۱- Introduction

۲- Theoretical background

۳- Research model and hypotheses

۴- Research method and data

۵- Data analysis and results

۶- Discussion

۷- Conclusion

References

Abstract

Consumer reactance appears to be a major inhibiting result in the personalization paradox of online personalized advertising. The objective of this study is to uncover consumer reactance of online personalized advertising. We identify the rational choice factors rooted in the rational choice theory from a negative-effect perspective and examine their impacts on consumer reactance with consideration of affective factors. Our results confirm that three rational choice factors from a negative-effect perspective have significant impacts on consumer reactance, and affective factors such as ownership and vulnerability are dominant determinants of these rational choice factors. The effects of these affective factors on consumer reactance can be mediated by individual rational choice factors. The findings provide a new perspective on the paradox phenomenon and offer online personalized advertising providers new approaches to improving their performance.

Introduction

Many modern online companies (e.g., Tmall and Amazon) use advanced Internet and computing technologies to exploit user data in order to implement online personalized advertising (OPA) on their platforms (Kim & Dan, 2017). Consumers may perceive these services as more attractive and favourite (Lambrecht & Tucker, 2013; Shareef et al., 2017). However, OPA may cause consumers’ unfavorable beliefs. For example, they may perceive privacy concerns in terms of personal data that is collected tacitly and limited capacities to choose and buy (Aguirre et al., 2015; Newell & Marabelli, 2015). This double-edged sword is a personalization paradox: there is tension between how online retailers exploit user information to offer personalized benefits, and users’ concerns over the risks in the usage of OPA (Sutanto et al., 2013). The personalization paradox often produces a negative response in individual reactance towards certain online shopping applications (Fitzsimons & Lehmann, 2004). Reactance may make users resist OPA when they find coercive or threatened of their freedom (Brehm, 1989). It was reported that “only 13% of consumers admitted to clicking on one of these retargeting ads” (Guild, 2013). User click-through rates suggest that individual OPA campaigns are generally unsuccessful. However, prior studies were centred on individual positive responses (e.g., psychological comfort and willingness to disclose information) while paid little attention to the negative ones (e.g., reactance) (Li et al., 2017; Sutanto et al., 2013). Therefore, an understanding of what factors of the personalization paradox influence consumer reactance is central to helping online retailers diagnose the deficiencies in their marketing strategies and providing them with ways to improve their performance. The benefit and risk factors of the personalization paradox form users’ reactance, while consumer reactance may in turn shape these factors (Sharot et al., 2010). Consumer reactance refers to an individual final negative response towards OPA. Hence, in the context of consumer reactance, users may develop benefit and risk beliefs from a negativeeffect perspective by interpreting them as a perceived concern, risky nodes, or unfavorable expectations (Liu et al., 2014; Samba et al., 2018). Therefore, there is a pressing need for reconstructing the benefit and risk factors from a negative-effect perspective in terms of individual negative response.