Int. J. Business Information Systems, Vol. X, No.

Y, xxxx 1

Developing and validating a comprehensive model of

factors influencing consumer acceptance of SMS
advertising: empirical evidence using SEM-PLS

Mohammad Hamdi Al Khasawneh*

Department of E-Marketing and Social Media,
Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT),
Khalil Al Saket St 112, 11941, Amman, Jordan
Email: m.alkhasaawneh@psut.edu.jo
*Corresponding author

Ahmed Shuhaiber
Al Ain University of Science and Technology,
P.O. Box 112612, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Email: ahmed.shuhaiber@aau.ac.ae

Abstract: This study examined consumers’ acceptance of SMS advertising, as

one of the mobile marketing instruments that is increasingly popular in
accessing consumers through their mobile devices, by empirically investigating
the factors that influence consumers’ attitudes towards and acceptance of SMS
advertising. A comprehensive model was developed and tested with a sample
size of 321 Jordanian mobile phone users, and analysed quantitatively using
structural equation modelling-partial least squares (SEM-PLS) method. The
findings indicated that SMS advertising values (entertainment and credibility)
and SMS content (clarity and relevancy) as well as subjective norm and
consumer control have a positive significant influence on consumer attitude and
acceptance of SMS advertising. The results represent novel findings that hold
important implications and recommendations for future marketing research and
practice.

Keywords: consumer acceptance; mobile marketing; SMS advertising; SMS

messages.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Al Khasawneh, M.H.

and Shuhaiber, A. (xxxx) ‘Developing and validating a comprehensive model
of factors influencing consumer acceptance of SMS advertising: empirical
evidence using SEM-PLS’, Int. J. Business Information Systems, Vol. X,
No. Y, pp.xxx–xxx.

Biographical notes: Mohammad Hamdi Al Khasawneh is an Assistant

Professor in the Department of E-Marketing and Social Media at the Princess
Sumaya University for Technology Amman, Jordan. His research interests
include internet advertising, search engine advertising, social media marketing,
viral marketing, mobile marketing, mobile banking, consumer behaviour and
corporate social responsibility.

Copyright © 20XX Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

2 M.H. Al Khasawneh and A. Shuhaiber

Ahmed Shuhaiber is a full-time Lecturer in the Department of Management

Information System at Al Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. His
research interests include information and communication technology, web
applications, consumer trust, mobile marketing, and mobile payments.

1 Introduction

1.1 Background
We have entered a new ‘all mobile’ era, in which mobile phones are not only used in the
telecommunication industry, but also in diverse range of business and commercial fields
and applications (Shuhaiber et al., 2014). In mobile marketing sector, for instance,
dramatic structural changes are taking place within the rapid growth of this field. The
most notable being the growth and prominence of short-message-service (SMS)
advertising, which developed due to the necessity to find solutions for the increased
market demand on more consumer-oriented and targeted advertising and a personalised
mobile advertising format (Afzal et al., 2015; Barwise and Strong, 2002; Xu et al., 2008).
Also taking into consideration that worldwide ownership of mobile devices has increased
substantially, SMS advertising has emerged as a new promising promotional opportunity
to reach customers effectively (Bakr and Tolba, 2016; Dix et al., 2016; Humbani et al.,
2015; Ishaq et al., 2015; Radder et al., 2010; Lin and Chen, 2015; Muk and Chung,
2015). Marketers also consider SMS advertising an efficient way to reach their target
audience due to its customisation and personalisation features (Aslam et al., 2016).
Existing perspectives within the relevant literature have provided support for this view by
asserting that SMS advertising has managed to attract the attention and interest of
marketers as a promotional tool and potential effective form of media. In terms of the
concept, SMS advertising has been viewed as the process of targeting well-identified
potential customers with text messages (Reyck and Degraeve, 2003). SMS advertising
has also been defined as the transmission of advertising via mobile phones in the form of
text-based messages (Haghirian et al., 2005). For the purpose of the current study, SMS
advertising is perceived as using SMS services sent to consumers’ mobile phones, to
provide them with time and location sensitive information which in turn promotes goods,
services and ideas, thereby generating value for all stakeholders (Kavassalis et al., 2003).
According to the most recent SMS marketing statistics, with over five billion mobile
phones in today’s world, over 90% of mobile users stated that they receive or send at
least one text message per week. In the SMS advertising context, 95% of all mobile users
(both Smartphone and non-Smartphone users) have been contacted by brands that use
SMS marketing to reach their customers (Al Khasawneh and Shuhaiber, 2013). This
emphasises the great importance and popularity of SMS marketing worldwide.

1.2 Characteristics of mobile advertising

Several previous studies have presented the unique features of SMS advertising
(Haghirian et al., 2005; Pagani, 2004; Perlado and Barwise, 2005; Steinbock, 2005).
These characteristics are explained in Al Khasawneh and Shuhaiber’s (2013) study and
presented below:
 Developing and validating a comprehensive model of factors 3

• Ubiquity. Mobile advertising allows consumers to access advertising messages at

their convenience. When receiving mobile advertising messages, consumers can read
them, eliminate them or keep them in their inbox until they decide what to do with
them (Chowdhury et al., 2010). The increasing role of mobile phones in consumers’
everyday lives has led to a continuous growth in mobile advertising budgets, as
marketers realise that being connected everywhere, at all times, through mobile
phones can be seen as a great opportunity to advertise, build, and develop customer
relationships and receive a direct response from said customers (Liu et al., 2012).
• Interactivity. The nature of the two-way communication enabled by mobile phones
allows users to respond directly to SMS messages. This interactivity feature enables
advertisers to establish a direct dialogue with their potential customers, and to
succeed in their marketing campaigns.
• Localisation. Some geographic technologies such as geographic information systems
(GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) enable telecom operators to localise
users and identify their current positions. Such technologies enable advertisers to
determine their potential consumers and accordingly send customised messages
based on locations. Such localisation could increase customer’s response rate to SMS
advertising and make it more useful and fruitful.
• Personalisation. Personalising SMS advertisements can be attained by using
information provided by consultancies’ databases at an early stage or by the history
of users’ purchasing patterns, resulting in attracting consumers’ attentions and
gaining highly personalised marketing measures. Therefore, SMS advertising can be
considered a direct and personalised consumer communication tool.
• Viral marketing. Even though SMS advertising is considered a direct marketing tool,
it has viral effects that transfer from one receiver to another. The SMS received from
a familiar sender can be expected to have greater influence on the receiver than a
message sent directly from the advertiser. As a result, viral effects can extend the
consumers-reach base and effectiveness of SMS. All previously mentioned
characteristics are referred to in SMS advertising literature as shown in Table 1.

1.3 Research justification

The characteristics explained above confirm the great potential of SMS advertising as a
convenient customer-oriented marketing tool. Despite the continued growth and future
potential of SMS as an advertising tool, the success of such advertising relies mainly on
its acceptance by consumers. Furthermore, most of the previous studies have examined
SMS marketing in western context, and little attention has been given to the investigation
of such a tool in the Arab world (Al Khasawneh and Shuhaiber, 2013). Little research has
been conducted on the acceptance of this advertising medium by Arab consumers, and
the factors that prove to be of the greatest importance in influencing this acceptance
(Jamieson et al., 2011; Muk and Chung, 2015; Varnali et al., 2012). Therefore, the
4 M.H. Al Khasawneh and A. Shuhaiber

current study aims to fill this gap by providing insight into this important arena, through
the examination of factors that impact consumer attitudes towards and acceptance of
SMS advertising within the Jordanian context. This is particularly important in the
Jordanian context where the success of a new medium such as SMS advertising relies on
the acceptance of the medium by consumers.
Table 1 Characteristics of SMS advertising

Characteristic Found in literature

Ubiquity Bauer et al. (2005), Bulander et al. (2005), Jamieson et al. (2011),
Mirbagheri (2010)
Interactivity Bauer et al. (2005), Bulander et al. (2005), Mirbagheri (2010),
Van der Waldt et al. (2009), Xu (2006)
Localisation Bauer et al. (2005), Wunker and Hughes (2001), Xu (2006)
Personalisation Bauer et al. (2005), Jamieson et al. (2011), Rettie et al. (2005),
Saadeghvaziri and Seyedjavadain (2011), Xu (2006)
Viral marketing Bauer et al. (2005), Mirbagheri (2010), Karjaluoto et al. (2007)

Next Sections 2 and 3 present relevant literature from SMS advertising research, through
which hypotheses and a conceptual model were developed. Sections 4 and 5 demonstrate
testing the model, the research methodology and findings consequently. Lastly Section 6
rounds off with conclusions, recommendations for future marketing research and practice
into SMS advertising.

2 Literature review

Previous studies demonstrate that the attitude toward mobile advertising is an important
construct for mobile marketing research as a result of its impact on consumers’ intention
to accept mobile advertising (Kuo and Yen, 2009; Tsang et al., 2004). In this area of
examination, the focus has been centred on the four main antecedents that stimulate
consumers’ attitude toward mobile advertising: informativeness, entertainment, irritation,
and credibility (Tsang et al., 2004; Lee et al., 2006; Okazaki et al., 2007), as illustrated in
Table 2. However, little empirical examination has been done to analyse a larger set of
major potential antecedents that may provoke consumer attitude toward mobile
advertising, apart from the previously mentioned well examined constructs (Tsang et al.,
2004), such as incentive and message-content related factors for example. With reference
to our previous related paper, entitled ‘A comprehensive model of factors influencing
consumer attitude towards and acceptance of SMS advertising: an empirical investigation
in Jordan’, a proposed comprehensive model was developed and initially tested. The
proposed model included most of the potential antecedents found in the existing relevant
literature and combined in one comprehensive model. Based on the suggestions of the
aforementioned study, we propose an extensive quantitative testing using more reliable
and accurate measurements in order to provide further rigid validation for the proposed
comprehensive model of consumer attitude and acceptance of mobile advertising.
Authors and year Model(s) used Constructs Methodology Findings
Table 2

Rajala and Extending the Content, trust, subjective norms, Quantitative online survey. Sample Emphasising the role of subjective value in addition to
Westerlund (2010) theory of reasoned subjective values, and intention to size – 103. PLS structural equation subjective norms as a key predictor of the acceptance of
action (TRA) accept mobile ads. modelling mobile ads. The results underline the importance of
appealing content and trust in the advertisers.
Tsang et al. (2004) Extending TAM Entertainment, informativeness, Quantitative. Sample = 380. Consumers generally have negative attitudes toward
irritation, credibility, permission, correlation, stepwise regression and mobile advertising unless they have specifically
attitudes, incentives, intention and SEM. consented to it. There is a direct relationship between
behaviour. consumer attitudes and consumer behaviour.
Ratihayu et al. Consumers’ utility, utilisation of Quantitative methodology. It is found that customer utilities, contextual, control,
(2008). contextual information, control, Convenience cluster area random sacrifice, and trust of the SMS advertising are
sacrifice, consumers’ trust, and the sampling technique Sample size = significantly affecting the acceptance of receiving mobile
frequency of exposure about the 350. Multiple regression analysis. advertising; The frequency of exposure from SMS
mobile advertising itself. advertising is not significantly affecting the customer
acceptance toward mobile advertising.
Drossos et al. ---- Location, interactivity, incentive, An experimental method. ANOVA Only incentive, interactivity, appeal, product
(2007). appeal, concreteness, language, analysis. N =97. involvement, acronyms usage and attitude towards SMS
product involvement, acronyms, advertising exhibit main effects on attitudinal variables
credibility, attitude, and purchase and purchase intentions.
intention.
Saadeghvaziri and TAM Personalisation, irritation, credibility, Quantitative survey. N =652 mobile All constructs are influential in developing positive
Hosseini (2011) informativeness, entertainment, phone users. One sample T-test. attitude toward mobile advertising.
monetary benefits, and attitude.
Rohm et al. (2012). TAM Perceived usefulness, attachment, Quantitative survey. 430 responses Perceived usefulness, consumer innovativeness and
innovativeness, risk avoidance, from the USA, 456 responses from personal attachment directly influence attitudes toward
Previous studies on acceptance factors of SMS advertising

attitude, and mobile marketing China, and 450 responses from mobile marketing in all three markets. In China and
activities. Europe. Europe, risk avoidance also negatively influences
attitudes toward mobile marketing.
Developing and validating a comprehensive model of factors

Scharl et al. (2005) Message content, personalisation, A quantitative content analysis of the It presented a conceptual model of effective SMS
consumer control, device technology, fortune global 500 websites and advertising based on a qualitative survey among senior
transmission process, product fit, qualitative interviews with European management and academic experts in the field.
media cost, perceived usefulness, experts.
perceived ease of use, attitude, peer
influence, consumer attention,
intention, behaviour
5
 6

Authors and year Model(s) used Constructs Methodology Findings

Table 2

Yang et al. (2013) TAM Perceived usefulness, perceived ease Quantitative survey. 439 MBA The combined model of technology- and emotion-based
of use, entertainment, irritation, students at a Korean university. evaluations provides a robust framework that gives
credibility, acceptance of mobile Structural equation modelling using superior ability in predicting consumer response to
technologies, attitude towards mobile LISREL 8.12. mobile ads.
ads, user experience, and response to
mobile ads.
Varnali et al. ---- Incentives, prior permission, content Using a field experiment with actual In comparison to permission and incentive, individual
(2012) involvement, prior experience with behavioural responses. MANCOVA differences are stronger determinants of responses to
the mobile medium, and medium-fit and Least square regression. mobile advertising campaigns.
perceptions, perceived intrusiveness,
campaign attitude, actual response,
response delay, WOM intention.
López-Nicolás et TAM and diffusion Social influence, media influence, Quantitative survey. N = 542. SEM Among all the accepted paths, social factors exert the
al. (2008) theory model perceived status benefits, perceived using LISREL most important influence on people’s decision to adopt
flexibility benefits, attitude towards advanced mobile services.
mobile innovations, perceived
usefulness, perceived ease of use,
behavioural intentions.
M.H. Al Khasawneh and A. Shuhaiber

Alexander Muk, TAM Perceived ease of use, perceived Quantitative survey. Samples consist Usefulness is important in establishing favourable
Christina Chung usefulness, attitudes toward of 171 US university students and consumer attitudes toward acceptance of SMS ads in both
(2015) acceptance, social influence, and 131 Korean university students for a countries. Young Korean consumers’ attitudes toward
intentions to use. total of 302 respondents. SEM SMS ads are more positive than their American
analysis counterparts. Although social influence has no effect on
Korean consumers' attitudes toward acceptance, it does
show a positive relationship with American consumers'
attitudes.
Okazaki and ----- Brand building effect, location based 53 managers through telephone Managers from the European Union, Japan, and the
Taylor (2007) marketing, privacy/security interviewing. PLS United States will be more likely to adopt SMS
concerns, technological conditions, advertising if they perceive it as having the ability to help
managerial intention to adopt sms build the brand. They are also likely to perceive
Previous studies on acceptance factors of SMS advertising (continued)

advertising. information security as a threat to the ability of “pushing”

the product through the wireless channel.
Martí Parreño et al. TAM and TRA Entertainment, irritation, usefulness, The sample consisted of 355 Spanish Entertainment, irritation and usefulness are key drivers of
(2013) attitude, and acceptance of mobile teenagers. The model was tested teenagers’ attitude toward mobile advertising. Improving
advertising. using structural equation modelling. teenagers’ attitude toward mobile advertisements is a key
factor for teenagers’ mobile advertising acceptance.
 Developing and validating a comprehensive model of factors 7

As shown in Table 2, extensive research was conducted to examine the factors

influencing the acceptance of SMS advertising over the last two decades. However, this
area is still researchable and needs further investigation; as most of the previous research
focused on particular factors while neglecting others. A holistic view of factors is needed
in order to fill the gap in SMS advertising literature and to identify a set of the most
important factors with regards to relevancy in terms of their influence on SMS
advertising acceptance.
Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine, determine, and validate the most
relevant factors impacting consumers’ attitude and acceptance of SMS advertising. In
addition, this study aimed to deal with actual behaviour (actual acceptance) rather than
the prediction behaviour indicated in TAM and other models, which in turn fosters the
explanatory power of our model.
The next section discusses these factors, gives a justification of their selection and
provides the hypotheses associated with each of them.

3 Acceptance factors and hypotheses development

Based on the existing literature related to mobile advertising, this section presents the
theoretical model that conceptualises the relationship amongst the focal constructs, that
is, the impact of SMS advertising value factors, SMS message content factors and other
related factors on consumer attitude towards and acceptance of SMS advertising. The
current research model was developed on the basis of the work Ducoffe’s (1996) research
model which has been later extended by Brackett and Carr (2001) to include more
relevant value advertising factors. Ducoffe study (1996) which stated that
informativeness, entertainment, and irritation are important factors affecting customers’
attitude towards SMS advertising. Brackett and Carr (2001) have further tested Ducoffe’s
findings and have come out with additional two variables; credibility and relevant
demographic variables. Based on an extensive securitisation of the existing relevant
literature and for the purpose of the development of a compressive model, Additional
variables have been included in the current research based on their importance and role in
influencing consumers’ attitudes and acceptance of SMS advertising.

3.1 Informativeness
The term ‘informativeness’ refers to the ability of the advertisements to inform
consumers about products (Ducoffe, 1996; Van der Waldt et al., 2009) as well as the
ability of the advertising to effectively provide relevant information (Oh and Xu, 2003).
Both Ducoffe (1996) and Barwise and Strong (2002) indicate that customers prefer
informative messages and the informativeness of the content of advertisements is a robust
predictor of their value and one that is crucial to the effectiveness of advertising. The
advertised message is considered to be beneficial to the consumer when it provides
timely and accurate information (Oh and Xu, 2003). Taking this point further, previous
research demonstrated that informativeness of the advertising message was found to be
strongly and positively related to consumers attitudes towards the advertising (Al
Khasawneh and Shuhaiber, 2013; Alsamydai and Al Khasawneh, 2013; Humbani et al.,
8 M.H. Al Khasawneh and A. Shuhaiber

2015; Ishaq et al., 2015; Lin and Chen, 2015). Therefore, the following hypothesis is
suggested:
H1 The informativeness of SMS advertisements has a significant positive influence on
consumer attitude towards SMS advertising.

3.2 Entertainment
Entertainment is the ability of the advertising to satisfy the consumer desires for pastime,
deviation, appealing enjoyment, or emotive enjoyment proposed by Ducoffe (1996). In
this respect, Mitchell and Olson (1981) argue that entertaining advertising can put the
audience in a good mood, and thus, could have an impact on consumers’ attitudes toward
advertising and even toward the advertised brands. Entertainment features included in the
SMS ads are known to build customers’ loyalty and do value addition for customers
(Aslam et al., 2016).Taking this point further, entertainment is seen as an internal factor
with a positive influence on consumers’ approach to ads and as a positive psychological
feeling. It can be assumed that advertising that satisfies consumers’ need for an
aesthetically appealing, pleasurable and emotional experience would be evaluated and
accepted by them (Alsamydai and Al Khasawneh, 2013; Bauer et al., 2005; Humbani
et al., 2015; Ishaq et al., 2015; Lin and Chen, 2015). Given the above discussion and the
need to validate the influence of entertainment on consumers’ attitudes in the area of
SMS advertising, it is hypothesised that:
H2 The entertainment of SMS advertising has a significant positive influence on
consumer attitude towards SMS advertising.

3.3 Irritation
Irritation refers to the tactics employed in the advertisement that would be perceived as
annoying, offensive, insulting, deceptive or overly manipulative (Ducoffe, 1996;
Van der Waldt et al., 2009). The intrusive tactics advertisers may use when competing to
grab consumer’s attention can be annoying to the audiences (Sandage and Leckenby,
1980). Moreover, Li et al. (2002) stated that when users find advertising as
interfering with their goal oriented tasks for which they are present on a particular
medium, the ads are perceived as being irritating. Indeed, SMS advertising may provide a
stream of information that confuses the receiver and can be distracting and overwhelming
(Ishaq et al., 2015; Stewart and Pavlou, 2002), which may result in consumers being
confused and as such reacting negatively towards them. The attitude model supports a
negative relationship between customers’ attitude towards advertisement and their
perception of irritation from advertisements (Aslam et al., 2016). Taking this point
further and to provide further support for this view, Ahmadi et al. (2013) and Lin and
Chen (2015) demonstrated that SMS ads may provide consumers with information which
makes them indecisive and upset and as a result they show negative responses towards
them. Similarly, El-Garhi and Ericsson (2014) reported a similar finding. Thus, it is
hypothesised that:
H3 Irritation of SMS advertisements has a significant negative influence on consumer
attitude towards SMS advertising.
 Developing and validating a comprehensive model of factors 9

3.4 Credibility
MacKenzie and Lutz (1989) viewed credibility of advertising as consumers’ perceptions
of the reliability, believability and trustworthiness of advertising in general. A more
recent study by Daugherty et al. (2008) considered advertising credibility as consumer’
expressions of their expectation related to the fairness and factualness of advertising.
Credibility can be a powerful tool for marketers to gain customers trust, which is crucial
for the success of mobile marketing (Dix et al., 2016; Ishaq et al., 2015; Siau and Shen,
2003). Consistent with this view, Xu (2006) and Lin and Chen (2015) demonstrated that
credibility factors should be incorporated into technology adoption studies. Taking the
above discussion into consideration, we suggest that the credibility of SMS advertising
has a positive influence on consumers’ attitude toward SMS advertising and on the
perceived advertising value of the consumer. Thus, it is hypothesised that:
H4 The credibility of SMS advertising has a significant positive influence on consumer
attitude towards SMS advertising.

3.5 Message clarity

Advertising message clarity deals with whether the advertisement has an obvious, concise
message or not. Despite advertisers’ best efforts, it is a common occurrence in the
advertising industry that consumers mistakenly comprehend the advertisement’s message
(Jacoby and Hoyer, 1990). In other words, Pechmann (1996) stated that consumers
frequently misunderstand the specific claims that are made, the general conclusions
reached, and/or the sponsors of the advertisements. Therefore, advertisers are encouraged
to regularly test consumers’ comprehension of advertisements in rough cut and/or final
form, to identify any problems that might arise (Pechmann and Stewart, 1990). Despite
the importance of message clarity in the context of SMS advertising and taking into
consideration that an SMS advertisement has only a brief amount of time to influence
consumers, limited research has examined the impact of message clarity on consumers’
attitudes and acceptance of SMS advertising. Given the above discussion and the need to
advance and validate our understanding regarding the influence of message clarity on
consumers’ attitudes in the area of SMS advertising, it is hypothesised that:
H5 Message clarity has a significant positive influence on consumer attitude towards
SMS advertising.

3.6 Incentives
Individuals are interested in deriving some monetary gain from direct marketing
programs (Milne and Gordon, 1993). In the same vein, it was found that recipients
respond in a positive manner to advertisements that transfer incentives (Varshney, 2003).
In a Nokia-sponsored survey, conducted by HPI Research Group, it was concluded that
almost 86% of the respondents confirmed that there should be a monetary or non-
monetary benefit for accepting mobile advertisements (Pastore, 2002). Similarly,
incentives offered to mobile users may result in granting permission for receiving SMS
ads (Demarneffe, 2008; Drossos et al., 2007; Pastore, 2002; Tsang et al., 2004; Varshney,
2003). In particular, positive attitude has been found to be positively correlated with
10 M.H. Al Khasawneh and A. Shuhaiber

incentives for mobile ads (Aslam et al., 2016). Previous research supports that users
expect a reward for receiving SMS advertisements (Dharmadasa and Alahakoon, 2014;
Saadeghvaziri and Seyedjavadain, 2011). In order to discover whether incentive has an
impact on consumer acceptance of SMS advertising, it is hypothesised that:
H6 Providing incentives for receiving SMS ads has a significant positive influence on
consumer attitude towards SMS advertising.

3.7 Brand familiarity

Brand familiarity refers to the consumers’ level of direct and indirect experience with
products or brands (Alba and Hutchinson, 1987; Hoch and Deighton, 1989; Kent and
Allen, 1994), individual’s subjective experience (Pieters et al., 2002), consumers’ brand
knowledge and associations (Campbell and Keller, 2003), and the extent of importance
attached by consumers to the brands (Simonin and Ruth, 1998). The existing relevant
marketing literature found that brand familiarity is an important predictor influencing
consumers’ decision-making (Bettman and Park, 1980; Coates et al., 2006; Martinez et
al., 2008; Park and Lessig, 1981), advertising effectiveness (Campbell and Keller, 2003),
and behavioural responses (Al Khasawneh, 2012; Söderlund, 2002). In particular, Coates
et al. (2006) asserted that advertisements for familiar brands were considered to be more
effective in terms of achieving the desired communication objectives in comparison to
advertisements for unfamiliar brands. In order to further examine the extent and nature of
the relationship between familiarity and the attitude towards SMS advertising, it is
hypothesised that:
H7 Brand familiarity has a significant positive influence on consumer attitude towards
SMS advertising.

3.8 SMS ad relevancy

Advertising relevancy has been identified by Lastovicka (1983) as the degree to which
the advertising and its message content are pertinent, applicable, and related to
consumers’ needs. In the context of SMS advertising, consumers expect SMS advertising
to be highly relevant to them as the mobile phone has a personal nature (Barwise and
Strong, 2002; Rau et al., 2011). High relevance can only be obtained by sending reliable
information to consumers (Al Khasawneh, 2012). Previous studies related to relevancy of
SMS advertising can be categorised into two streams; the first stream of research
suggested that sending SMS ads relevant to consumers will have a significant influence
on perceiving SMS advertising as a valuable service (Haghirian et al., 2005; Merisavo
et al., 2007; Vatanparast, 2007; Xu et al., 2008). The second stream of research viewed
that SMS ads would provide more value for end users if they are received at suitable
times and locations (Dix et al., 2016; Merisavo et al., 2007; Carroll et al., 2007; Rau
et al., 2011; Vatanparast, 2007; Xu et al., 2008). However, many previous studies have
not supported the second view (Muk and Babin, 2006; Drossos et al., 2007). For further
investigation, it’s hypothesised that:
H8 Relevancy of SMS advertisements has a significant positive influence on consumer
attitude towards SMS advertising.
 Developing and validating a comprehensive model of factors 11

3.9 Personalisation
Personalisation refers to building a meaningful one-on-one relationship, by considering
the needs of each individual (Rieken, 2000), and customising the content of the
advertising message accurately to match individual preferences (Bauer et al., 2005; Rau
et al., 2011). Employing one-on-one marketing, through serving and customising offered
to individual customers, is well established in marketing and plays a significant role in
customer relationship marketing. In particular, messages of a more personalised nature
are usually perceived more positively than mass-market messages by consumers
(Humbani et al., 2015; Xu et al., 2008). Similarly and according to Saadeghvaziri and
Seyedjavadain (2011), sending personalised text messages through the mobile platforms
are more relevant to consumers than non-personalised messages as it is able to provide
consumers with exact information and serve their personalised needs. Taking this point
further, Kalakota et al. (2002) stated that personalised mobile advertising has the ability
to attract significant attention. Many practitioners called for message personalisation as a
possible solution to increase the effectiveness of SMS Advertising. Further support for
this view has been provided by DeZoysa (2002) Leppaniemi and Karjaluoto (2005) and
Robins (2003) who argued that customers tend to be more receptive to messages that are
customised to their needs and preferences. Another study conducted by Xu (2006) found
that marketers are able to reach their potential customers in a very individual manner and
enhance their relationship with them by using personalised messages. Empirically,
permission causes a positive and significant impact on the attitude of customers and the
attitude has been found to be positively related to the intention of customers to receive
SMS ads (Aslam et al., 2016). Thus, it is hypothesised that:
H9 Personalised SMS messaging has a significant positive influence on consumer
attitude towards SMS advertising.

3.10 Subjective Norms

Subjective norms refer to an individual’s perception of the social (family colleague,
peers, and friends) pressure on him either to perform or not perform the behaviour in
question (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1977). The subjective norm construct according to the
Ajzen (1991) suggest that people often act based on their perception of what ‘important
others’ to them think they should do or how they think they should behave. Many studies
have identified subjective norms as an important determinant of behavioural intentions
(Lin, 2008; Muk and Chung, 2015; Taylor and Todd, 1995; Yi et al., 2006). Such a
relationship is formerly illustrated in the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), developed
by Fishbein and Ajzen (1977), and shows that intentions are shaped through attitudes and
social norms which in turn form or even influence an individual’s behaviour.
Moving into the mobile marketing context, several previous studies specified that
subjective or social norms influence consumer acceptance of SMS advertising. For
instance, in their empirical studies, Mansour (2012) found that subjective norms were
positively and significantly related to attitudes toward mobile advertising, whereas Bauer
et al. (2005) implied that social norms have only a slight direct influence on the
behavioural intention towards mobile marketing activities. By reflecting these
considerations, the following hypothesis is suggested:
12 M.H. Al Khasawneh and A. Shuhaiber

H10 Social norms have a significant positive influence on consumer attitude towards
SMS advertising.

3.11 Consumer control

Several mobile-marketing related studies have investigated the concept of consumer
control (Tsang et al., 2004; Scharl et al., 2005; Standing et al., 2005). The importance of
the consumer control construct in the context of mobile marketing comes from users’
preferences to be able to control ads received into their mobile devices in terms of time,
location, content and frequency aspects (Pietz and Storbacka, 2007). A further
explanation for this point is presented by Shimp (2007) who stated that successful
advertiser must gain consumers permission regarding receiving ads through their mobile
phones. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H11 Consumer control of SMS advertising has a significant positive influence on
consumer attitude towards SMS advertising.

3.12 Attitude toward mobile advertising

Fishbein (1976) defined an attitude as a learned predisposition of human beings. Attitude
is an imperative construct in the existing literature related to marketing and information
systems. It is observed that there is a universal agreement that attitude towards
advertising can be considered as “…a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently
favourable or unfavourable manner to advertising in general” (Lutz, 1985, p.53). Over the
past two decades, attitudes toward advertising have been studied more than any other
concept in the marketing area (Al Khasawneh, 2012, 2015a, 2015b; Ishaq et al., 2015;
Kabadayi and Kachersky, 2012; Lin and Chen, 2015; Pollay and Mittal, 1993;
Shavitt et al., 1998; Wang et al., 2002), because of its relation to consumer responses
towards advertisements (Schlosser et al., 1999) and its influence on behavioural
intentions (Dix et al., 2016; Goldsmith and Lafferty, 2002; Humbani et al., 2015; Lutz,
1985; McMillan et al., 2003; Muk and Chung, 2015; Poh and Adam, 2002). In general,
consumer attitude is an important variable for evaluating the effectiveness of advertising
messages and advertising campaigns. Therefore, the emphasis has been on attitude
towards SMS advertising as the fundamental variable to examine the acceptance of SMS
advertising. Thus, it is postulated that:
H12 Consumer attitude towards SMS advertising has a significant positive influence on
consumer acceptance of SMS advertising.
In our research model, we have regrouped all the factors impacting m-commerce, internet
marketing and mobile marketing into three general themes that could be applied to the
specific topic of SMS advertising: SMS advertising value, SMS advertising content,
consumer-related factors, attitude toward SMS ads and consumer acceptance of SMS
advertising. The model is presented in Figure 1.
 Developing and validating a comprehensive model of factors 13

Figure 1 The proposed model

SMS advertising value

Informativeness

Entertainment
H1
Irritation
H2

H3
Credibility
H4
Incentive H5 Attitude towards SMS H12 Consumer acceptance
advertising of SMS advertising

SMS Content H6

Clarity H7

H8
Brand Familiarity H9 H10 H11

Relevancy

Personalisation
Subjective norm Consumer control

4 Methodology

A quantitative approach using survey instrument was applied in this research to

investigate Jordanian customers’ attitudes towards SMS advertising. The use of a survey
was deemed appropriate because of its ability to collect quantitative data to test the
research hypotheses. In addition, logical comparisons can be made through quantitative
research in order to account for the variance in SMS-attitude phenomena, and measure
quantity, intensity and frequency (Neeman, 2005). The targeted population was all
mobile using Jordanian customers, which in turn increases the possibility to get a high
accuracy generalisation of this population (Neeman, 2005). In addition, a deductive
approach was followed to ensure data relevancy, by only answering questions that are
relevant to the research objectives. Details about the data collection, instrument
development, and instrument validity and reliability are presented in the subsequent
sections.

4.1 Data collection

Data were collected using a convenience sampling approach via an online self-
administered survey. A total of 358 respondents took the survey within a two-month
period (June–July, 2015). Respondents were invited to take the survey via an email of the
survey website link or through digital social media networks. As an incentive for
participation, respondents were given the chance to enter a prize draw of mobile-device
accessories through a gift voucher with a value of 30JD. Given that 37 responses were
discarded due to incompletion, a net sample of 321 usable questionnaires was deemed
valid for the research.
14 M.H. Al Khasawneh and A. Shuhaiber

4.2 Instrument development

The 45 question survey instrument was adapted using the conceptualisation and
development work found in the marketing literature. To specify, the questionnaire
contained four measuring items for variables such as informativeness and attitude toward
SMS advertising. Whereas entertainment, credibility, incentive, brand familiarity,
relevancy, personalisation, clarity subjective norm and consumer control had three
measuring items each. Both irritation and consumer acceptance were measured by
associating five items each. In addition, five items were developed to measure
demographic variables; namely: gender, age range, educational level, work
and marital status. A seven-point Likert scale was used to measure the constructs
presented in the proposed model (scores ranged from 1= ‘strongly agree’ to 7 = ‘strongly
disagree’, with the ‘neutral’ score = 4). This scale could effectively allow respondents to
express their opinions in this research, as it offers a wider range of agreement levels to a
statement than the traditional five-point scale.
The survey was available in two languages (Arabic and English). When translating
the questionnaires from English to Arabic, the researchers ensured that the meaning of
the source language statement was preserved to achieve the semantic equivalent (Inglis
et al., 2002). The survey instrument was refined during a pre-test to ensure the internal
consistency of the measured instrument, with the involvement of 25 respondents.
Consequently, only one item associated with the construct ‘incentive’ (INC3) was
rephrased. Afterwards, a pilot sample was conducted by 42 respondents to assure the
reliability and validity of the instrument. As a result, all measuring items were clear and
sound.

4.3 Instrument validation

The validity of the questionnaire was tested, in order to make sure it measures what it is
supposed to measure (Straub, 1989). The items in the survey instruments were mostly
adapted from the items developed by Ducoffe (1996), Fishbein (1976), and Brackett and
Carr (2001). In addition, a panel of three academics was employed to assess the face
validity of the questionnaire, they indicated that questions were easy to understand and
unambiguous. Thus, validity of the survey instrument has already been established. Also,
the instrument reliability was assessed to check the extent to which the items measure the
same way each time they are used, under the same conditions, with the same sample
(Hair et al., 1998). Instrument’s reliability was maximised by using clear
conceptualisation of the factors and ensuring accurate measurements, in addition to
operationalising each group of factors with multiple indicators (Neeman, 2005).
Furthermore, the questionnaire was pre-tested and modified to ensure that it was easily
understood. Additionally, reliability of the instrument was measured by examining the
internal consistency of the pilot sample, which was determined statistically by the
procedure developed by Cronbach in 1951 (Hair et al., 1998). Cronbach’s alpha splits all
the questions in the instrument every possible way and computes correlation values for
them all. Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients for all the constructs ranged from .72 to .93, all
well above the .70 standard of reliability suggested (Hair et al., 1998; Neeman, 2005).
Thus, internal consistency of the instrument was demonstrated. All these measures
indicate that the instrument is valid for further analysis.
 Developing and validating a comprehensive model of factors 15

4.4 Data analysis

A total of 321 valid surveys were obtained. Descriptive statistics were performed using
SPSS 18.0 to overview the sample participated in the survey, whereas a regression
analysis was performed to check the effects among various constructs. The regression
analysis method used in this research is structural equation modelling – partial least
squares (SEM-PLS). SEM-PLS is a second-generation comprehensive statistical data
analysis approach that is more powerful than other first-generation multivariate
techniques that can measure single relationships one at a time (Field, 2008; Hair et al.,
2016). PLS approach was appropriate considering the size of the model, enabling us to
extract meaningful results from the number of responses obtained. The rule of thumb for
determining the smallest sample size required to perform PLS analysis is that the sample
must comprise 10 times the number of items present in the largest construct (Hair et al.,
2016). SmartPLS 2.0 was used to perform inner and outer model regression analysis.
Findings are shown in the scenario below.

5 Findings and analysis

A breakdown of the demographic and background characteristics of the participants’

shows that male respondents were found to be the majority of the sample (57.9%) and
most of the respondents’ ages ranged from 20–39 years of age. According to respondents’
educational level, two thirds of the sample was tertiary educated, and more than half were
bachelor holders. As for work, most of the respondents were employees (accounted for
42%), whereas a quarter of the whole sample were students, followed by respondents’
with own business. Further demographic details are shown in Table 3.
By preparing the items for the PLS analysis, four items, namely: IRR1, FAM1, REL2
and ACP3 were reverse coded before conducting the regression analysis, to ensure that
all of the items are consistent with each other, in terms of the scale implied (what an
agree or disagree indicates) .
As other self-reporting surveys, the common method variance was assessed against
spurious associations among the variables (Howard, 1994), via Harman’s one factor test
(Igbaria et al., 1997; Podsakoff et al., 2003). The one factor test involves entering all
items to measure the different constructs into a single factor analysis to determine the
number of factors that account for the variance in the variables (Podsakoff et al., 2003).
The dominance of one factor would indicate that the items were related because of the
common method. By subjecting all of the items to the same factor analysis, 13 factors
were extracted with Eigen values higher than one, and the most covariance explained by
one factor was 32.1%, which means that a substantial amount of common variance was
not evident; a single factor did not emerge and did not account for the majority of the
variance in our model (Igbaria et al., 1997).
This implied that the data was ready for subsequent analysis, which was PLS
analysis. The PLS model is usually analysed and interpreted in two stages; firstly, by
assessing the reliability and validity of the measurement model (constructs and items);
and secondly, by assessing the structural model through interpreting the path coefficients
and identifying the adequacy of the research model (Hair et al., 2016). The subsequent
section discusses the results of these two stages.
16 M.H. Al Khasawneh and A. Shuhaiber

Table 3 Demographic profile of participants

Demographic variable categories Response information (N = 321)

Gender Male 186 (57.9%)
Female 135 (42.1%)
Age Under 20 34 (10.6%)
20–29 102 (31.7%)
30–39 94 (29.3%)
40–49 69 (21.5%)
50–59 18 (5.6%)
60 and above 4 (1.2%)
Education Primary school 9 (2.8%)
High school 29 (9.0%)
Diploma 44 (13.7%)
Bachelor 167 (52.0%)
Higher studies 72 (22.4%)
Work Employee 135 (42.0%)
Worker 7 (2.2%)
Own business 74 (23.1%)
Student 83 (25.8%)
No work 14 (4.4%)
Other: house wife 8 (2.5%)
Marital Single, never married 143 (44.5%)
status Married 116 (36.1%)
Separated 49 (15.3%)
Divorced 11 (3.4%)
Widow 2(0.6%)

5.1 Measurement (outer) model results

In order to view the correlations between the latent variable and the reflective indicators
in their outer model, the values of the outer loadings were examined. Indicators with an
outer loading above 0.7 were retained, whereas indicators with outer loadings between
0.4 and 0.7 were “considered for removal from the scale only when deleting the indicator
leads to an increase in the composite reliability (or the average variance extracted) above
the suggest threshold value” [Hair et al., (2016), p.103]. Indicators with very low outer
loadings (below 0.4) were eliminated from the scale.
As a result, the vast majority of the items were above the acceptable level of (0.5),
and thus demonstrating reliable items. However, two items: FAM2 and CTR2 were found
with low loadings: (0.016), and (0.248) respectively. Therefore, as recommended by Hair
et al. (2016), these items were eliminated from this study and were not involved in further
analysis. In addition, three items, namely FAM1, REL2 and ACP3 were found with
relatively low loadings: (0.495), (0.414) and (0.423) respectively. Those items were
initially accepted but were examined against the composite reliability and the average
 Developing and validating a comprehensive model of factors 17

variance extracted, to check whether they could increase the validity of their associated
constructs if they were under the acceptable level. In total, 47 validated items out of
50 were used to measure the dependent and independent variables (excluding the
demographic variables), as shown in Appendix A. Additional testing of the quality and
the scales was conducted, which established the construct’s validity and reliability.
Construct validity assesses whether the measures chosen are true measures of the
constructs describing the event, and that these measures are actual tools for representing
or measuring the construct being investigated (Gefen and Straub, 2005; Hair at al., 2016).
For the current study, construct validity was established, including both convergent and
discriminant validity. Convergent validity refers to the extent to which a measure
correlates, or converges, with other measures of the same construct (Hair et al., 2016).
Convergent validity is demonstrated when the Average Variance Explained (AVE) value
between the constructs is equal to, or exceeds, 0.5 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981; Hair et al.,
2016). As presented in Table 4, the AVE scores for the majority of the constructs in the
model were more than .50, which meets the first requirement of achieving convergent
validity. However, only one construct ‘brand familiarity’ showed low
AVE score (.462) which is below the acceptable level, as highlighted in the same
table (Table 4). Thus, this construct was a potential for elimination. Another approach to
assess the convergent validity of the constructs is to examine the composite reliability of
the constructs (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). All constructs exhibited acceptable to high
scores of composite reliability, exceeding the .70 threshold recommended by Hair et al.
(2016), except the ‘brand familiarity’ construct which demonstrated invalidity
(CR = 0.612). This result supports the decision of excluding this construct from the study.
Table 4 Validity and reliability estimates of the constructs

Average variance Reliability estimates

Construct Composite reliability
explained (Cronbach’s alpha)
Acceptance 0.877277 0.959211 0.899896
Attitude 0.740042 0.919272 0.883145
Brand familiarity 0.462314 0.61281 0.248153
Clarity 0.626068 0.833457 0.705821
Control 0.689461 0.816177 0.749771
Credibility 0.66976 0.858574 0.756156
Entertainment 0.867445 0.951529 0.923627
Incentive 0.614457 0.823873 0.71147
Informativeness 0.739033 0.918223 0.883072
Irritation 0.625653 0.869121 0.816374
Personalisation 0.829508 0.935796 0.897351
Relevancy 0.727313 0.86098 0.745545
Subjective norm 0.639218 0.826587 0.715598

In order to assess the internal consistency, Cronbach’s alpha measures need to be

examined.
 18

Table 5

Brand Subjective
Acceptance Attitude Clarity Control Credibility Entertainment Incentive Informativeness Irritation Personalisation Relevancy
familiarity norm
Acceptance 0.936
Attitude 0.746 0.860
Brand –0.304 –0.224 0.679
familiarity
Clarity 0.446 0.537 0.005 0.791
Credibility 0.474 0.630 –0.346 0.488 0.830
Entertainment 0.524 0.531 –0.103 0.418 –0.193 0.818
M.H. Al Khasawneh and A. Shuhaiber

Incentive 0.437 0.434 –0.253 0.505 –0.207 0.455 0.931

Correlation matrix among construct scores

Informativeness 0.349 0.502 –0.106 0.504 –0.074 0.469 0.248 0.783

Irritation –0.414 –0.427 0.235 –0.481 –0.191 0.564 0.656 0.287 0.859
Personalisation 0.425 0.377 –0.145 0.367 0.174 –0.348 –0.419 –0.319 –0.415 0.790
Relevancy 0.657 0.551 –0.262 0.543 0.042 0.504 0.431 0.456 0.327 –0.297 0.910
Control –0.342 –0.413 0.015 –0.214 –0.052 0.511 0.315 0.694 0.260 –0.352 0.514 0.852
Subjective 0.228 0.342 –0.126 0.292 –0.106 0.251 0.240 0.366 0.291 –0.074 0.085 0.176 1
norm
 Developing and validating a comprehensive model of factors 19

Internal consistency is achieved when reliability estimates are greater than .70
(Field, 2008; Hair et al., 2016). The .07 threshold is regarded in the fields of marketing
and Information Systems reported data to be the most commonly accepted cut off point
(Chin et al., 2003). Those measurements that demonstrate low reliability levels
should not be further investigated, as the convergent validity would not be achieved
(Hair et al., 2016). As presented in Table 4, many scores exhibited acceptable to high
reliabilities, with Cronbach’s coefficient alpha exceeding the .70 threshold recommended
by Field (2008) and Hair et al. (1998), thereby, satisfying the second requirement of
convergent validity. However, only one construct was found with very low and
unacceptable reliability scores; ‘brand familiarity’, which scored 0.248. This construct
was eliminated and was not included in step two of the PLS model analysis. Having
provided evidence of the convergent validity of the constructs, the discriminant validity
was assessed.
Discriminant validity examines the extent to which an independent variable is truly
distinct from other independent variables in predicting the dependent variable (Hair et al.,
1998). One popular approach to assess the discriminant validity followed in the current
research was through examining the cross-loadings comparisons between constructs.
Specifically, the AVE of each latent construct should be higher than the construct’s
highest squared correlation with any other latent construct (Hair et al., 2016). The square
roots of the AVE values of all constructs are calculated, and compared with correlations
between constructs. The results in Table 5 indicate that all constructs in the research
model achieved this criterion as none of the off-diagonal elements exceeded the
respective diagonal element. Thus, discriminant validity was demonstrated.
In summary of the first round PLS (outer) analysis, the measurement model results
provided support for the reliability, convergent and discriminant validities of the majority
of the constructs and their measures used in the current research, except one construct
‘brand familiarity’. In addition, the majority of the items used to measure the constructs
demonstrated validity except two items (FAM2 and CTR2), resulting in the deletion of
these two items. The assessment of the quality of the inner (structural) model is discussed
in the following section.

5.2 Structural (inner) model results.

An assessment of the structural model was undertaken to determine the significance of
the paths and the predictive power of the model through the PLS algorithm, then by
considering a bootstrapping process that involved 5,000 random re-samples from the
original data set to determine the significant levels of path coefficients (Hair et al., 2016).
Firstly, a systematic assessment of the structural model was conducted to assess the
significance of path coefficients by examining the standard error, t-statistics R-squared
value and confidence interval (Chin et al., 2003). The amount of variance explained by R²
provides an indication of the model fit (Hair et al., 1998) as well as the predictive ability
of the endogenous variables (Chin et al., 2003). Hair et al. (2016) suggest that the
minimum level for an individual R² should be greater than a minimum acceptable level
of .10.
Table 6 highlights the hypotheses of the study, and shows the path coefficient
between the exogenous and endogenous variables, the average variance accounted for, R²
and bootstrap critical ratios. The bootstrap critical ratios (T Statistics) determined the
20 M.H. Al Khasawneh and A. Shuhaiber

stability of the estimates and were acceptable at ranges between –1.96 and +1.96
(Chin et al., 2003). The R² value of ‘attitude towards SMS ad’ was found equal to 60.1%
and for ‘acceptance of SMS ad’ was 55.7%, indicating that both were greater than the
Hair et al.’s (1998) recommended level of .10; therefore, it was appropriate to examine
the significance of the paths associated with these variables. All of the paths and all
variables had bootstrap critical ratios as shown in Table 6. The results of each path are
interpreted in the next section.
Table 6 Influence paths and hypotheses results

Endogenous variables → Exogenous Critical ratio Hypothesis

H# Path
variable T-statistic result
Informativeness → Attitude H1 0.026 0.310 Not supported
Entertainment → Attitude H2 0.197 *2.447 Supported
Irritation → Attitude H3 0.049 0.877 Not supported
Credibility → Attitude H4 0.271 **3.786 Supported
Clarity → Attitude H5 0.177 *2.527 Supported
Incentive → Attitude H6 0.029 0.407 Not supported
Brand familiarity → Attitude H7 - - Eliminated
Relevancy → Attitude H8 0.176 *2.086 Supported
Personalisation → Attitude H9 0.014 0.213 Not supported
Subjective norm → Attitude H10 0.142 *1.970 Supported
Consumer control → Attitude H11 0.247 **4.634 Supported
Attitude → Acceptance H12 0.750 **21.557 Supported
Notes: * Sig at .05/**Sig at .01
(O/STERR): original sample (path coefficient)/standard error.

Figure 2 Tested research model

SMS advertising value

Informativeness

Entertainment

0.311
Irritation
0.197

–0.049
Credibility
0.271
Incentive Attitude towards SMS Consumer acceptance
0.029
advertising 0.750 of SMS advertising
R²=0.60 R² = 0.56

SMS content 0.177

0.176
Clarity
0.014
0.142 0.247
Relevancy

Personalisation

Subjective norm Consumer control

 Developing and validating a comprehensive model of factors 21

All path coefficients are demonstrated on the tested model in Figure 2. Normal arrows
present significant paths, whereas dotted arrows present insignificant paths coefficients.

6 Discussions, implications and conclusions

The study validates the model of factors influencing consumer attitude towards and
acceptance of SMS Advertising, and the empirical results strongly support the model in
predicting consumers’ attitudes towards and acceptance of SMS advertising. In particular,
the overall explanatory power of the current research model had an R-square of 60% for
consumer attitudes towards SMS advertising and 56% for consumer acceptance of SMS
advertising, indicating that the tested model had the capability of explaining a relatively
high percentage of variation of consumer attitude towards and acceptance of SMS
advertising. In addition, the current study found that consumer attitude towards SMS
advertising was significantly impacted by credibility, consumer control, entertainment,
message clarity, relevancy and subjective norms in their order of influencing strength.
Whereas, factors including informativeness, irritation, incentives and personalisation did
not play significant roles in affecting consumer attitude towards SMS advertising. The
findings show that acceptance of SMS advertising can be explained by consumer attitude
towards SMS advertising which is consistent with the results of studies conducted by
Tsang et al. (2004) and Xu et al. (2008).
Credibility and consumer control have emerged as the strongest influential factors
impacting consumers’ attitudes towards SMS advertising and consequently their overall
intention to accept SMS advertising. First, the empirical evidence of the current research
indicates that credibility is the most important and powerful factor in positively
influencing customers’ attitudes towards SMS advertising, implying that those consumers
who perceive SMS advertising as credible and trustworthy were more likely to have a
positive attitude towards SMS advertising. This result is consistent with previous research
findings within the traditional and mobile advertising context (Al Khasawneh, 2012,
2015a; Brackett and Carr, 2001; Dahlén and Nordfält, 2004; Friman, 2010; Haghirian and
Madlberger, 2004; MacKenzie and Lutz, 1989; Tsang et al., 2004; Van der Waldt et al.,
2009). For this reason, it is essential, for the success of an SMS advertising campaign, not
only with regards to the operational characteristics but also the perceived credibility of
SMS advertising. Therefore, SMS advertising developers should focus on enhancing
customer credibility when planning and developing SMS advertising campaigns.
Second, consumer control was found to have a significant positive impact on
consumer attitude towards SMS advertising and was the second most powerful predictor
of the acceptance of such ads. This finding is consistent with most of the previous studies
within the extant relevant literature indicating that consumers pursue the control of the
number and types of advertising messages they receive and the provision of permission
before receiving them (Bamba and Barnes, 2006; Barnes and Scornavacca, 2004; Bauer
et al., 2005; Carroll et al., 2007; Dickinger et al., 2004; Grant and O’Donohoe, 2007;
Hanley and Becker, 2008; Leppaniemi and Karjaluoto, 2005; Maneesoonthorn and
Fortin, 2006; Okazaki et al., 2009). This indicates that SMS ads that are sent to
consumers without having their explicit approval are less likely to be accepted. This
implies that companies should explicitly and clearly seek consumers’ permission to
22 M.H. Al Khasawneh and A. Shuhaiber

receive SMS ads. In addition, companies sending SMS ads should give the choice to
consumers to either keep or remove themselves from the list of recipients.
The data findings also indicated that entertainment had a significant positive
influence on consumers’ attitudes towards SMS advertising. Consistent with this finding,
several mobile advertising studies have found that entertainment strongly affects attitude
toward mobile ads (Al Khasawneh and Shuhaiber, 2013; Bauer et al., 2005; Liu et al.,
2011; Tsang et al., 2004; Van der Waldt et al., 2009). Taking these findings into
consideration, it may be proposed that marketers look into creating humorous SMS
advertisements as these can help to gain the attention of readers as suggested by Barwise
and Strong (2002) and Van der Waldt et al. (2009). Furthermore, marketers need to look
at ways of increasing the entertainment as well as the level of enjoyment consumers’
associate with the receiving of SMS advertisements.
Fourth, message clarity was found to have a significant positive impact on consumer
attitude towards SMS which is consistent with previous findings by Taylor et al. (2006)
within the context of billboard advertising. Taking into consideration that there is limited
research attention regarding the influence of such a factor on consumer attitude towards
SMS advertising, this finding extends SMS advertising research by asserting that SMS
message clarity influences positively consumer attitude towards SMS advertising. This
result implies that message clarity is an important element to the success of advertising.
Regarding relevancy of SMS advertising, the empirical evidence in the current study
is consistent with many previous studies including Al Khasawneh (2012), Carroll et al.
(2007), Pagani (2004) and Nasco and Bruner (2008), which found that consumers were
more likely to accept the messages when the content was relevant to them. That is, the
current study supports that SMS ad relevancy plays a determinant role in influencing
consumer attitude towards SMS advertising, which in turn lead to greater acceptance of
SMS advertising. Hence, SMS advertising developers should focus on providing
customers with relevant ads on the basis of their profile, interests, location or situations.
This finding is also supported by Varshney and Vetter (2002) and Rao and Minakakis
(2003), who stated that, in order to enhance the effectiveness of mobile advertising,
marketers need to send precise messages based on knowledge of customer profiles,
histories, interests and needs, and who stated the importance of having marketing. Such
relevant information helps to reduce the likelihood of a negative reaction.
The findings of the current study also found that subjective norms have a positive
influence on consumer attitude towards SMS advertising which is consistent with
previous research conducted by Al Khasawneh (2015b), Bauer et al. (2005), Mansour
(2012), and Soroa-Koury and Yang (2010). This indicates that family, friends, colleagues
and media do significantly affect customers’ attitude and acceptance of SMS advertising.
A possible explanation of the results is that family, friends, colleagues and media had
experiences with SMS ads and therefore they have the information needed to assist
potential adopters to make relevant decisions.
Additionally, consumer attitude towards SMS was found to have a strong positive
influence on consumer intention to accept SMS advertising. This conclusion has been
confirmed by many previous studies stating that there is a direct relationship between
consumer attitudes and consumer behaviour within various contexts (Al Khasawneh,
2012, 2015a, 2015b; Tsang et al., 2004; Xu et al., 2008). Moreover, attitude is predicted
jointly by credibility, consumer control, entertainment, message clarity, relevancy and
subjective norms which suggested that the inclusion of attitude in the research model is
meaningful and significant.
 Developing and validating a comprehensive model of factors 23

The results, in turn, indicate that the influence of informativeness, irritation,

incentives and personalisation of attitude towards SMS advertising were insignificant.
This finding is surprising as most prior related existing research asserted that
informativeness of the advertising message was found to be strongly and positively
related to consumers attitudes towards the advertising (Ducoffe, 1996; Haghirian et al.,
2005; Leung, 2007; Merisavo et al., 2007; Oh and Xu, 2003; Tsang et al., 2004). The
insignificant impact of informativeness on attitude may be explained by the fact that
consumers do not heavily rely on the information included in the SMS ad as it’s a short
and limited message. Moving into irritation, it appears that consumers have no more
concerns about the irritation factor in SMS ads, especially as they have gotten used to
receiving many alerts and notifications on their smartphones and handheld devices. The
incentives factor was found to have insignificant influence on attitude, implying that most
respondents did not find financial incentives as an inhibiting factor on the acceptance of
such ads, which is inconsistent with the findings of Barwise and Strong (2002), Bauer et
al. (2005) and Xu et al. (2008). This emphasises the fact that consumers do not show
concerns about potential monetary benefit or sales promotions included in the SMS ads.
The current research disconfirms that users expect a reward for receiving SMS
advertisements.
This study contributes to the field of consumer behaviour, both in academia and
practice, particularly in the mobile advertising behaviour and adoption aspects. From an
academic perspective, this paper has responded to important calls that encourage
conducting research on the potential drivers of consumers’ attitudes toward and
acceptance of SMS advertising especially in emerging markets and Arab countries
(Al Khasawneh and Shuhaiber, 2013). Our empirical findings are consistent with
previous research findings and also help in closing gaps identified previously. From a
practical perspective, this paper represents one of the early attempts devoted to examine
an integrated model of consumers’ attitudes toward as well as consumer acceptance of
SMS advertising in Jordan.

7 Limitations and future work

This study has some limitations. Firstly, although most of the factors in the SMS
advertising literature have been included in this study, there were a few factors that were
not tested because of their irrelevancy in the context of Jordan (such as consumer trust
and technological conditions) or factors with less importance and significance (such as
message appeal, message innovativeness and product involvement). However, such
factors could be considered for testing in future research work. Additionally, the cultural
dimensions could be extensively focused on and examined in future research. Secondly,
despite pre-testing and a pilot study to ensure items reliability, there might be semantic
and linguistic biases in translation from English to Arabic. Thirdly, as any research
applying the survey-based method, this study was prone to the inherent limitation of
measurement errors (Neeman, 2005), which is associated with the type of questionnaire
used in this research; cross-sectional. This means that the causality of customer
acceptance of SMS advertising can only be inferred, but cannot be proven, which in turn
could decrease the statistical power and the capability to estimate a greater range of
conditional probabilities of accepting SMS advertising and could diminish the deduction
24 M.H. Al Khasawneh and A. Shuhaiber

value regarding changes with time (Yee and Niemeier, 1996). Nevertheless, the
measurement errors were minimised, as indicated by the study’s good validity and
reliability results reported and a future study could be conducted in a longitudinal
fashion, which would make possible stronger causal conclusions.

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32 M.H. Al Khasawneh and A. Shuhaiber

Appendix A

Item loadings
Construct Code Item Item loading
Entertainment ENT1 I find SMS advertising messages is entertaining. 0.929
ENT2 I find SMS advertising messages is enjoyable. 0.941
ENT3 I find SMS advertising messages is exciting. 0.923
Informativeness INF1 I think SMS advertisements are good source of 0.890
information of products/services
INF2 I consider the information in SMS advertising 0.899
valuable.
INF3 I think SMS advertising is a good source of up-to- 0.916
date product information
INF4 SMS advertising provides me with timely 0.717
information
Irritation IRR1 I feel offended by SMS advertisements. 0.617
IRR2 I feel annoyed when receiving SMS 0.772
advertisements.
IRR3 I feel SMS advertisements are deceptive. 0.690
IRR4 I feel the timing of receiving SMS advertisements 0.557
is suitable for me.
IRR5 I feel that receiving SMS advertisements can 0.792
breach my privacy
Credibility CRD1 I find SMS advertisements truthful. 0.827
CRD2 I find SMS advertisements trustworthy. 0.857
CRD3 I find SMS advertisements are believable to be 0.767
used as a reference for purchasing
Personalisation PRS1 I feel that SMS advertisements display 0.864
personalised content to me.
PRS2 I find SMS advertisements are tailored to my 0.947
expectations.
PRS3 I think advertisers take my preferences into 0.918
account in their SMS advertisements.
Attitude ATT1 SMS advertisements are good. 0.855
towards SMS ATT2 I react favourably to SMS advertisements. 0.856
advertising
ATT3 I like reading SMS advertisements. 0.865
ATT4 I feel positive towards SMS advertisements 0.862
 Developing and validating a comprehensive model of factors 33

Item loadings (continued)

Construct Code Item Item loading
Consumer CTR1 I feel I cannot control receiving SMS 0.826
control advertisements.
CTR2 I find it important that I can easily stop receiving 0.248
messages
CTR3 I would not prefer receiving SMS advertisements 0.825
without providing my permission
Incentives INC1 I think SMS advertisements contain incentives. 0.809
INC2 Sales promotions are important incentives in SMS 0.620
advertisements
INC3 I can benefit from SMS advertisements’ incentives. 0.895
Relevancy REL1 I think SMS advertisements provide me with 0.858
relevant product information.
REL2 I feel SMS advertisements do not meet my needs. 0.414
REL3 I receive SMS advertisements on the right time. 0.709
Brand FAM1 It is important that I am familiar with brands 0.495
familiarity included in SMS advertisements.
FAM2 It is important that I recognise brands included in 0.016
SMS advertisements.
FAM3 I do not read SMS advertisements for brand names 0.943
that I have not heard of.
Clarity CLR1 I feel SMS advertisements clear. 0.815
CLR2 I feel SMS advertisements understandable. 0.722
CLR3 I think SMS advertisements can give a full idea 0.831
about products/services
Social SOC1 Views of people surrounding me can influence my 0.608
influences acceptance of SMS advertising.
SOC2 Mass media (e.g., TV, newspaper, magazines, and 0.866
radio) can influence my acceptance of SMS
advertising.
SOC3 Digital media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, search 0.858
engines, online forums and blogs) can influence
my acceptance of SMS advertising.
Acceptance ACP1 I like reading SMS advertisements when receiving 0.826
them
ACP2 I like interacting with SMS advertisements. 0.878
ACP3 I ignore SMS advertisements when receiving them 0.423
ACP4 I delete SMS advertisements once I receive them. 0.710
ACP5 Overall, I accept SMS advertising. 0.850