Modeling online advertising: A cross-cultural comparison between China and Romania

Culture and advertising are intrinsically linked. Recent years have witnessed growing interest in examining the mechanism and influence of online advertising. However, the foci of most studies have been on the USA or other developed countries. Little is known about online advertising in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate consumers' beliefs and attitudes toward online advertising (ATOA) across different cultures such as China and Romania. Among the major findings, (1) all five belief factors (i.e. information seeking, entertainment, economy, credibility, and value corruption) were statistically significant predictors of ATOA, (2) ATOA was a statistically significant predictor of both online ad clicking and frequency of online shopping, and (3) as compared to the Chinese, Romanians tended to hold a more positive attitude toward online advertising and were more likely to click advertisements, whereas Chinese were more likely to buy online than Romanians.