkowitz,et al.  Fostering Healthy Norms to Prevent Violence and Abuse: The Social Norms Approach , 2010 .

[6]  Mohamed Khalifa,et al.  Adoption of Mobile Commerce: Role of Exposure , 2002, HICSS.

[7]  I. Ajzen,et al.  Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research , 1977 .

[8]  Deborah A. Prentice,et al.  Pluralistic Ignorance and the Perpetuation of Social Norms by Unwitting Actors , 1996 .

[9]  Fred D. Davis,et al.  User Acceptance of Computer Technology: A Comparison of Two Theoretical Models , 1989 .

[10]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  The Role of Attitude toward the Ad as a Mediator of Advertising Effectiveness: A Test of Competing Explanations: , 1986 .

[11]  Shintaro Okazaki,et al.  Mobile advertising adoption by multinationals: Senior executives' initial responses , 2005, Internet Res..

[12]  H. Perkins,et al.  Perceiving the community norms of alcohol use among students: some research implications for campus alcohol education programming. , 1986, The International journal of the addictions.

[13]  Chu‐Mei Liu,et al.  The effects of promotional activities on brand decision in the cellular telephone industry , 2002 .

[14]  Jari Salo,et al.  Retailer Use of Permission-Based Mobile Advertising , 2005 .

[15]  J. Suls,et al.  In search of the false-uniqueness phenomenon: fear and estimates of social consensus. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  Franklin J. Boster,et al.  Subjective, Descriptive and Injunctive Norms: Three Separate Constructs , 2006 .

[17]  R. E. Burnkrant,et al.  Informational and Normative Social Influence in Buyer Behavior , 1975 .

[18]  A. Mehta Advertising Attitudes and Advertising Effectiveness , 2000, Journal of Advertising Research.

[19]  John C. Mowen,et al.  The separateness‐connectedness self‐schema: Scale development and application to message construction , 1997 .

[20]  Amy Carroll,et al.  Consumer perceptions and attitudes towards SMS advertising: recent evidence from New Zealand , 2007 .

[21]  Fred D. Davis,et al.  A Theoretical Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model: Four Longitudinal Field Studies , 2000, Management Science.

[22]  Jen-Her Wu,et al.  What drives mobile commerce?: An empirical evaluation of the revised technology acceptance model , 2005, Inf. Manag..

[23]  Patrick Barwise,et al.  Permission-based mobile advertising , 2002 .

[24]  Stuart J. Barnes,et al.  Mobile marketing: the role of permission and acceptance , 2004, Int. J. Mob. Commun..

[25]  Kevin Real,et al.  Moving Toward a Theory of Normative Influences: How Perceived Benefits and Similarity Moderate the Impact of Descriptive Norms on Behaviors , 2005, Journal of health communication.

[26]  Earl R. Babbie,et al.  Survey Research Methods , 1984 .

[27]  Stephen G. Sapp,et al.  SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED SUBJECTIVE NORMS AND SUBJECTIVE NORM-BEHAVIOR CONSISTENCY , 1994 .

[28]  J. Mowen,et al.  Consumer Behavior: A Framework , 2000 .

[29]  S. Chaiken,et al.  The psychology of attitudes. , 1993 .

[30]  KENNETH C.C. YANG Exploring Factors Affecting Consumer Intention to Use Mobile Advertising in Taiwan , 2007 .

[31]  Rajiv N. Rimal,et al.  An Explication of Social Norms , 2005 .