The role of wireless service provider (WSP) trust on consumer acceptance of SMS advertising

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the factors that influence consumer intention to accept short message service (SMS) advertisements. Specifically, the authors investigate the role of consumer trust in wireless service providers (WSP) on the acceptance of SMS advertisements. The authors suggest that consumer attitude toward SMS advertising is the main determinant of their intention to accept SMS advertising. Then, they investigate the moderating role of consumers' trust in their WSP on attitude-intention relationship. The results of their first study support that higher trust in WSP strengthens that relationship. In their second study, the authors look at the individual effects of consumers' trusting beliefs, i.e., ability, integrity and benevolence beliefs, about a WSP on the same relationship. The results support that while high levels of benevolence and integrity beliefs results in a stronger attitude-intention relationship, ability beliefs do not have such an effect.