Getting too personal: Reactance to highly personalized email solicitations

Research on the effects of personalized messages on consumers’ behavioral responses has yielded mixed findings. We explore how e-mail personalization influences click-through intentions. Our results suggest that consumers experience personalization reactance in response to highly personalized messages when the fit between the offer in the message and consumers’ personal characteristics is not explicitly justified by firms. Consequently, consumers are less willing to respond favorably to the offer. Results of two studies suggest that this effect primarily emerges for consumers who perceive the utility of the service to be relatively low. For those consumers with higher perceived utility, justification of personalization is less important because highly personalized messages are less likely to elicit reactance.     

How the level of personalization affects the effectiveness of personalized ad messages: the moderating role of narcissism

Abstract

In this study, we examined the effects of two different levels of personalization strategies (individual-level vs. group-level) on consumers’ visual and attitudinal responses to personalized advertising. We further investigated the moderating role of recipients’ narcissism in the effect of personalization. Results show that individuals higher in narcissism paid greater and more frequent attention to ads personalized on an individual level than to those personalized on a group level, while individuals low in narcissism showed no such differences. Regarding attitudinal response, consumers with a high level of narcissism tended to have a more favourable attitude towards the individual-level personalized ad compared to those with a low level of narcissism, while consumers with a low level of narcissism tended to have a more favourable attitude towards the group-level personalized ad compared to those with a high level of narcissism. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Targeting online display ads: Choosing their frequency and spacing

With real-time bidding, advertisers can decide how often (ad frequency) and in what time interval (ad recency) to show an ad to a specific user. Ads shown often and in quick succession might increase brand and ad recognition on the one hand but might annoy users on the other hand. These recognition and annoyance effects, in turn, can have opposing consequences for click-through rates (CTRs). Guided by theory and previous studies, we examine how the frequency (high vs. low) and the recency (small vs. large time intervals) of ad impressions relates to a banner's CTR and whether this is moderated by the campaign type (diverse or not), the brand's advertising expenditure (high vs. low), and the type of industry (selling durable vs. non-durable goods). To do so, we use a large data set containing information on 5.8?bn ad impressions and 1.8?m clicks delivered for 158 different advertisers from 25 industries. We show that higher ad frequency and higher ad recency relate to a lower CTRs, especially when having a less diverse campaign, for brands which are spending more on advertising, and, to some extent, for firms selling durables.     

How does ad relevance affect consumers' attitudes toward personalized advertisements and social media platforms? The role of information co-ownership,vulnerability, and privacy cynicism

Consumers' responses to the use of their personal data for personalized advertising by platform providers are paradoxical. Drawing from psychological ownership theory and the collective information boundary, this study examines how the social relevance and personal relevance of ads impact consumers' attitudes toward advertisements and social media platforms. Basing on 350 responses, we confirm that perceptions of information co-ownership and feelings of vulnerability play a serial mediating role in the positive relationship between ad relevance and consumer attitudes. Specifically, ad relevance increases consumers' perceptions of social media platforms as co-owners of their personal information, which in turn reduces feelings of vulnerability and improves their attitudes toward personalized advertisements and social media platforms. Privacy cynicism negatively moderates the indirect effects of information co-ownership perceptions on two attitude variables mediated through feelings of vulnerability. Our research findings provide a new perspective on the personalization–privacy paradox and offer platform providers new insights into improving their personalized advertising performance and user–platform relationships.     

Paid search: The innovation that changed the Web

Search engines are key to the operation of the World Wide Web. This centrality, however, presents challenges: search engine providers face the problem of revenue generation when users expect free content, while advertisers need to attract the interest of searchers. The innovation that effectively addresses these challenges is the use of text advertisements based upon search topic, known as paid search. The method entails advertisers competing for top listing position through bidding in ongoing auctions and then paying when users click on their advertisements, making paid search a flexible and accountable form of advertising. Since its introduction in 1998, paid search has become the dominant form of online advertising and led to Google's $140 billion market capitalization in 2006. This article analyzes the emergence of paid search and the mechanics of its operation, and offers managers guidance on its effective usage.     

How Task-Facilitative Interactive Tools Foster Buyers’ Trust in Online Retailers: A Process View of Trust Development in the Electronic Marketplace

While there is a sustained interest in research focusing on issues relating to trust development in the electronic marketplace, significant gaps remain in the literature. In particular, little is known of the underlying processes that may be occurring in online trust development. For example, research suggests that factors such as site design and navigability are among the factors that impact trust perceptions. Extant literature, however, is largely silent about why certain trust-related effects are observed in online environments. In this paper, we propose a new process-centric perspective for understanding the formation of online trust—through buyer's assessment of the e-retailer's assistive intent, implicitly embedded in task-facilitative interactive tools. Specifically, we develop and test a model delineating the relationship between seller's provision of interactive product information management and product information comprehension tools, buyer's perceptions of seller's assistive intent, and buyer's initial trust in the seller. The results of two studies provide support for the trust-enhancing effects of task-facilitative informational tools and the mediating role of buyer's perceptions of seller's assistive intent. Importantly, these effects occur without any explicit expressions of seller's intentions. The results also suggest that the efficacy of interactive informational tools in engendering perceptions of seller's assistive intent, and hence trust, varies with the buyer's level of involvement with and knowledge of the product category.     

Collective-based ad transparency in targeted hotel advertising: Consumers’ regulatory focus underlying the crowd safety effect

Facing transparency requirement of ad generation process, digital marketers need to design proper transparency messages to preempt consumer backlash. Based on crowd psychology literature and the regulatory focus theory, we proposed and tested the crowd safety effect of the collective-based (vs. individual-based) ad transparency strategy with two experimental studies in the context of online hotel booking. Results of two studies consistently demonstrate the crowd safety effect of the collective-based transparency on enhancing hotel booking intention and ad click-through willingness. Furthermore, we found that consumers’ trust toward the ad, rather than privacy concern, mediates this positive effect. These findings help us better understand how social dimensions in ad transparency messages shape consumer responses, as well as the role of consumer trust in promoting targeted ad effectiveness through promotion focused behaviors.     

Do ethics drive value co-creation on digital sharing economy platforms?

PurposeSharing economy is surging and so are the consumers’ ethical concerns regarding such platforms. The current study examines the antecedents of consumers’ intention to co-create value that include consumers’ ethical perceptions constructs (i.e. privacy, security, fulfillment/reliability, shared value, service recover, and non-deception) and relationship quality constructs (trust, satisfaction, commitment), focusing on the digital sharing economy platforms.MethodologySurvey method was applied to gather data from n=348 consumers at digital sharing economy platforms. Structural equation modelling technique through Amos version 24. was employed in order to further analyze the data.FindingsResults reveal that consumers’ ethical perceptions as a second order construct comprising of privacy, security, fulfillment/reliability, service recovery, and shared value does not influence consumers’ intention to co-create value. However, relationship quality as a second order construct including commitment trust and satisfaction influences consumers’ intention to co-create value. Furthermore, relationship quality serves as strong full mediator between consumers’ ethical perceptions and their intention to co-create value.OriginalityThe studies on drawing relationships between value co-creation and relationship quality constructs have been popular yet to the authors’ surprise; seldom any studies have been conducted in examining the role of ethical perceptions in the settings of digital sharing economy platforms. Therefore, the current study closes this gap.     

I’ll Be Watching You: Shoppers’ Reactions to Perceptions of Being Watched by Employees

This research fills a gap in the retailing literature regarding the impact of shoppers’ perceptions of being watched while shopping for embarrassing products. Four studies consistently show that an employee watching a shopper can cause the shopper to either permanently or temporarily leave the shopping area as purchase intentions decrease. Reactance theory explains this relationship, which is mediated by consumers’ feelings of control over their own privacy. Essentially, when shoppers believe an employee is watching them, they feel less in control of their privacy, resulting in negative consequences for the retailer. This relationship is especially important for products that consumers may already feel some level of embarrassment over purchasing in the first place. The results have important theoretical implications for reactance theory by demonstrating that a consumer can regain control even when the original threat to behavior still exists. Additionally, increasing options that allow a consumer to regain control will reduce the overall reactance to the threat to privacy and will improve retailer outcomes. Practitioner recommendations present several techniques that allow the consumer to regain privacy control in spite of the sometimes necessary practice of watching in-store consumers.     

More than meets the eye: The functional components underlying influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is the practice of compensating individuals for posting about a product or service on social media. Influencer marketing is on the rise, and many marketers now plan either to start using influencers or to increase their use of them in their media mixes. Despite such growth, relatively little strategic or academic insight exists that is specific to influencers. In this article, we describe the roots of influencer marketing and the many different types of influencers that now exist. We identify influencers’ three functional components: the audience, the endorser, and the social media manager. We then detail for each of these components the different sources of value influencers potentially offer marketers. We draw on relevant academic research to offer advice about how to leverage each component strategically. We close by describing how the interplay of these functional components makes influencers a potentially powerful—and undervalued—marketing tool.     

Employer branding and CSR communication in online recruitment advertising

While multiple studies have discussed the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in recruiting, two important but unaddressed questions constrain the understanding and practice of presenting firms’ socially conscious efforts to their prospective employees. First, are companies engaged in CSR communicating their CSR practices effectively in online recruitment advertising? And second, what CSR information should companies include in online job advertisements to improve their employer attractiveness to prospective candidates? The findings of this study show that CSR communication in recruitment advertising is often limited, an ad-hoc practice, and mostly focused on company practices concerning employee participation and development. Even companies with a great CSR reputation take surprisingly little advantage of their CSR image when it comes to attracting job candidates. To improve employer attractiveness, we recommend that human resources managers consider (1) optimizing the structure of online job advertisements by including a company overview section in which CSR information can be presented easily, (2) expanding the scope of CSR dimensions in job advertisements to include environmental performance and community relations, (3) offering information about opportunities for employee engagement with CSR, and (4) adopting a strategic approach to the inclusion of CSR content in online job advertisements.