Accepted Manuscript

The influence of the propensity to trust on mobile users’ attitudes toward in-app
advertisements: An extension of the theory of planned behavior

Millissa F.Y. Cheung, W.M. To

PII: S0747-5632(17)30423-5

DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.07.011

Reference: CHB 5064

To appear in: Computers in Human Behavior

Received Date: 13 February 2017

Revised Date: 27 April 2017

Accepted Date: 09 July 2017

Please cite this article as: Millissa F.Y. Cheung, W.M. To, The influence of the propensity to trust
on mobile users’ attitudes toward in-app advertisements: An extension of the theory of planned
behavior, Computers in Human Behavior (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.07.011

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

The influence of the propensity to trust on mobile users’ attitudes toward in-app

advertisements: An extension of the theory of planned behavior

Millissa F.Y. Cheung a,*, W.M. To b

a Department of Business Administration, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, Hong Kong

SAR, People’s Republic of China.

b School of Business, Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macao SAR, People’s Republic of China

Email addresses: fycheung@hksyu.edu (Millissa F.Y. Cheung); wmto@ipm.edu.mo (W.M.

To)

* Corresponding author. Millissa F.Y. Cheung

Department of Business Administration, Hong Kong Shue Yan University,

Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China.

Tel.: +852 28065107; fax: +852 28068044.

E-mail: fycheung@hksyu.edu
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1 The influence of the propensity to trust on mobile users’ attitudes toward in-app

2 advertisements: An extension of the theory of planned behavior

3 Abstract

4 In-app advertising is one of the fastest growing areas in social commerce. Building on previous

5 studies of e-commerce and psychological theories, this paper examines a theoretical model that

6 extends the theory of planned behavior to include the propensity to trust and trust as antecedents

7 of mobile users’ attitudes toward in-app advertisements. The model was tested with 480 young

8 Chinese mobile users. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that users’ propensity

9 to trust affected their trust in in-app advertising, and this in turn affected their attitudes toward

10 in-app advertisements and their intention to watch in-app advertisements. In addition,

11 subjective norm and perceived behavioral control were found to positively predict users’

12 intention to watch in-app advertisements, which in turn affected their behavioral response.

13 Practical implications are provided to increase users’ trust and promote favorable attitudes

14 toward in-app advertisements.

15

16

17 Keywords: In-app advertising, Propensity to trust, Trust, Theory of planned behavior, Mobile

18 user’s behavioral response, Social commerce

19

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20 1. Introduction

21 Consumers rely on social media and mobile apps to obtain information, share their

22 opinions, and make purchasing decisions (Cheung & To, 2016; Oakley & Salam, 2014; Xu,

23 Frey, Fleisch, & Ilic, 2016; Zolkepli & Kamarulzaman, 2015). Organizations use social media

24 and mobile apps to promote their products, offer special discounts, build their customer base,

25 maintain close contact with existing customers, and attract potential customers (Cheung & To,

26 2016; Feng, Fu, & Qin, 2016). Xu, Frey, Fleisch, and Ilic (2016) explored the impact of

27 personality traits on the adoption of mobile apps. Using the responses from a large-scale field

28 study involving 2043 Android smartphone users, Xu, Frey, Fleisch, and Ilic (2016) reported

29 that neurotic individuals are likely to adopt leisure mobile apps such as music, photography,

30 and personalization apps while introverts are likely to install mobile games. Feng, Fu, and Qin

31 (2016) reported that intrinsic motivations such as users’ innovativeness and perceived

32 enjoyment and extrinsic motivations such as timeliness, personalization, and localization of the

33 advertisement message influenced users’ attitudes toward mobile advertising.

34 According to eMarketer (2015), global mobile advertisements, in particular the so-called

35 in-app advertisements, are expected to increase threefold, from a USD 69 billion industry in

36 2015 to a USD 196 billion industry in 2019. In developing countries such as China and India

37 the number of mobile users is rapidly multiplying (Lai & To, 2014). For example, in China,

38 the number of mobile users increased from 118 million in 2008 to 420 million in 2012, and

39 then to 695 million in 2016 (CNNIC, 2017). Alibaba’s gross merchandise volume exceeded

40 USD 17 billion on November 11, 2016 - known as Singles Day in China, and 82 percent of the

41 purchases were made by mobile users (Alibaba, 2017). The location information of mobile

42 phones can be used for precision marketing (Li & Du, 2012; Yun, Han, & Lee, 2013). If users

43 upload services and geographically specific apps to their mobile phones, firms can identify the

44 number and type of customers in vicinity, and can offer individualized recommendations and
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45 special offers to this target customer group. Nevertheless, some users perceive threats because

46 their personal information and movement histories can be tracked by commercial

47 organizations, law enforcement, or malicious parties (Pentina, Zhang, Beta, & Chen, 2016).

48 Using the responses from 106 American and 120 Chinese mobile users, Pentina, Zhang, Beta,

49 and Chen (2016) found that extraversion and agreeableness are positively related to user

50 perceptions of benefits obtained from using private-information sensitive apps. Extraverts

51 normally have lower information sensitivity concern due to their higher need to interact (Bansal

52 & Gefen, 2010) while agreeableness emphasizes trust, compliance and modesty (Anastasi &

53 Urbina, 1997).

54 In-app advertisements are advertisements that appear within an application on a mobile

55 device such as a smartphone, pad, tablet, etc. In-app advertisements play a significant role in

56 developing social commerce (Kim, Yoon, & Han, 2016). In-app advertising is different from

57 online advertising because it incorporates interface capabilities such as swiping, sensors, and

58 global positioning system so that personalized in-app advertising can be delivered in a more

59 precise, engaged, and uninterrupted manner (Meng et al., 2016). Ghose and Han (2014) found

60 that app demand increases with an in-app purchase option that allows users to easily complete

61 transactions, e.g., purchase travel insurance. In contrast, app demand decreases with an in-app

62 advertisement option in which consumers are shown ads when they are engaged with the app.

63 Indeed, some researchers (Lu, Fan, & Zhou, 2016; Zhang & Gu, 2015) have suggested that,

64 in addition to customer preferences, trust may affect users’ purchase intention in social

65 commerce. Online trust refers to a consumer’s perceptions of whether the e-commerce site will

66 meet his/her expectations and the believability of the site’s information and its reliability

67 (Zhang & Gu, 2015). Given the salience of in-app advertisements and their influences on

68 human behavior, we are eager to answers the research questions: “What is the role of trust in

69 in-app advertising?” and “Does trust exert direct influence on users’ attitude, intention, and
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70 behavior. In other words, the study aims to explore key antecedents of mobile users’ intention

71 to watch in-app advertisements and behavioral response using an extended Theory of Planned

72 Behavior (TPB). Knowing key antecedents of mobile users’ intention and behavioral response

73 can help firms to prioritize their efforts to develop effective marketing strategy through in-app

74 advertisements – a relatively new promotional channel through which many companies sell

75 their products/service.

76 The TPB states that an individual’s attitudes toward a behavior, subjective norm, and

77 perceived behavioral control shape an individual’s behavioral intention and actual behavior

78 (Ajzen, 1991). In this study, we examine whether the TPB can explain the behavior of mobile

79 users who watch in-app advertisements. Specifically, this paper argues that mobile users with

80 positive attitudes toward in-app advertisements, a strong subjective norm, and low perceived

81 behavioral control are more likely to watch in-app advertisements, as such users are eager to

82 know more about the benefits of watching the in-app advertisements. Furthermore, if mobile

83 users feel that their peers like the content or presentation of in-app advertisements and believe

84 that they have control over their viewing behavior, they will be more motivated to watch in-

85 app advertisements. According to Ajzen (1991), a behavior is a function of compatible

86 intentions. Therefore, the stronger an individual’s behavioral intention, the more favorable is

87 the actual behavior. This paper also proposes a chain of relationships between users’ trust,

88 attitudes, intention, and behavioral response. When mobile users have a high propensity to

89 trust, they can be induced to trust an online company, as faith in the integrity of others and low

90 risk aversion makes people more likely to believe that others do no harm on them. Thus, trust

91 shapes positive attitudes toward in-app advertisements, and trusting users are more likely to be

92 affected by the information in advertisements. Trust may lead to a stronger intention to watch

93 in-app advertisements that fulfill a user’s need to know more about potential benefits of the

94 promoted products/services. Finally, a user’s intention to watch in-app advertisements may

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95 lead to desirable actions such as making a purchase or forwarding an in-app advertisement to

96 friends.

97 The paper integrates the TPB with trust theory by identifying and examining disposition

98 predictors of attitudes in the TPB model. Besides, the paper provides useful guidelines for

99 managers and social commerce practitioners who wish to screen for users with a higher

100 propensity to trust and to build their trust in in-app advertised products/services, how to prepare

101 and promote attractive in-app advertisements. Academically, this paper is one of the pioneers

102 contributing to the development of social commerce by expanding the TPB model in the in-

103 app advertisements context.

104 The rest of the paper is structured as follows. First, we review the TPB, the propensity to

105 trust, and trust in the Internet, and then present the four hypotheses. Next, the research method

106 is described, followed by results and analysis. Finally, the paper concludes with discussions

107 and practical implications.

108

109 2. Literature Review and Hypotheses

110

111 2.1. Theory of planned behavior (TPB)

112 The TPB has been used to explain and predict human behavior in adopting information and

113 communication technologies (Carter and Yeo, 2016; Cheung &To, 2016; Jiang et al., 2016;

114 Kim, Lee, Sung, & Choi, 2016; Pavlou & Fygenson, 2006; Saeri et al., 2014). Specifically,

115 Carter and Yeo (2016) used the TPB to explain mobile apps usage by university students and

116 Cheung and To (2016) reported that the extended TPB can explain consumer co-creation

117 behavior in social media. The TPB suggests that attitudes, subjective norm, and perceived

118 behavioral control affect intention, and that intention, with or without perceived behavioral

119 control, leads to actual behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Ajzen (1991) defined an individual’s attitudes
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120 toward a particular behavior as the degree to which an individual favorably or unfavorably

121 evaluates the behavior in question. In the context of watching in-app advertisements, the

122 cognitive and affective attitudes toward in-app advertisements are dominant (cf. television

123 advertisements; Priya, Baisya, & Sharma, 2010); these attitudes affect users’ feelings about

124 and interest in looking for more knowledge. A subjective norm is the perceived social pressure

125 from colleagues, friends, and family members to perform or not perform a certain behavior (in

126 this case watching in-app advertisements). Wei et al. (2009) studied the adoption of m-

127 commerce technologies and found that the “significant others” referred to friends and family

128 members. Finally, perceived behavioral control is the perceived ease or difficulty of performing

129 a certain behavior. Perceived behavioral control depends on past experience and anticipated

130 obstacles. For example, Hajiha and Hajihashemi (2008) found that the lack of availability of a

131 broadband infrastructure may hinder the adoption of e-commerce technologies. Although some

132 researchers (Hartshorne &Ajjan, 2009; Pedersen, 2005; Taylor & Todd, 1995) suggest that

133 perceived behavioral control consists of self-efficacy and facilitating conditions, this study

134 focuses primarily on facilitating conditions i.e. the lack of resources such as time, money and

135 equipment as key components of perceived behavioral control. It is because in-app advertising

136 is ubiquitous in mobile devices and is pushed on people by the network suppliers and their

137 partners. Hence, self-efficacy is not a significant factor in this context.

138 Intention in the TPB model reflects the motivational factors that influence a person’s

139 behavior; it is an indication of a person’s willingness to act and the amount of effort he/she is

140 willing to exert to perform the behavior. In the context of watching in-app advertisements,

141 intention is exemplified by a person actively thinking about the behavior, and his/her

142 willingness to spend more time and seek more opportunities to watch in-app advertisements.

143 Finally, the target behavior in the study are actions arising from watching in-app

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144 advertisements, including learning more about the products/services, frequently discussing

145 these with friends, and deciding to purchase the products/services.

146

147 2.2. Trust and the propensity to trust

148 As Mayer, Davis, and Schoorman (1995) suggested, trust is “the willingness of a party to

149 be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the others will

150 perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or

151 control that other party” (p. 712). This definition applies to online transactions, including online

152 activities. Trust has been studied extensively by social science, management, and marketing

153 researchers (Butler, 1991; Culnan & Armstrong, 1999; Doney & Cannon, 1997). Customer

154 trust is an important component in e-commerce, as it leads to online purchasing (Bilgihan,

155 2016; Lee & Turban, 2001). At the beginning of the e-commerce era, online customers

156 displayed low levels of trust in Web-based merchants (Culnan & Armstrong, 1999) and few

157 customers shopped online, as consumers did not believe in the advertised products/services

158 (Hoffman, Novak, & Peralta, 1999). Nevertheless, with the growing e-presence of goods and

159 services providers, and the development of third-party trading platforms and payment security

160 systems, such as e-Bay and Tao Bao, many consumers now heavily rely on online information

161 and enjoy the convenience of using mobile devices to shop (Bilgihan, 2016; To & Lai, 2014).

162 Propensity to trust refers to the general willingness to trust others. When a person chooses

163 to trust another, this person may be vulnerable to be harmed by others. Mayer, Davis, and

164 Schoorman (1995) proposed that individuals determine the trustworthiness of others on the

165 basis of their beliefs in the ability (knowledge, skills, and competencies), benevolence (the

166 trustor believes the trustee will act in the best interest of trustor), and integrity (the trustor

167 perceives the trustee as acting according to acceptable principles) of the trustee. Thus, a person

168 who chooses to trust another is likely to believe in the trustee’s ability, benevolence, and
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169 integrity. Mayer, Davis, and Schoorman (1995) argued that trust is a kind of personality trait

170 or characteristic of the parties. When users have a higher propensity to trust, they may have a

171 stronger desire to know more about the products/services. As a result, these users are less

172 resistant to watch in-app advertisements in order to gain more knowledge on products/services.

173 The more frequent users watch in-app advertisements, the stronger visual and mental images

174 of in-app advertisements left on minds of users. Indeed, researchers (Chang & Fang, 2013; Lee

175 & Turban, 2001) showed that the propensity to trust affects the level of customer trust in online

176 shopping. Hence, we posit the following:

177

178 H1.The propensity to trust is positively related to trust.

179

180 2.3. Trust and components of TPB

181 Trust has been explored in the context of online advertising (Aguirre, Mahr, De Ruyter, &

182 Wetzels, 2015; Bleier & Eisenbeiss, 2015). Bleier and Eisenbeiss (2015) identified that the

183 effectiveness of retargeting banner’s advertisements depends on consumers’ trust in retailers.

184 They used a controlled laboratory study to evaluate how trust moderates the impact of

185 personalization on consumers’ click-through intentions. Furthermore, Aguirre, Mahr, De

186 Ruyter, and Wetzels (2015) reported that consumers lost their trust for clicking online

187 personalized advertising when they realize that their personal information has been collected

188 covertly.

189 Trust has also been investigated in the online shopping context. Al-Debei, Akroush, and

190 Ashouri (2015) showed that trust is important to predict for consumer attitudes towards online

191 shopping. Lee, Balaji, and Wei (2015) reported that online experiences exert direct and indirect

192 influence on purchase intentions through trust. Bilgihan, Peng, and Kandampully (2014)

193 revealed that young consumers are heavy users of social media and their online information
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194 seeking and sharing behaviors are influenced by opinion leaders and interpersonal influence.

195 Moreover, Bilgihan (2016) indicated that trust is the most important factor in developing

196 loyalty in online shopping environment. Finally, Zhou and Tian (2010) highlighted that

197 perceived corporate image, perceived reference power, and perceived security are key

198 antecedents of trusting beliefs. They also demonstrated that trusting intentions depend on

199 consumers’ trust in firm’s integrity rather than their trust in its benevolence or ability.

200 In-app advertising is not the same as online advertising (Meng et al., 2016). In-app

201 advertisements target users based on personalization criteria. The criteria include app types,

202 device characters such as screen sizes, users’ past behaviors, demographic profile, and

203 geospatial information (Nath, 2015). In addition, in-app advertisements run with the apps,

204 meaning that they can assess users’ information as the apps. Given the uniqueness and

205 ubiquitous nature of in-app advertising, the knowledge of trust that we have obtained from the

206 existing studies in online advertising and online shopping contexts is unlikely to be directly

207 transferable to in-app advertising. Thus, we applied and extended the lens of TPB to look into

208 how trust influences users’ intention to watch in-app advertisements.

209 The relationship between trust and components of the TPB can be examined from the

210 perspective of social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986). Social cognitive theory states that the

211 outcome expectation is an individual’s estimation that a given behavior will lead to a particular

212 outcome; this belief affects a person’s attitudes toward the behavior. When a person trusts

213 another party to behave in the way necessary for a desirable outcome, favorable attitudes

214 toward the behavior is developed. As trust affects both outcome estimation and expectations,

215 it is an antecedent of positive attitudes toward a behavior. For example, Zhang and Zhang

216 (2005) explored the mechanism of online trust formation. They suggested that trust affects

217 attitudes toward online behavior and intent to engage in such behavior. In studying factors that

218 affected attitudes toward vendors and retailers in e-commerce, Elliott and Speck (2005), Pavlou
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219 (2003), and Pennington, Wilcox, and Grover (2003) found that trust was related to attitudes

220 toward e-vendors and retail Web sites. Gvaili and Levy (2016) reported that credibility and

221 trustworthiness influenced attitudes toward electronic word of mouth communication. Bleier

222 and Eisenbeiss (2015) suggest that trust plays an important role in shaping consumer responses

223 toward online advertising. Raines (2013) reported that credibility and trustworthiness were

224 positively associated with consumer attitudes toward in-app advertising. Walrave et al. (2016)

225 also suggested that trust may influence students’ attitudes toward online advertising and

226 purchase intention.

227 Trust may provide a strong stimulus for watching in-app advertisements (cf. Ghose & Han,

228 2014; Walrave et al., 2016), as the benevolence dimension of trust is directly connected to a

229 person’s beliefs about the goodwill and intentions of others (Hwang & Kim, 2007). When a

230 person recognizes the good intentions of others, s/he is less resistant to accepting new things,

231 such as watching in-app advertisements. Becerra and Korgaonkar (2011) found that trust

232 influences consumers’ online intention. Hence, we posit the following:

233

234 H2a.Trust is positively related to attitudes toward in-app advertisements.

235 H2b.Trust is positively related to intention to watch in-app advertisements.

236

237 2.4. Components of TPB

238 When a person develops favorable attitudes toward in-app advertisements, s/he does not

239 mind to know more or obtain new information from in-app advertisements. Hence, this person

240 may have a high intention to watch in-app advertisements. In fact, Raines (2013) suggests that

241 a person will have a positive evaluation of his/her belief and will then develop the intention to

242 realize his/her belief. Choi, Kim, Kim, and Yeh (2013) explored the factors influencing

243 advertising avoidance on online video sites. They found that positive attitude toward online
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244 advertising is negatively related to advertising avoidance. In addition, subjective norm may

245 influence a person’s intention to watch in-app advertisements. If a person’s friends, spouse,

246 relatives, or colleagues watch in-app advertisements, it is likely that the person will be

247 influenced by the actions of his/her peers, and copy their behaviors. Li, Dong, and Chen (2012)

248 suggest that a person will be positively influenced by the subjective norm on his/her intention

249 to act.

250 Finally, we predict that if there is a lower level of perceived behavioral control, a person

251 will have a weaker intention to watch in-app advertisements. As this study defines perceived

252 behavioral control as the lack of resources to watch in-app advertisements, a higher score of

253 perceived behavioral control shall be associated with a lower score of the intention to watch

254 in-app advertisements. Fortunately, given the ease and low cost of owning smartphones and

255 electronic devices such as iPads, it becomes easy, timely, and less costly to watch in-app

256 advertisements and perceived behavioral control can be a secondary factor in shaping people’s

257 intention and behavior. In sum, the three components of TPB, attitudes toward the behavior,

258 subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, all affect users’ intent to engage in the

259 behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Hence, we hypothesize the following:

260

261 H3a.Attitudes toward in-app advertisements are positively related to intention to watch in-

262 app advertisements.

263 H3b.Subjective norm is positively related to intention to watch in-app advertisements.

264 H3c.Perceived behavioral control is negatively related to intention to watch in-app

265 advertisements.

266

267 2.5. Intention and behavioral response

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268 Ajzen (1991) suggested that intention, with or without perceived behavioral control, leads

269 to actual behavior. In e-commerce, the more frequently a consumer watches in-app

270 advertisements, the higher the chance that s/he will perform the desirable actions that the

271 advertisements advocate. In addition, trust is a significant predictor of online shopping

272 behavior (Lee & Turban, 2001). We therefore make the following hypothesis:

273

274 H4a.Intention to watch in-app advertisements is positively related to users’ behavioral

275 response.

276

277 2.6. Perceived behavioral control and behavioral response

278 Features that facilitate process of shopping, such as lower cost, less time and effort, easily

279 accessible information from in-app advertisements, encourage users to learn more about a

280 products/services, to buy the products/services, and then to pass product information to friends

281 (Chen, Huang, & Chou, 2012). When users enjoy a high accessibility to know the

282 products/services characteristics from in-app advertisements, this will encourage their

283 incentive of knowing more about the perceived benefits of the products/services. Given the

284 convenience of watching in-app advertisements at anywhere and anytime (Vorderer, Kromer,

285 & Schneider, 2016), users can enjoy more socialization to discuss with their friends frequently

286 about the in-app advertised products/services. Bhave, Jain, and Roy (2013) reported that there

287 are associations between in-app advertising, brand awareness, and purchase intention. Hence,

288 if users have a high accessibility to in-app advertisements and recognize the in-app advertised

289 products/services to be attractive or useful to them, they may have a stronger intention to

290 purchase the products/services. Finally, when a person has more resources and less costly to

291 control one’s behavior, this person will have lower behavioral responses. Hence, we posit the

292 following:
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293

294 H4b.Perceived behavioral control is negatively related to users’ behavioral responses.

295

296 2.7. Trust and behavioral response

297 Trust is closely associated with a set of beliefs (Doney & Cannon, 1997). Previous studies

298 have examined customers’ beliefs in companies’ honesty and benevolence (Flavian &

299 Guinaliu, 2006). Honesty in these studies is the degree of certainty that a customer has in a

300 company’s sincerity and its willingness to honor its promises to that customer (Flavian &

301 Guinaliu, 2006). Benevolence, in these studies, is related to a customer’s belief that the

302 company is acting in the customer’s interest and is not engaging in any opportunistic behavior

303 toward the customer, and is about mutual benefits (Doney & Cannon, 1997; Flavian &

304 Guinaliu, 2006). Pavlou (2003), and Pavlou, Liang, and Xue (2006)indicated that trust is a

305 defining feature of most economic interactions when uncertainty exists, such as in e-

306 commerce. Hence, trusting consumers are more likely to make online purchases. Here, when

307 consumers believe in a company’s honesty, they are prepared to believe in the perceived

308 benefits of the advertised products/services. As a result, users may try to read more about the

309 in-app advertised products/services. In addition, when customers believe in the company’s

310 benevolence, they believe that the company will not harm its customers, and are therefore more

311 likely to discuss the perceived benefits of the products/services with their friends or relatives.

312 Finally, when users have a high level of trust in the selling firm’s skills in developing the

313 products/services, the users may purchase the in-app advertised products/services. Hence, we

314 hypothesize the following:

315

316 H4c.Trust is positively related to users’ behavioral response.

317
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318 Fig. 1 shows the extended TPB model. Hypotheses (H1-H4) are also shown in this figure.

319

320

321 Fig. 1. Theoretical model linking the propensity to trust, trust, and TPB

322

323 3. Method

324

325 3.1. Sample and procedures

326 We adopted the back-translation method to ensure the validity of the questionnaire’s

327 translation (Brislin, 1970). We translated the questionnaire items from English into Chinese

328 and then invited another experienced marketing researcher to translate the same items from

329 Chinese back into English. This procedure reduces any discrepancies in the questionnaire

330 items. In addition, we conducted a pilot test on some respondents to check the clarity of the

331 questionnaire items and instructions. Other than back-translation method, we also randomized

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332 the negative items of perceived behavioral control to reduce the possibility of common method

333 bias.

334 A-prior sample size calculations were performed using Westland’s (2010) formulas to

335 ensure that the study sample size was adequate. Under the condition “effect size: 0.18, desired

336 statistical power level: 0.8, probability level: 0.05; the number of latent variables: 7, and the

337 number of observed variables: 25, the minimum sample sizes for the IBM SPSS AMOS 23.0

338 structural equation modeling analysis were 171 (for detecting effect) and 131 (for building

339 model structure), respectively. The largest value of them (171) was much smaller than our

340 sample size of 480 respondents, confirming the adequacy of the sample.

341 The target population of the study was young Chinese mobile users in Hong Kong. Young

342 adults were selected because they have been found to be faster adopters of mobile services

343 (Harris, Rettie, & Cheung, 2005). We posted the online survey on one of the most popular

344 search engine sites for three months. We invited students from the author’s classes, their

345 friends, and their relatives to complete the survey online at their own convenience. Finally,

346 there were 513 responses. After removal of 33 incomplete responses, there were 480 completed

347 responses. Among these respondents, 55.6 percent of respondents were female, 30.1 percent of

348 them were less than 20 years old, 42.9 percent of them had a Bachelor degree, 21.7 percent of

349 them were full-time undergraduate students, and 24.4 percent of them had less than two years

350 of work experience. Table 1 shows the demographic profile of respondents.

351

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352 Table 1. Demographic profile of respondents (N = 480)

Frequency Frequency
Gender : male 213 (44.4%) Education: High school 154 (32.1%)
female 267 (55.6%) Undergraduate student 104 (21.7%)
Bachelor’s degree 206 (42.9%)
Age: <20 145 (30.1%) Masters’ degree or above 16 (3.3%)
20 to <25 142 (29.6%)
25 to 30 78 (16.3%) Working experience: 0 to < 2 yrs 117 (24.4%)
30-35 49 (10.2%) 2 to < 4 yrs 91 (19%)
>35 66 (13.8%) 4 to < 6 yrs 46 (9.6%)
Above 6 yrs 73 (15.2%)
Missing value 153 (31.8%)
353

354 3.2. Measures

355 The questionnaire had two parts. The first part included items measuring the propensity to

356 trust, trust, and components of the TPB including attitudes toward in-app advertisements,

357 subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, intent to watch in-app advertisements, and

358 users’ behavioral response. Most of the items were adapted from existing instruments and they

359 were rated using a 5-point Likert scale, with 1 representing “strongly disagree” and 5

360 representing “strongly agree.” The second part contained five questions that collected

361 demographic information on the respondents’ gender, age, education level, job position, and

362 years of work experience.

363 Propensity to trust. This construct measured how likely a consumer is to trust a person,

364 thing, or information. Lee and Turban (2001) demonstrated that trust propensity is related to

365 trust and online purchasing behavior. We adapted three items from Lee and Turban (2001).

366 The Cronbach’s alpha for this 3-item scale was 0.87.

367 Trust. This construct measured the overall trust a consumer has in Web-based information

368 including its perceived accuracy and reliability (Lee & Turban, 2001). We developed a 4-item

369 scale in which two items were adapted from Lee and Turban (2001). The Cronbach’s alpha for

370 this scale was 0.89.

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371 Attitudes toward in-app advertisements. A consumer’s attitude is based on his/her salient

372 beliefs. Hence, we adapted a 6-item scale based on attitudes toward advertising and advertising

373 game (Lai & Huang, 2011; Olney, Holbrook, & Batra, 1991; Wang, Sun, Lei, & Toncar, 2009).

374 The Cronbach’s alpha for this 6-item scale was 0.88. A confirmatory factor analysis was also

375 performed that confirmed the unidimensionality of this 6-item scale.

376 Subjective norm. A subjective norm is perceived social pressure to engage in a behavior.

377 We developed a 3-item scale to measure perceived social pressure from friends, friends of

378 friends, and family members in which two items were adapted from Izquierdo-Yusta, Olarte-

379 Pascual, and Reinares-Lara(2015). The Cronbach’s alpha for 3-item scale was 0.87.

380 Perceived behavioral control. Perceived behavioral control is related to the availability (or

381 lack) of resources necessary to perform a behavior (Ajzen, 1991; Gopi & Ramayah, 2007).

382 Hence, we developed a 3-item scale based on the lack of time, money, and equipment as

383 suggested by Ajzen (1991). The Cronbach’s alpha for this 3-item scale was 0.7.

384 Intention to watch in-app advertisements. This construct refers to how likely the respondent

385 is to watch in-app advertisements and how frequent s/he thinks about watching in-app

386 advertisements. We developed three items to measure users’ intention to watch in-app

387 advertisements in which two items were adapted from Cheung and To (2016). The Cronbach’s

388 alpha for this 3-item scale was 0.85.

389 Behavioral response. Watching in-app advertising is the actual behavior. This behavior can

390 lead a user to explore further information about the products/services and to have a greater

391 intention to buy the products/services. Hence, we developed a 3-item scale to measure this

392 construct. The Cronbach’s alpha for this 3-item scale was 0.86. The items of these constructs

393 are shown in Appendix A.

394

395 4. Results
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396 The means, standard deviations, skewness, kurtosis, and correlations of the constructs are

397 shown in Table 2. The means ranged from 1.93 to 2.53 and the standard deviations ranged from

398 0.81 to 1.01. Skewness and kurtosis were used to check the normality of the constructs. As

399 explained in Westland (2010), structural equation modeling works well for normally

400 distributed sample data. The absolute value of skewness coefficients was less than 3 (with the

401 highest value at 0.82) and the absolute value of kurtosis coefficients were less than 8 (with the

402 highest value at 0.92). These thresholds were suggested by Kline (2005) for structural equation

403 modeling analysis.

404 We used IBM SPSS AMOS 23.0 to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis of the

405 measurement model. Covariance-based AMOS was selected over other approaches such as

406 PLS-PA because AMOS provides a wide range of fit indices for model assessment and our

407 study is confirmatory in nature (Westland, 2010). First, a confirmatory factor analysis of the

408 measurement model was conducted by comparing the 7-factor model, which included the

409 propensity to trust, trust, attitudes toward in-app advertisements, subjective norm, perceived

410 behavioral control, intention to watch in-app advertisements, and users’ behavioral response,

411 (Chi-square= 1639.97, d.f. = 275, CFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.06) with a 1-factor model

412 (Chi-square= 2669.31, d.f. =281, CFI = 0.74, TLI = 0.83, RMSEA = 0.11). The criteria of a

413 good model fit were 2/d.f. ≤ 5, CFI ≥ 0.95, TLI ≥ 0.95, RMSEA ≤ 0.8 (Hopper, Coughlan, &

414 Mullen, 2008). The change in the chi-square value between the 7-factor and 1-factor model

415 was significant (△chi-square= 1029.34, d.f.= 6, p <0.001). This indicates the 7-factor model

416 to have a high convergent validity. The value of 2/d.f. (1639.97/275=5.96) for the 7-factor

417 model marginally meets the recommended criterion. Nevertheless, the use of chi-square test or

418 2/d.f. has severe limitations because the chi-square value depends on the size of samples and

419 the number of indicator variables (Hair, Black, Babin, & Anderson, 2009; Hopper, Coughlan,

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420 & Mullen, 2008). As the values of CFI, TLI, and RMSEA of the 7-factor model met the above

421 recommended threshold values, therefore, the 7-factor model was considered acceptable.

422 We tested the discriminant validity on our constructs. Discriminant validity holds when the

423 square root of average variance extracted (AVE) of the construct is greater than the correlations

424 between this construct and all other constructs (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). The AVE values of

425 propensity to trust, trust, attitudes toward in-app advertisements, subjective norm, perceived

426 behavioral control, intention to watch in-app advertisements, and users’ behavioral response

427 were 0.68, 0.71, 0.51, 0.69, 0.57, 0.54, and 0.58 respectively. The square root of AVE ranged

428 from 0.71 to 0.84, all greater than the correlations between constructs ranging from 0.06 to

429 0.59. Hence, the results supported discriminant validity.

430 The common method variance was tested using two methods. Harman’s one-factor test was

431 used first; it resulted in a four-factor structure that explained 69.64% of the variance. No single

432 factor was apparent in the unrotated factor structure. The first factor explained 18.66% of the

433 total variance (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin = 0.88, p <0.001) and no single factor accounted for the

434 majority of the variance. No general factor was apparent, and there was little common method

435 variance to confound the interpretation of the findings.

436 The means, standard deviations, and correlations of the variables are shown in Table 2. The

437 means ranged from 1.93 to 2.53 and the standard deviations ranged from 0.81 to 1.01. The

438 propensity to trust was found to be positively related to trust (r = 0.45, p<0.01). Trust was

439 found to positively predict attitudes toward in-app advertisements (r = 0.57, p<0.01), intention

440 to watch in-app advertisements (r = 0.43, p<0.01), and users’ behavioral response (r = 0.50,

441 p<0.01). In addition, users’ intentions to watch in-app advertisements were an outcome of their

442 attitudes toward in-app advertisements (r = 0.59, p<0.01), subjective norms (r = 0.51, p<0.01),

443 and perceived behavioral control (r = 0.17, p <0.05). Finally, users’ intentions to watch in-app

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444 advertisements were found to have positive effects on their behavioral response (r = 0.56,

445 p<0.01).

446
447 Table 2: Descriptive statistics of the studied variables (N = 480)

M SD Skew Kurt 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1. Gender 1.56 0.50 . .
2. Age 2.48 1.37 . . -0.01
3. Education 2.18 0.92 . . 0.00 0.02
4. Job position 2.20 1.48 . . -0.01 0.63** -0.08
5. Work tenure 2.60 1.36 . . -0.00 0.80** 0.06 0.55**
6. Trust propensity 2.36 0.91 0.30 -0.55 0.12** -0.09* -0.01 0.00 -0.09*
7. Trust 2.49 0.81 0.25 -0.37 0.04 -0.02 0.06 0.05 -0.05 0.45**
8. Attitudes toward in-app 2.44 0.82 0.30 -0.51 0.06 0.10 -0.01 0.04 -0.02 0.46** 0.57**
9. Social norm 2.20 1.01 0.36 -0.93 0.60 0.06 -0.05 0.06 0.01 0.31** 0.34** 0.47**
10. Perceived beh. control 2.46 0.84 0.18 -0.32 -.10* 0.10* 0.01 0.06 0.09 0.06 0.16** -0.07 0.04
11. Intent to watch in-app 1.93 0.88 0.82 -0.08 0.08 0.04 -0.10* 0.06 -0.02 0.46** 0.43** 0.59** 0.51** 0.17**
12. Users’ beh. response 2.53 0.95 0.22 -0.87 0.13** -0.07 -0.2 0.10 -0.10* 0.52** 0.50** 0.57** 0.44** 0.13** 0.56**
448 Notes: M – mean; SD – standard deviation; Skew – skewness; Kurt - kurtosis
449 *p<0.05; **p< 0.01.
450

451 The results of the structural equation modeling indicated that users’ propensity to trust was

452 positively related to trust (ß = 0.49, p<0.001). Thus, H1 was supported. Trust was found to be

453 predictor of users’ attitudes toward in-app advertisements (ß = 0.62, p<0.001), but

454 insignificantly related to their intention to watch in-app advertisements (ß = 0.05, n.s.).

455 Accordingly, H2a was supported, but H2b was not.

456 For the components of the TPB, users’ attitudes toward in-app advertisements (ß = 0.47,

457 p<0.001), subjective norm (ß = 0.20, p<0.01), and perceived behavioral control (ß = 0.18,

458 p<0.01) were each found to be positive antecedents to the intention to watch in-app

459 advertisements. Thus, H3a and H3b were supported. H3c was not supported because we

460 expected the relationship between perceived behavioral control and intention to watch in-app

461 advertisements to be negative. This finding is interesting because it suggests that high barriers

462 to watching in-app advertisement in fact increase young Web users’ intention and interest to

463 watch those advertisements. Finally, users’ behavioral response was positively influenced by

464 intention to watch in-app advertisements (ß = 0.67, p<0.001) and trust (ß = 0.41, p<0.001), but

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465 negatively influenced by perceived behavioral control (ß = -0.29, p<0.001), Accordingly, H4a,

466 H4b, and H4c were supported.

467

468
469 Note: **p< 0.01;***p<0.001

470 Fig. 2. Results of the final model

471

472 5. Discussions

473 In this study, we investigated how the propensity to trust and trust influence mobile users’

474 attitude, intention, and behavior with regards to watching in-app advertisements. Our results

475 demonstrated that the propensity to trust leads to a higher level of trust, and this leads to

476 favorable attitudes toward in-app advertisements. The favorable attitude increases users’

477 intention to watch in-app advertisements, and thus results in the desirable behavior. In addition,

478 we found that users’ intention to watch in-app advertisements was positively predicted by their

479 attitudes toward in-app advertisements, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control.

480 Finally, perceived behavioral control and users’ intention to watch in-app advertisements were
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481 negatively and positively related to their behavioral response, respectively. These results

482 showed that the extended TPB is applicable to the in-app advertising context. Nevertheless, an

483 unexpected positive link was found between perceived behavioral control and users’ intention

484 to watch in-app advertisements. One of the reasons explaining for this unexpected positive link

485 is that most (59.7%) respondents were young mobile users, aged less than 25 years. Given that

486 young mobile users have more resources and perceive lower cost to use mobile services, they

487 are more likely to react in opposite by having positive than negative intentions to watch in-app

488 advertisements. Another reason is that more than half (53.8%) of respondents were high school

489 and university students. They might make use of the content of in-app advertisements to

490 socialize with their friends and imitated their friends’ behavior to develop positive rather than

491 negative users’ intentions to watch in-app advertisements.

492 Our findings enrich the past literature on in-app advertisements that propensity to trust and

493 trusting belief are salient determinants of users’ responses to in-app advertisements, but not

494 determinant of intentions to watch in-app advertisements. Our findings are similar to that of

495 Saeri et al.’s finding (2014), who reported an insignificant relationship between trust and users’

496 intentions, our results indicated that trust is insignificantly predictive of users’ intention to

497 watch in-app advertisements. It is likely that users’ trust in this context may focus on in-app

498 advertised products/services. Therefore, a more relevant measure of trust may be trust in the

499 most recently read in-app advertisements. In fact, our study only covered the extent to which

500 users’ believe in the honesty of in-app advertising. Other than honesty, Vidotto, Massidda,

501 Noventa, and Vicentini (2012) suggested that researchers should consider other components of

502 trust, namely benevolence, competence, and predictability.

503 Our results indicated that there is an insignificant link between trust and intention to watch

504 in-app advertisements, and trust is positively related to attitudes towards in-app advertisements,

505 which in turn positively result in a higher intention to watch in-app advertisements. These
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506 findings imply that the relationship between trust and intention to watch in-app advertisements

507 is fully mediated by user’s attitudes toward in-app advertisements. It means that even if users

508 have a trusting belief, they still need to rest on favorable attitudes toward in-app advertisements,

509 for example, eye-catching headlines, before being visually driven to have a high intention to

510 watch in-app advertisements. On the other hand, given the significant link between perceived

511 behavioral control and users’ behavioral response, perceived behavioral control is positively

512 related to intention to watch in-app advertisement, which in turn positively affect users’

513 behavioral responses. These findings suggest that users’ intention to watch in-app

514 advertisements may be a plausible mediator that partially mediates the link between perceived

515 behavioral control and users’ behavioral response.

516 In addition, our findings extended past research on the TPB (De Canniere, De Pelsmacker,

517 & Geuens, 2009; Su & Xu, 2011) by using this theory to demonstrate that the propensity to

518 trust is a key determinant of trust, and can directly account for users’ behavioral response or

519 indirectly create such a response through inducing favorable attitudes toward in-app

520 advertisements and encouraging the intention to watch in-app advertisements. It is important

521 for researchers to understand that trust exerts different levels of influences on users’ intention

522 to watch in-app advertisement and behavioral response than in-app advertising through

523 different paths. In addition, our results also integrates the trust and TPB literature by identifying

524 and propensity to trust and trusting belief are salient dispositional predictors for attitudes

525 toward the users’ behaviors in the TPB model.

526

527 5.1. Implications

528 The findings of the study show that trust has a moderate but significant direct effect (0.41)

529 and weaker significant indirect effect (0.62×0.47×0.67=0.20) on mobile users’ behavioral

530 response while trust is moderate significantly dependent on individual’s propensity to trust.
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531 Hence, simply increasing the frequency of in-app advertisements may not be a sustainable

532 method for increasing conversion rates that facilitate target marketing, product positioning, and

533 more possible product sales (Nath, 2015). Given the salience of propensity to trust and trust on

534 attitudes, intentions, and behaviors towards in-app advertisements, e-commerce practitioners

535 are reminded to build users’ trust by broadcasting in-app advertisements in which users find

536 themnot only entertaining and relevant to their lives, but believable, accurate and reliable.

537 Rather than making users exposed to the same advertisement which can produce a negative

538 effect over time, practitioners are advised to keep the contents of in-app advertisements fresh

539 and accurate by making users recognized the ‘true’ benefits of advertised brand. Another

540 plausible way of promoting trust is to reward users who recommend others to use the advertised

541 products/service through clicking ‘Likes’ – as Likes acting as endorsements of

542 products/services (Mariani & Mohammed, 2014).In addition, Kosinski, Stillwell, and Graepel

543 (2013) also demonstrated that public records of Facebook users such as clicking ‘Likes’ could

544 be used to accurately predict a wide range of sensitive personal attributes including personality

545 traits, intelligence, religious and political views, sexual orientation, etc. Hence, it is worthwhile

546 to explore the extent to which the public records of Facebook users can be explained by the

547 users’ propensity to trust, for example, when a mobile user has a high propensity to trust, s/he

548 may be more likely to be less resistance to watch in-app advertisements and believe in the

549 contents of such advertisements than others do.

550 Aside from building users’ trust, practitioners are encouraged to promote the favorable

551 attitude of customers towards in-app advertisements by using pop stars or celebrities with

552 healthy images in promotion of the advertised products/services (Djafarova&Rushworth,

553 2017). An alternative method of promoting users’ positive attitudes toward in-app

554 advertisements is to provide more material benefits to users such as redemption tickets for

555 getting free samples of the advertised products/services or free memberships, or to enhance
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556 experiential values by embedding gamification funware (Sigala, 2015). Moreover, practitioners

557 can build up users’ positive attitudes toward in-app advertisements by making use of reliable

558 authorities in highlighting the unique features of advertised products/services.

559 In order to maximize the conversion rates of in-app advertisements, practitioners are

560 suggested to define clearly in-app’s unique conversion goals and create innovative and targeted

561 engagement strategies for increasing the conversion rates. In terms of defining the in-app’s

562 unique conversion goals, practitioners can include interesting messages or good looking

563 graphics or informative demo videos in in-app advertisements for increasing the time users

564 spent in that in-app. For example, in travel-related in-app advertisements, practitioners can do

565 the possible conversion events on allowing members to easily check the remaining reward

566 points or know what the hot deals of each month are. In terms of creating innovative and

567 targeted engagement strategies, in the context of the tourism industry, practitioners can offer

568 in-app-only discounts to encourage in-app shopping and send useful messages to visitors

569 during their travel and can drive purchases like hotel rooms and rental cars. Alternatively,

570 practitioners can improve users’ in-app experiences by speeding up the search of the firm’s in-

571 app advertisements within the first five entries. Finally, practitioners can increase users’

572 accessibility to reach in-app advertisements by expanding the range of online platforms, such

573 as Amazon, App Store, and SlideMe.

574

575 6. Conclusion

576 This empirical study is one of the first to integrate trust with components of the TPB in the

577 context of watching in-app advertisements – an emergent channel through which companies

578 promote their products/services in a personalized, engaged, and uninterrupted manner. We

579 proposed and found that the propensity to trust was salient to induce mobile users’ trust, and

580 lead to positive attitudes toward in-app advertisements, and such attitude increased users’
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581 intentions to watch advertisements. In addition, intention to watch in-app advertisements was

582 positively influenced by users’ attitudes toward in-app advertisements, subjective norms, and

583 perceived behavioral control. This intention was found to be a positive antecedent to desirable

584 consumer behavior. Our findings open up a new avenue of social commerce research into the

585 link between trust and components of TPB. Besides, the findings of the study point to the direct

586 influence of trust on mobile users’ attitudes toward in-app advertisement and behavioral

587 response, suggesting that organizations shall now focus on knowing trust orientation of their

588 customers – possibly through profiling customers based on their activities on mobile platforms.

589

590 6.1. Limitations and future research directions

591 Our study is subject to some limitations. The results may be limited by the use of a cross-

592 sectional study and the Asian cultural context. Further research could consider validating our

593 proposed model in a longitudinal study, and testing the model on respondents in a non-Asian

594 cultural context. In this study, we focused on trust as a salient input to the TPB. It is likely that

595 individual differences may be another important determinant to be tested in the future. Previous

596 studies (Fogel & Nehmad, 2009; Lee & Youn, 2009) reported that women were marginally less

597 trusting of online information than men. Age may be another significant predictor of attitudes

598 to watching in-app advertisements and behavioral responses toward such advertisements. For

599 example, older participants had a greater intention to protect their well-being and may therefore

600 be less likely to believe in advertisements than adolescents. Other than demographic factors,

601 Hurr, Kang, and Kim (2015) suggest that cultural difference exerts an influence on users’ trust

602 while Mohsen (2010) suggests that cultural similarity helps to induce trust. Therefore, future

603 researchers may need to explore whether and how differences in cultural values shape trusting

604 belief and affect the relationships between components of TPB.

605
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828

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829 Appendix A: Questionnaire items

830
Propensity to trust
- It is easy for me to trust an in-app advertisement. 0.82
- My tendency to trust an in-app advertisement is high. 0.84
- I tend to trust in-app advertisement even though I have little knowledge. 0.81
Trust
- In-app advertising is believable. 0.81
- In-app advertising is reliable. 0.84
- The content of in-app advertising is accurate. 0.83
- I trust in-app advertising. 0.89
Attitude toward in-app advertising
- In-app advertising is informative. 0.74
- In-app advertising is meaningful. 0.74
- In-app advertising is fun. 0.76
- In-app advertising is likable. 0.74
- In-app advertising is relevant to me. 0.65
- In-app advertising is useful for me. 0.65
Subjective norm
- I watch in-app advertising because my close friends do that. 0.87
- I watch in-app advertising because my friends of friends do that. 0.83
- I watch in-app advertising because my family members do that. 0.79
Perceived behavioral control
- I don’t have a device that allows me to access in-app advertising. 0.72
- I don’t watch in-app advertising because of the lack of time. 0.76
- I don’t watch in-app advertising because it will cost me money. 0.78
Intent to watch in-app advertising
- I often think about watching in-app advertising. 0.61
- It is very likely that I will spend more time watching in-app advertising. 0.77
- It is very likely that I will seek more chances to watch in-app advertising. 0.81
Behavioral response
- After watching in-app advertising, I plan to learn more about the products/services. 0.78
- After watching in-app advertising, I discuss with my friends more frequently about the 0.76
products/services.
- After watching in-app advertising, I have a greater intention to purchase the 0.75
products/services.

831
832 Note: Factor loadings are shown in the right column.

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Highlights

Propensity to trust influences trust.

Trust is an antecedent of mobile users’ attitudes toward in-app ad.

Attitudes, norm, and perceived behavioral affect intention to watch in-app ad.

Trust affects mobile users’ behavioral response.

The extended theory of planned behavior explains users’ intention to watch in-app ad.