Relevance judgments of mobile commercial information

Abstract

In the age of mobile commerce, users receive floods of commercial messages. How do users judge the relevance of such information? Is their relevance judgment affected by contextual factors, such as location and time? How do message content and contextual factors affect users' privacy concerns? With a focus on mobile ads, we propose a research model based on theories of relevance judgment and mobile marketing research. We suggest topicality, reliability, and economic value as key content factors and location and time as key contextual factors. We found mobile relevance judgment is affected mainly by content factors, whereas privacy concerns are affected by both content and contextual factors. Moreover, topicality and economic value have a synergetic effect that makes a message more relevant. Higher topicality and location precision exacerbate privacy concerns, whereas message reliability alleviates privacy concerns caused by location precision. These findings reveal an interesting intricacy in user relevance judgment and privacy concerns and provide nuanced guidance for the design and delivery of mobile commercial information.