The Influence of Mobile Self-efficacy on Attitude towards Mobile Advertising

The Influence of Mobile Self-efficacy on Attitude towards Mobile Advertising 1 Ching-Chang Lee, 2 Ming-Chia Hsieh, 3 Hung-Chun Huang 1 Department of Information Management National Kaohsiung First University of Science & Technology Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C., cclee@nkfust.edu.tw *2 Department of Information Management National Kaohsiung First University of Science & Technology Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C., u9828903@ccms.nkfust.edu.tw *3 Department of Information Management National Kaohsiung First University of Science & Technology Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C., u9822813@ccms.nkfust.edu.tw doi:10.4156/aiss.vol3. issue3.13 Abstract Mobile advertising employs mobile devices such as cell phones and PDAs to transmit advertising information to users. The chief difference between mobile advertising and traditional advertising is that mobile advertising must employ wireless networks and mobile devices; as a consequence, apart from advertisement content, the factors affecting attitude towards mobile advertising may also include consumers' mobile technology use self-efficacy. This study develops and validates a mobile self-efficacy construct assessment method, and also explores the effect of user mobile self-efficacy on attitude towards mobile advertising. The results indicate that mobile self-efficacy has very high construct validity, and very good convergent validity and discriminant validity, which implies that this construct has a significant influence on attitude towards mobile advertising. 1. Introduction Keywords: Mobile Advertising, Mobile Self-efficacy Mobile advertising employs mobile devices such as cell phones and PDAs to transmit advertising messages to users [19]. The Wireless Advertising Association (WAA) defines mobile advertising as "Use of a non-fixed network to transmit product messages to wireless communications equipment such as cell phones or PDAs and thereby achieve the broadcasting of advertisements." Mobile advertising can overcome the temporal and spatial obstructions between buyers and sellers, and achieve the advantages of interactivity, immediacy, localization, and individualization, which can help advertisers establish long-term relationships with consumers [29][5][21][30]. Consumers' attitudes towards advertising refer to the psychological tendency formed after receiving an advertising message and undergoing an emotional response and cognitive thinking [9]. This tendency will affect attitude towards product brand and willingness to make a purchase [36][30][43]. In research on factors influencing attitude towards advertising, informativeness, entertainment, irritation, and credibility are considered to be the chief factors affecting attitude towards mobile advertising [24][34][26]. Nevertheless, the chief difference between mobile advertising and traditional advertising is that mobile advertising must take place in an environment containing wireless networks and mobile devices [41][39][14]; as a consequence, apart from advertisement content, the factors affecting attitude towards mobile advertising may therefore also include consumers' mobile technology use self-efficacy. Selfefficacy refers to an individual's self-assessment of able to complete a specific mission, and is considered to be one of the most important factors affecting behavior [2]. This study seeks to investigate the effect of consumers' mobile application self-efficacy on their attitude towards mobile advertising. Specifically, this study has the following two goals: 1. To develop and validate a mobile technology self-efficacy assessment method. 2. To explore the effect of mobile self-efficacy on attitude towards mobile advertising. - 100 -

2. Theoretical Background & Development of Hypotheses 2.1. Research model As shown in Fig. 1, this study's research model posits the following five factors affecting attitude towards mobile advertising: (1) Informativeness, which refers to the degree to which and ability of advertising to provide consumers with information concerning alternative proposals; (2) irritation, which refers to any negative mood that advertising evokes in consumers, including psychological disgust, anger, or offence caused by the advertising; (3) entertainment, which refers to the ability of advertising to satisfy consumers' desire to escape reality and obtain fun and emotional release; (4) credibility, which refers to the degree to which advertising inspires confidence, belief, and trust in consumers; and (5) mobile self-efficacy, which refers to the degree to which a consumer perceives him or herself to be able to use mobile technology applications. Informativeness Entertainment Irritation Attitude towards mobile advertising Credibility Mobile self-efficacy Figure 1. Research model 2.2. Research hypotheses 2.2.1. Informativeness From the point of view of consumers, advertising must be able to transmit complete product information in order to provide consumers with greatest satisfaction in the purchasing process [34]. According to Rotzoll et al. [23], since the main function of advertising is to provide information, the information transmitted to consumers via mobile devices must possess excellent information quality characteristics, such as correctness, timeliness, and usefulness [22]. Because consumers hope that the content of mobile services will conform to their interests [15], they are only interested in advertising messages that they feel are relevant [17], in which case they will have a positive response to the advertising. Because of this, informativeness is considered an extremely useful stimulating factor in mobile advertising [38]. We therefore infer: Hypothesis 1: The more consumers perceive mobile advertising to be informative, the better their attitude towards that mobile advertising. 2.2.2. Entertainment Höflich and Rössler [20] propose that the sources of satisfaction are reassurance, sociability, immediate access, instrumentality, and entertainment. According to McQuail [12], the value of entertainment lies in its ability to satisfy consumers' desire to escape reality and obtain fun and - 101 -

emotional release. When consumers interact with media, a high degree of enjoyment and involvement will consequently have a positive effect on subjective perception and mood [13]. Brackett [24] believes that entertainment is key factor associated with mobile advertising, and suggests that the content of messages must be concise and interesting in order to induce immediate attention in consumers. A feeling that advertising is interesting will affect consumers' attitude towards that advertising [37]. Entertainment services can increase consumer loyalty; for instance, transmission of advertising messages in the form of games or prizes to the cell phones of target users can successfully attract and retain consumers [28]. We therefore infer: Hypothesis 2: The more consumers perceive mobile advertising to be entertaining, the better their attitude towards that mobile advertising. 2.2.3. Irritation Unrequested, confusing information will cause feelings of aversion in consumers [40]. When using technology to transmit advertising, if consumers feel annoyed or offended, or think they need considerable mental effort to process the information, they will feel dislike and irritation towards the advertising [34]. Mobile advertising that provides excessive information may confuse receivers and cause them to divide their attention [10], which will lead to a negative reaction to the advertising. Relevant studies have proposed that when advertising makes consumers feel irritation, this will lead to poor advertising effectiveness and have a negative effect on advertising value [31][33]. We therefore infer: Hypothesis 3: The more consumers perceive mobile advertising to be irritating, the worse their attitude towards that mobile advertising. 2.2.4. Credibility Credibility refers to the public's attitude towards the source of information. This reaction to media content is expressed at the mental perception level, and takes the form of trust or distrust in the message. Relevant studies have suggested that a company's credibility, the message's source, and the advertising medium are the main factors affecting credibility [24][35][4][6][36]. The research of Brackett and Carr [24] suggests that consumers' perception of the credibility of advertising will influence their assessment of the value of that advertising. Haghirian et al. [32] confirm that the credibility of message content will have a positive effect on consumers' assessment of mobile marketing and mobile advertising. We therefore infer: Hypothesis 4: The more consumers perceive mobile advertising to be credible, the better their attitude towards that mobile advertising. 2.2.5. Mobile self-efficacy Self-efficacy implies an individual's level of belief that he or she has the ability to organize and perform a series of activities intended to achieve a result. Self-efficacy is a major factor affecting attitude and behavior. Self-efficacy represents an individual's judgment that he or she can complete a specific task, and is unconnected with the individual's actual skills. An individual's perceived selfefficacy will affect that person's behavior towards a specific task, amount of mental effort, and degree of persistence, and will ultimately influence the individual's actions [1][2][3][7]. Persons with strong computer self-efficacy will tend to use computers frequently, and will tend not to experience computer anxiety [11]. Relevant empirical research has indicated that computer software self-efficacy, Internet use self-efficacy, and online income tax reporting self-efficacy will all influence attitude towards using these technological applications [32][25][27][42][16][18]. We therefore infer: Hypothesis 5: The higher consumers' mobile self-efficacy, the better their attitude towards mobile advertising. - 102 -

3. Research method 3.1. Data collection The Influence of Mobile Self-efficacy on Attitude towards Mobile Advertising An Internet-based survey was conducted to collect data. In order to ensure that respondents fully understood the functions and features of M-ads, the questionnaire provided five M-ad usage scenarios (comprising multimedia, location-based, timely, personalized, and preferred advertising) to respondents before they answered questions. Excluding incomplete and inconsistent questionnaires, we collected 353 valid questionnaires. Out of the 353 valid questionnaires, 51.8% were from male and 48.2% from female respondents. With regard to age groups, the highest percentage of the respondents was between 21 and 25 years old. In terms of education, majority of the respondents had received bachelor degrees. 3.2. Operational definitions for each variable Based on the above-mentioned literature, the operational definitions for each variable were developed and described as follows: (1) Informativeness: The degree to which mobile advertising can provide product-related information. (2) Entertainment: The degree to which mobile advertising can provide receivers with fun, happiness, and fascination. (3) Irritation: The degree to which mobile advertising causes consumers to have an M-ad is irritating. (4) Credibility: The degree to which receivers feel that mobile advertising is credible or trustworthy. (5) Mobile self-efficacy : The degree of an individual s perceived ability to use a mobile device. (6) Attitude toward M-ads: Consumers' consistent tendency toward mobile advertising 3.3. Measurement methodology In keeping with earlier advertising research and literature, we developed measurement items for each variable as follows: Informativeness [24][34] M-ad supplies relevant information on products or services. M-ad provides timely information on products or services. M-ad provides information on products or services when I need it. Entertainment [24][34] M-ad is entertaining. M-ad is enjoyable. M-ad is pleasing. Irritation[24][34] M-ad is irritating. M-ad insults my intelligence. There is too much M-ad. Credibility [24][35][29] M-ad is credible. M-ad is trustworthy. M-ad is believable. Mobile self-efficacy [3] I feel I am able to Use a mobile device to connect to the mobile Internet. Use the mobile Internet to browse the World Wide Web. Enter an URL to connect to a mobile web site. Use a mobile web page search engine (such as Google) to search for information. Click on a mobile web page hyper link. Enter a keyword on a mobile web page to find information. Send short message (SMS) or multimedia short messages (MMS). - 103 -

Use the mobile Internet to send and receive e-mail and attach files. Attitude toward M-ad [24][34][26][39] I like mobile advertising Mobile advertising is a good application Mobile advertising is a good marketing tool. On the whole, my attitude towards mobile advertising is positive. All above instruments use a 5-point Likert scale. 4. Research Results Principle component analysis and the Varimax method were used to perform exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The number of factors was determined based on whether the eigenvalue was greater than one. A KMO of 0.923 was obtained from a sample consisting of 353 valid questionnaires. Bartlett s Test of Sphericity found an approximate Chi-square value of 5427.652 and a p value of less than 0.001. This indicated that results met the appropriateness test standard. 4.1. Credibility & Validity Composite credibility (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) were calculated using the procedures summarized by Fornell and Larcker. The composite credibility of the constructs ranged from 0.89 to 0.94, indicating a high internal consistency for each construct. Furthermore, the AVE of the constructs ranged from 0.66 to 0.81, suggesting acceptable construct validity. Factor loading, CR, and AVE are shown in Table 1. Potential construct Informativeness Entertainment Irritation Credibility Mobile self-efficacy Attitude toward M-Ad Table 1. Factor loading, CR and AVE Item Factor loading inf1 0.872 inf2 0.881 inf3 0.885 ent1 0.876 ent2 0.879 ent3 0.822 irr1 0.901 irr2 0.923 irr3 0.881 cr1 0.811 cr2 0.877 cr3 0.877 mise1 0.870 mise2 0.894 mise3 0.857 mise4 0.886 mise5 0.851 mise6 0.834 mise7 0.740 mise8 0.773 at1 0.813 at2 0.866 at3 0.846 at4 0.786 Composite Credibility Average Variance Extracted Cronbach Alpha 0.91 0.77 0.85 0.89 0.74 0.82 0.93 0.81 0.88 0.89 0.73 0.81 0.94 0.66 0.93 0.90 0.69 0.84-104 -

Discriminant validity of the measures can be verified when the square root of the average variance extracted for each construct is higher than the correlations between it and all other constructs [8]. As summarized in Table 2, the square root of average variance extracted for each construct is greater than the correlations between the constructs and all other constructs. The results suggest that the measurements have adequate discriminant validity. 4.2. Causal Model inf 0.877 Table 2.Correlation Matrix for Constructs inf ent irr cr att mse ent 0.614 0.860 irr -0.376-0.427 0.90 cr 0.561 0.487-0.389 0.854 att 0.708 0.530-0.427 0.720 0.830 mse 0.603 0.365-0.229 0.473 0.686 0.812 Note: Diagonal elements are the square root of average variance extracted. Partial least squares (PLS) was used to analyze the causal relationships between the constructs in the research model; the results of analysis as shown in Fig. 2. Informativenes Entertainment Irritation Attitude towards mobile advertising 2 R =0.727 Credibility Mobile self-efficacy Note: *P<0.05;**P<0.01;***P<0.001 Figure 2. Causal model It can be seen from Fig. 2 that credibility had the biggest positive influence on consumers' attitude towards mobile advertising (path coefficient = 0.373), followed by mobile self-efficacy (path coefficient = 0.329), and informativeness (path coefficient = 0.240). Irritation had a negative effect on consumers' attitude towards mobile advertising (path coefficient = -0.101). Entertainment had no significant effect on attitude towards mobile advertising, which suggests that whether mobile advertising possesses entertainment value does not affect receivers' attitudes towards mobile advertising. The R square value for the model as a whole was 0.727, which indicates that the model can explain 72.27% of attitudes towards mobile advertising. - 105 -

5. Discussion The Influence of Mobile Self-efficacy on Attitude towards Mobile Advertising This study's results indicate that, of the proposed hypotheses, only "Hypothesis 2: The more consumers perceive mobile advertising to be entertaining, the better their attitude towards that mobile advertising" was not confirmed, and the remaining four hypotheses were all confirmed. The reason Hypothesis 2 was not confirmed may be due to fact that mobile devices have smaller screens than those of computers and TVs, and also because there is as yet little mobile advertising with entertainment value; as a result, users have low expectations of the entertainment value of mobile advertising. The collected empirical data indicates that the mobile self-efficacy construct proposed in this study has high relibility and validity, and its path coefficient for influence on attitude towards mobile advertising of 0.329 is also very high. This suggests that mobile self-efficacy will indeed affect receivers' attitude towards mobile advertising. As a consequence, if extension activities or education and training can be used to enhance the mobile self-efficacy of mobile device users, this will likely improve attitude towards mobile advertising, and thereby increase the acceptance and use of mobile advertising. 6. References [1] Albert Bandura, Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency, American Psychologist, vol.37, no.2, pp.122-147, 1982. [2] Albert Bandura, Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1986. [3] Albert Bandura, Self-Efficacy:The Exercise of Control, Freeman & Company, NY, USA, 1997. [4] Albert C. Gunther., Esther Thorson, Perceived persuasive effects of product commercials and public service announcements- Third-person effects in new domains, Communication Research, vol. 19, no. 5, pp.574-596, 1992. [5] Arno Scharl, Astrid Dickinger, Jamie Murphy, Diffusion and success factors of mobile marketing, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, vol. 4, no. 2, pp.159-173, 2005. [6] Barbara A. Lafferty, Ronald E. Goldsmith, Stephen J. Newell, The Dual Credibility Model: The Influence of Corporate and Endorser Credibility on Attitudes and Purchase Intentions, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, vol. 10, no. 3, pp.1-12, 2002. [7] Chyi-Lu Jang, "Measuring Electronic Government Procurement Success and Testing for the Moderating Effect of Computer Self-efficacy ", JDCTA, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 224 232, 2010. [8] Claes Fornell, David F. Larcker, Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error, Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 18, pp.39-50, 1981. [9] David Jingjun Xu, The influence of personalization in affecting consumer attitudes toward mobile advertising in China, The Journal of Computer InformationSystems, vol, 47, no. 2, pp.9 20, 2006/2007. [10] David W. Stewart, Paul A. Pavlou, From Consumer Response to Active Consumer: Measuring the Effectiveness of Interactive Media, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 30, no. 4, pp.376-396, 2002. [11] Deborah R. Compeau, Christopher A. Higgins, Computer Self-Efficacy:Development of a Measure and Initial Test,MIS Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 2, pp.189-211, 1995. [12] Denis McQuail, Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction, London: Sage Publications, UK, 1983. [13] Donna L. Hoffman, Thomas P. Novak, Marketing in Hypermedia Computer-Mediated Environments: Conceptual Foundations, Journal of Marketing, vol. 60, pp.50-68, 1996. [14] Feng Hu, Yong Liu, "An Empirical Examination on Mobile Services Adoption in Rural China", JDCTA, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 328 334, 2011. [15] Fred Robins, The Marketing of 3G,Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 21, no. 6, pp.370-378, 2003. - 106 -

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