The Effects of Embedded Advertising on Mobile APP Users’ Advertising Avoidance via Psychological Reactance Theory

Abstract

Abstract With smartphones becoming more popular applications (APP) have experienced a growth surge in recent years However only a few studies discuss the APP advertisement environment and users This study used in-app ads as its focal topic; it can be mainly classified into three categories: banner ad pop-up graphic ad and pop-up video clips ad Based on the psychological reactance theory (PRT) this study aimed to investigate whether in-app ads arouse reactance Through using the features of in-app ads (ad duration & frequency) as a restriction (or threat) of usage freedom this study discusses whether it would trigger users’ psychological reactance (perceived ad clutter ad skepticism & advertising avoidance) Next this study seeks to understand users’ response behavior (ignoring and resisting ad content) in order to reduce reactance Furthermore this study uses prior negative experience as a moderator to investigate the moderating effect on the relationship between in-app ads appearance feature and both perceived ad clutter and ad skepticism The study focuses on the group which contains frequent app users and distributed questionnaires separately based on three categories (banner ad pop-up graphic ad & pop-up video clips ad) Finally the study collected 440 444 and 459 valid web-based responses from each category respectively After structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis the results indicated that: (1) Banner ad frequency has a positive causal relationship with perceived ad clutter In addition to perceived ad clutter positively influencing ad skepticism it also arouses advertising avoidance and in turn has a positive impact on both ignoring and resisting advertising content (2) Pop-up graphic ad duration and frequency have positive effects on perceived ad clutter; however ad duration only has a positive causal relationship with ad skepticism As for perceived ad clutter and ad skepticism both positively affect advertising avoidance and then generate the behavior of ignoring and resisting ad content (3) For pop-up video clips ads duration and frequency both positively influence perceived ad clutter Furthermore perceived ad clutter not only positively affects advertising avoidance but also has a positive impact on it indirectly through ad skepticism Therefore users will react by ignoring and resisting ad content Prior negative experience only has a moderating effect of the relationship between ad duration and perceived ad clutter in pop-up graphics and pop-up video clips ad Lastly this study found that APP users do pay attention to the presentation of the in-app advertising Therefore this study recommends that the APP developers should avoid excessive sensory stimulation (such as strong color and sound) when they broadcast ads in order to reduce the complexity APP developers could improve content innovation to reduce the feeling of obtrusiveness and emphasize advertisement's necessity by combining the function of app and ads

Date of Award	2016 Sept 6
Original language	English
Supervisor	Hsin-Hsin Chang (Supervisor)