Edited by: Monica Gomez-Suárez, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain
Reviewed by: Carmen Pacheco-Bernal, Open University of Catalonia, Spain; Gonzalo Moreno, Saint Louis University Madrid Campus, Spain
*Correspondence: Lin Hongyan
This article was submitted to Organizational Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
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Mobile shopping is increasing in prevalence and has become a necessary part of many people's daily lives. However, one main channel for mobile shopping, mobile shopping applications (apps), has not been thoroughly investigated. This study focused on mobile text advertising delivered from mobile shopping apps using the intention to purchase as the dependent variable for testing its marketing effect. In the context of a promotion focus vs. a prevention focus, we used Higgins' regulatory focus theory combined with Ajzen's TPB and Herzog's U&G to analyze the mechanism by which consumers formulate an intention to purchase in a mobile advertising context. This empirical study surveyed 320 consumers who had made a purchase using a mobile shopping app in the previous month. The results showed that infotainment, irritation, and subjective norms were significantly associated with attitudes; in turn, attitudes mediated the impact of these three factors on the intention to purchase. Moreover, a high promotion focus not only strengthened the positive effect of infotainment on attitudes but also intensified the mediation effect of attitudes between infotainment and the intention to purchase. A high prevention focus also consolidated the negative effect of irritation on attitudes as well as reinforced the mediation effect of attitudes between irritation and the intention to purchase. Furthermore, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control collectively impacted the intention to purchase. These findings shed light on ways to customize goods information in mobile advertising and have strong theoretical and practical implications.
With the rapid development of the mobile internet, consumers use smartphones not only for communication but also for other activities, such as surfing the web and participating in mobile business. Mobile shopping has become a natural extension of traditional online shopping, thereby achieving multi-scene synchronous shopping (Ngai and Gunasekaran,
Smartphones and other mobile devices have achieved a high degree of personalization and have become vital communication tools; most users constantly keep them nearby, even when they sleep (Bacile et al.,
Most research on mobile advertising used either the theory of reasoned action or the theory of acceptance model to examine the influence of a technique's characteristics, (e.g., its perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use), information characteristics, and perceived value on consumers' attitudes, adoption, or intention to use (Tsang et al.,
This research attempted to tackle this deficiency by applying regulatory focus theory (RFT), theory of planned behavior (TPB), and uses and gratifications theory (U&G) to investigate the purchase intention of consumers after they had received commercial mobile advertising. The subjects were people who had recently purchased products using a mobile shopping app. The research model is shown in Figure
Research Model. IF = infotainment, IR = irritation, PR = promotion focus, PRE = prevention focus, AT = attitudes, SN = subjective norms, PBC = perceived behavior control, ITP = intention to purchase the advertised product.
Different types of mobile advertising, such as video, multimedia, text advertisements, mobile display advertising, and short message service (SMS), are available. In general, the communication methods used in mobile advertising can be categorized into push and pull types (Park et al.,
The contributions of this research are primarily in two areas. First, this study employed RFT, TPB, and U&G to explore the formation of consumer purchase intention in mobile shopping apps. Secondly, it tested for moderated effects and moderated mediation effects in the mobile text advertising context.
U&G theory examines the psychological and behavioral utility produced by using mass communication and analyzes the use of motivating and need-satisfying information by audiences. Previous studies concluded that entertainment, informativeness, and irritation are vital dimensions of U&G (Ha et al.,
Entertainment and informativeness are interpenetrations in the new technologies (Wang and Sun,
Information is a valuable incentive in mobile marketing because recipients of information tend to respond positively to advertising (Aitken et al.,
Early research revealed that interesting and pleasurable advertising can actively influence attitude (Shimp,
In this study, we investigated the attitudes toward mobile text advertising (branded communication). This topic is worth exploring because mobile advertising is a new and effective form of media advertisement. According to the latest forecast by eMarketer (
Furthermore, users seem to feel that voluntarily downloaded apps are useful and valuable (Kang,
Based on the above, Hypothesis 1 was:
H1: Upon receiving a text advertisement from a previously voluntarily downloaded shopping app, consumers' attitudes toward mobile text advertising will be positively related to their perception of the infotainment level of this text advertisement.
Irritation in the context of advertising can be described as the way that such advertising annoys consumers (Liu et al.,
When mobile advertising first began, the negative impact of irritation on consumer attitudes was considered to be great. “When advertising employs techniques that annoy, offend, insult, or are overly manipulative, consumers are likely to perceive it as an unwanted and irritating influence” (Ducoffe,
H2: Upon receiving a text advertisement from a previously voluntarily downloaded shopping app, consumers' attitudes toward mobile text advertising will be negatively related to their perception of the irritation level of this text message.
Ajzen (
An individual's attitude tends to be a determinant of his/her behavioral intention (Ajzen and Fishbein,
H3: Upon receiving a text advertisement from a previously voluntarily downloaded shopping app, consumer attitudes toward mobile text advertising will have a positive influence on their intention to purchase.
H4: Upon receiving a text advertisement from a previously voluntarily downloaded shopping app, consumer's intention to purchase will be positively impacted by their perception of their degree of behavioral control.
H5: Upon receiving a text advertisement from a previously voluntarily downloaded shopping app, consumer's subjective norms will impact their intention to purchase.
H6: Upon receiving a text advertisement from a previously voluntarily downloaded shopping app, a consumer's subjective norms will predict their attitudes toward mobile text advertising.
RFT is a goal pursuit theory. It was articulated by Higgins et al. (
RFT has been widely used in the field of consumer behavior (Avnet and Higgins,
According to RFT, when the type of regulatory focus matches the implemented strategy, individuals evaluate that strategy highly and have positive attitudes (Wang and Lee,
H7a: Upon receiving a text advertisement from a previously voluntarily downloaded shopping app, a high promotion focus will strengthen the positive relationship between infotainment and attitudes toward mobile text advertising.
H7b: Upon receiving a text advertisement from a previously voluntarily downloaded shopping app, a high prevention focus will strengthen the negative relationship between irritation and attitudes toward mobile text advertising.
Consequently, promotion focus consumers will be inclined toward using promotion strategies to increase pleasure and attain their goals, whereas prevention focus consumers will tend to use protection strategies to avoid losses. In particular, the infotainment of mobile text advertising can be expected to allow the promotion focus consumers to form more positive attitudes and a greater intention to purchase, whereas irritation stemming from mobile text advertising will generate more negative attitudes and reduce the intention to purchase in prevention focused individuals. Thus, we assumed:
H8a: Upon receiving a text advertisement from a previously voluntarily downloaded shopping app, having a promotion focus will moderate the mediation effect of attitudes toward mobile text advertising between infotainment and the intention to purchase, such that, when the promotion focus is high, the mediation effect of attitude will be strong.
H8b: Upon receiving a text advertisement from a previously voluntarily downloaded shopping app, having a prevention focus will moderate the mediation effect of attitudes toward mobile text advertising between irritation and the intention to purchase, such that, when the prevention focus is high, the mediation effect of attitude will be strong.
One common form of current commercial activity—mobile shopping apps—was selected as the source of mobile advertising information. A survey that was aimed to measure their response was given to a group of consumers after they received a text advertisement. An electronic questionnaire was used for data collection. Each participant was chosen randomly if he or she had previously had a shopping experience with a famous Chinese mobile shopping app, Taobao, and had purchased products from the same app at least once in the previous month.
The investigated app was the Taobao app. Its usage percentage in China was 24.1% by the end of 2016 (CNNIC,
According to investigational results from one Chinese mobile data business service company, Questmobile, the Taobao app had up to 406 million subscribers by the first quarter of 2017 (QuestMobile,
The number of people who responded to the questionnaire was 431, but 81 did not meet the two requirements after answering the first two questions, so they were not permitted to continue with the survey. Thus, a total of 350 respondents finished our survey with 320 valid questionnaires (a response rate of 74%). 171 (53%) were female, and 149 (47%) were male. Most of the participants were young; 240 (75%) respondents were aged 22 to 35 years. In terms of educational attainment, 234 (73%) of the respondents had a bachelor's degree. Moreover, 243 (76%) respondents were employed. The characteristics of these investigated data are broadly consistent with the total population of Taobao app users, so we believe that our data is a representative sample.
All of the measurement items in this study were adopted from previous research. The promotion and prevention focus scales are from Higgins et al. (
Main variable measurement items, reliability and factor loadings.
Ducoffe, |
||||||
IFE1 | The mobile text advertising was entertaining. | 0.88 | ||||
IFE2 | The mobile text advertising was enjoyable. | 0.85 | ||||
IFE3 | The mobile text advertising was pleasing. | 0.87 | ||||
IFE4 | The mobile text advertising was a good source of up-to-date product information. | 0.85 | ||||
Tsang et al., |
||||||
IR1 | Mobile text advertising is everywhere. | 0.91 | ||||
IR2 | The mobile text advertising was annoying. | 0.94 | ||||
IR3 | The mobile text advertising was irritating. | 0.95 | ||||
Higgins et al., |
||||||
PRO1 | I feel I have often made progress toward being successful in my life. | 0.81 | ||||
PRO2 | I often try to reach the things in life in which I believe. | 0.81 | ||||
PRO3 | How often have you accomplished things that got you “psyched” to work even harder? | 0.80 | ||||
PRE1 | Growing up, did you ever “cross the line” by doing things your parents would not tolerate? | 0.94 | ||||
PRE2 | Did you get on your parents' nerves often when you were growing up? | 0.93 | ||||
PRE3 | Growing up, did you ever act in ways that your parents thought were objectionable? | 0.93 | ||||
Alwitt and Prabhaker, |
||||||
AT1 | Mobile text advertising helps raise our standard of living. | 0.91 | ||||
AT2 | Mobile text advertising helps me find products that match my personality and interests. | 0.88 | ||||
AT3 | Mobile text advertising helps me buy the best brand for a given price. | 0.87 | ||||
Taylor and Todd, |
||||||
SN1 | People who are important to me would think that I should use mobile online trading. | 0.92 | ||||
SN2 | People who influence me would think that I should use mobile online trading. | 0.92 | ||||
SN3 | People whose opinions are valuable to me would prefer that I use mobile online trading. | 0.89 | ||||
Taylor and Todd, |
||||||
PBC1 | I will be able to use mobile online trading well when trading. | 0.89 | ||||
PBC2 | Using mobile online trading is entirely within my control. | 0.88 | ||||
PBC3 | I have the resources, knowledge, and ability to use mobile online trading. | 0.90 | ||||
Hwang et al., |
||||||
ITP1 | I will be likely to purchase the advertised product. | 0.90 | ||||
ITP2 | I will purchase if it is necessary. | 0.89 | ||||
ITP3 | I will browse the online store to get what I want to buy. | 0.88 |
Related research previously showed that demographic variables (gender, age, education level, and job) are among the important factors influencing attitudes (Wolin and Korgaonkar,
All the items were measured using a five-point Likert scale. The measurement for regulatory focus was from never (1) to always (5), whereas the others were from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).
All of the factor loadings were highly significant (
CFAs were implemented to examine the discriminant validity of the key variables. First, an eight-factor CFA model (see Table
Results of the CFA for the measures of the studied variables.
382.33 | 247 | − | 0.97 | 0.94 | 0.04 | |
1174.35 | 254 | 792.02 |
0.78 | 0.81 | 0.11 | |
Infotainment and Irritation combined | ||||||
577.34 | 254 | 195.01 |
0.92 | 0.93 | 0.06 | |
Infotainment and Promotion Focus combined | ||||||
1128.93 | 254 | 746.6 |
0.79 | 0.82 | 0.10 | |
Infotainment and Prevention Focus combined | ||||||
944.31 | 254 | 561.98 |
0.83 | 0.86 | 0.09 | |
Infotainment and Subjective Norms combined | ||||||
856.73 | 254 | 474.4 |
0.85 | 0.88 | 0.09 | |
Infotainment and Perceived Behavioral Control combined | ||||||
826.95 | 254 | 444.62 |
0.86 | 0.88 | 0.08 | |
Infotainment and Attitudes toward Mobile Text Advertising combined | ||||||
876.27 | 254 | 493.94 |
0.85 | 0.87 | 0.09 | |
Infotainment and Intention to Purchase combined | ||||||
3251.18 | 275 | 2868.85 |
0.27 | 0.33 | 0.19 |
Interaction between infotainment and a promotion focus in predicting attitudes.
The means, SDs, and correlations of the main variables.
(1) Infotainment | 3.48 | 0.85 | (0.86) | |||||||
(2) Irritation | 2.94 | 1.19 | −0.13 |
(0.93) | ||||||
(3) Promotion Focus | 3.76 | 0.66 | 0.26 |
−0.07 | (0.81) | |||||
(4) Prevention Focus | 2.02 | 1.04 | −0.17 |
0.02 | −0.18 |
(0.93) | ||||
(5) Attitudes toward Mobile Text Advertising | 3.33 | 0.91 | 0.43 |
−0.31 |
0.33 |
−0.35 |
(0.88) | |||
(6) Subjective Norms | 3.12 | 0.97 | 0.28 |
−0.19 |
0.22 |
−0.17 |
0.47 |
(0.91) | ||
(7) Perceived Behavioral Control | 3.45 | 0.97 | 0.20 |
−0.06 | 0.15 |
−0.13 |
0.35 |
0.18 |
(0.89) | |
(8) Intention to Purchase | 3.06 | 0.96 | 0.22 |
−0.19 |
0.24 |
−0.18 |
0.39 |
0.34 |
0.32 |
(0.89) |
Given that infotainment, irritation, promotion focus, prevention focus, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, attitudes, and intention to purchase were obtained from the same sources, a potential common method variance was a concern. Several techniques were used to minimize any common source bias. First, the confidentiality of the responses was guaranteed to the participants to limit any concerns, such as the participants' evaluation apprehension or social desirability. Second, a psychological separation was constructed in the survey by using different instructions and positioning the variables in various parts of the survey with a number of filler items between them to try to minimize the respondents' perception of any direct connection between the variables (Podsakoff et al.,
We used the structural equation modeling technique (Anderson and Gerbing,
Comparisons of the structural equation models.
512.33 | 356 | 0.96 | 0.97 | 0.04 | – | |
512.32 | 355 | 0.96 | 0.97 | 0.04 | 0.01 (1) | |
510.84 | 355 | 0.96 | 0.97 | 0.04 | 1.49 (1) | |
511.17 | 355 | 0.96 | 0.97 | 0.04 | 1.15 (1) | |
510.05 | 355 | 0.96 | 0.97 | 0.04 | 2.28 (1) | |
511.00 | 355 | 0.96 | 0.97 | 0.04 | 1.33 (1) | |
512.26 | 355 | 0.96 | 0.97 | 0.04 | 0.07 (1) |
The change in chi-square test (Bentler and Bonett,
Nested Model 1 assessed the same path as in the hypothesized model, along with the direct path from infotainment to intention to purchase. Nested Model 2 also tested the direct path from infotainment*promotion focus to intention to purchase in addition to the hypothesized paths. Nested Model 3 tested the direct path from promotion focus to intention to purchase in addition to the hypothesized paths. Nested Model 4 examined the direct path from irritation to intention to purchase based on the hypothesized model. Nested Model 5 examined the direct path from irritation*prevention focus to intention to purchase in addition to the paths of the hypothesized model. Nested Model 6 also checked the direct path from prevention focus to intention to purchase along with the paths of the hypothesized model.
The change in chi-square tests indicated that Nested Model 1 (Δχ2 = 0.01; Δdf = 1;
Table
Path coefficients.
Infotainment→AT | 0.21 |
0.05 |
Irritation→AT | −0.18 |
0.04 |
Promotion Focus→AT | 0.26 |
0.10 |
Prevention Focus→AT | −0.20 |
0.04 |
INTER1→AT | 0.23 |
0.05 |
INTER2→AT | −0.23 |
0.04 |
AT→ITP | 0.27 |
0.05 |
PCB→ITP | 0.24 |
0.06 |
SN→ITP | 0.27 |
0.08 |
SN→AT | 0.19 |
0.07 |
As shown in Table
Furthermore, the interaction effects were plotted using procedures from Aiken et al. (
Interaction between irritation and a prevention focus in predicting attitudes.
A moderated path approach was utilized to test the moderated mediation hypotheses (Edwards and Lambert,
The results of moderated path analysis for Infotainment.
Simple paths for low promotion focus | 0.17 |
0.29 |
−0.04 | 0.05 |
0.01 |
Simple paths for high promotion focus | 0.57 |
0.35 |
0.20 |
0.20 |
0.40 |
Differences | 0.40 |
0.06 | 0.24 |
0.15 |
0.39 |
The results of moderated path analysis for Irritation.
Simple paths for low prevention focus | −0.03 | 0.33 |
0.00 | −0.01 | −0.01 |
Simple paths for high prevention focus | −0.37 |
0.31 |
−0.16 |
−0.11 |
−0.28 |
Differences | −0.33 |
−0.020 | −0.170 | −0.10 |
−0.27 |
The goal of this study was to analyze empirically the influence of mobile text advertising on consumers' purchase intention. With the rapid development of smart mobile and internet technologies, mobile shopping apps have become convenient and efficient. Mobile marketing is now essential to many companies' total marketing strategies. The question arises whether mobile text advertising, sent by mobile shopping apps, facilitates recipients' purchase intention and how this process works. The findings of this study address these questions and provide insights from both theoretical and practical perspectives.
First, infotainment and irritation influenced attitudes toward mobile text advertising in opposing directions in accordance with prior research (H1, H2). The present study shows that two main dimensions of U&G, infotainment and irritation, impacted attitudes in opposing directions. The impact of infotainment was greater than that of irritation. This finding confirms previous views about mobile advertising (Tsang et al.,
Second, the study reveals the moderation effects of regulatory focus between information content characteristics and attitudes toward mobile text advertising (H7a, H7b). In accordance with RFT, this study showed that at a high level of promotion focus, the positive relationship between infotainment and attitudes was strengthened; conversely, at a high level of prevention focus, the negative relationship between irritation and attitudes was strengthened. These results can deepen the understanding of attitudes and benefit subsequent research.
Finally, the mechanism behind the intention to purchase mobile-advertised products was explored. After receiving mobile text advertisements from mobile shopping apps, the consumers' attitudes toward mobile text advertising, together with their subjective norms and perceived behavioral controls, influenced the intention to purchase (H3, H4, and H5). Moreover, this study suggested that subjective norms indirectly impacted the intention to purchase through their attitudes toward mobile text advertising (H6). According to reference group theory, the views of others considerably affect an individual's beliefs and their purchase decisions. Our study indicated that this was true in a mobile advertising context. Additionally, two moderated mediation effects were identified (H8a, H8b). One mediation effect of attitudes toward mobile text advertising between infotainment and intention to purchase was moderated by the promotion focus; whereas, the other mediation effect of attitudes toward mobile text advertising between irritation and intention to purchase was moderated by the prevention focus.
In addition, due to the similarities between the Taobao app and other mobile shopping apps, the above conclusions are also applicable to similar apps. The Taobao app has the largest number of Chinese shoppers (QuestMobile,
First, our findings shed light on the use of (promotion focus and prevention focus) regulatory focus in mobile advertising activities. Previous studies on mobile advertising were mostly based on either the single theory of reasoned action (Tsang et al.,
Second, this study helps to elucidate the mechanism of the purchase intention in the mobile context, indicating that it is an extension of the TPB. Most extant studies have discussed the intention to purchase only from the perspective of the TPB. This study, which investigated the intention to purchase from the perspective of regulatory focus, identified a moderating role for regulatory focus, mediating effects of attitudes, and moderated mediation effects. The results of this study improve the understanding of the mechanism underlying the intention to purchase in a mobile context. The results also highlighted the importance of consumer motivation in the mobile field. Moreover, this study laid a foundation for conducting related behavioral intention research in different contexts.
Third, the results of our research appear to be representative and universal. Extant studies on mobile advertising have primarily focused on no-income groups, such as university students. In this study, 95% of the respondents had had mobile shopping experience for at least 1 year and 76% were employees from various companies and thus had a certain economic foundation. Hence, we believe that our data is representative and our findings will be valuable. Furthermore, the empirical results showed that the participants had either a positive attitude (Table
In addition to the above theoretical implications, this study has the following practical implications.
First, the findings highlighted the importance of subjective norms. Although attitudes are usually emphasized in consumer behavior intention research, managers must carefully attempt to govern the influence of reference groups on attitudes and the intention to purchase in the mobile context.
Second, the findings can enlighten designers about the design of mobile advertising. Managers often try to avoid irritating consumers. Our results suggest that they should also concentrate on increasing the infotainment to please consumers. Avoidance alone is not enough. A high level of infotainment is beneficial to the formation of a positive attitude and to the purchase intention. Advertising designers may need to increase the informativeness and entertainment of mobile advertising content.
Third, the findings can contribute to perfecting the marketing strategy of various companies. In general, marketing managers employ strategies aimed at managing the information content characteristics of mobile advertising (Tsang et al.,
Although, all of the hypotheses in this study were supported, the study still presents limitations that can provide opportunities for future research. First, only push mobile advertising was examined. Future research should explore the effectiveness of pull mobile advertising and compare the two forms. Second, the study only concentrated on the text form of mobile advertising. In the future, other types of mobile advertising, such as multimedia mobile advertising, should be investigated as well. Third, this study explored the moderation effect only in a mobile environment. The RFT's influence in the content-attitudes relationship, as well as its moderation effect in the attitudes-intentions relationship, is worth studying as a general TPB modifier as well as in a mobile advertising context in further scenarios. In addition, our analysis may lag behind the rapid development of mobile advertising and communication technology to some extent. Because of these rapid advances, the formation mechanism of the intention to purchase will need to be continually updated. Fourth, we primarily included subjects who were fairly well-educated and investigated their responses to a single shopping app. According to statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC,
This research was approved by Economics and Management Department Research Ethic Committee. All participants gave informed consent to participate. All participants were fully insured for the duration of the questionnaire.
LH contributes the writing of the whole article. CZ contributes the data collection.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The authors are grateful to Rhoda E. and Edmund F. Perozzi, Ph.D.s, for extensive editing and discussions. This work was funded by the Society and Science Union Project of Fujian Province, P.R. China, FJ2016B082 “Influence of mobile advertising on the users' behavior intention,” FJ2015B231 “Research on the financial support for the development of the private economy in Fujian Province under the new normal economy”; and the Project of Education Department of Fujian Province, P.R. China, JAS150418 “Users adoption of Short Message Service advertising in the mobile commercial context.”
applications
short message service
uses and gratifications
theory of planned behavior
regulatory focus theory.