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The research aims to investigate how individuals can be persuaded to make purchases through repeated and personalized messages. Specifically, the study proposes a framework of the potential benefits and risks of the online behavioral and data-driven digital advertising (OBA), which can help researchers and practitioners to better understand shopping behavior in the online retailing setting. In addition, the research focuses on the role of privacy concerns in affecting avoidance or adoption of OBA.

The authors apply a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach with partial least square (PLS) regression method to test the research hypotheses through data coming from a structured questionnaire.

OBA is a controversial type of advertising that activates opposing reactions on consumers' perspective. Specifically, acceptance of the OBA is positively related to relevance, usefulness and credibility of the personalized advertisements, while the intention to avoid personalized ads is strictly related to the privacy concerns. Consequently, OBA acceptance and avoidance affected the click intention on the ad and the behavioral intention that are decisive for the success of data-driven digital advertising.

Prior research came up with complex theoretical frameworks that explain antecedents of OBA focusing only on ethical issues in marketing, on the effectiveness of a single OBA campaign or on how to create a successful advertising campaign. However, no study focuses on the intended or actual behavior of shoppers. Specifically, filling the gap in the existing literature, our research applies an SEM approach to identify both benefits and risks and the antecedents of the actual behavior of individuals in terms of actual purchases promoted by OBA.

Do digital technologies of early 21st century capitalism promote or reduce consumer sovereignty? This chapter addresses this question by examining John Kenneth Galbraith’s critique of consumer sovereignty during the post-war period of industrial society and looks at the insights he provides to understand the impact of platform capitalism on consumer sovereignty today. This chapter has the following sections: (1) I review the main postulates of Galbraith’s theory; (2) I highlight the main differences between traditional advertising and online behavioral advertising; (3) I explain how online behavioral advertisement strengthens Galbraith’s dependence effect and revised sequence theories; (4) I then discuss normative challenges raised by digital platform corporations to individual sovereignty; and (5) finally, I argue that platform capitalism is a mature form of Galbraith’s “new industrial state.”

This study examined the relationship between perceived personalization and positive electronic word of mouth, as well as the mediating impact of online advertising engagement and the moderating effect of online users' modes on that relationship. The theory of presence serves as the foundation for the relationships among variables.

A quasi-experimental research design was used to carry out the investigation. The analysis was performed on 865 valid responses from the treatment and control groups.

Results showed no mediation for the control group and partial mediation for the treatment group. The treatment group's moderated mediation relationships were found as significant, but the control group's relationships were insignificant. The findings also supported the hypothesis that there is a significant association between perceived personalization and online advertising engagement for playful online users and a weak relationship for serious online users. On the mediation link of online advertising engagement between perceived personalization and positive electronic word of mouth, the conditional indirect influence of “online users' modes” has been specifically studied.

This study is the first to examine online advertising through the lens of the theory of presence and offers a moderated-mediation model of Online Users' Modes and Online Advertising Engagement, which is a valuable addition to the marketing body of knowledge.

This article compares the use of deep packet inspection (DPI) technology to the use of cookies for online behavioral advertising (OBA), in the form of two competing paradigms. It seeks to explain why DPI was eliminated as a viable option due to political and regulatory reactions whereas cookies technology was not, even though it raises some of the same privacy issues.

The paradigms draw from two-sided market theory to conceptualize OBA. Empirical case studies, NebuAd's DPI platform and Facebook's Beacon program, substantiate the paradigms with insights into the controversies on behavioral tracking between 2006 and 2009 in the USA. The case studies are based on document analyses and interviews.

Comparing the two cases from a technological, economic, and institutional perspective, the article argues that both paradigms were equally privacy intrusive. Thus, it rejects the generally held view that privacy issues can explain the outcome of the battle. Politics and regulatory legacy tilted the playing field towards the cookies paradigm, impeding a competing technology.

Shifting the narrative away from privacy to competing tracking paradigms and their specific actors sheds light on the political and the regulatory rationales that were not considered in previous research on OBA. Particularly, setting forth institutional aspects on OBA – and DPI in general – the case studies provide much needed empirical analysis to reassess tracking technologies and policy outcomes.

This paper aims to study the ethics of “smart” advertising and regulatory initiatives in the consumer intelligence industry. Increasingly, online behavioural advertising strategies, especially in the mobile media environment, are being integrated with other existing and emerging technologies to create new techniques based on “smart” surveillance practices. These “smart” surveillance practices have ethical impacts including identifiability, inequality, a chilling effect, the objectification, exploitation and manipulation of consumers as well as information asymmetries. This article examines three regulatory initiatives – privacy-by-design considerations, the proposed General Data Protection Regulation of the EU and the US Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2013 – that have sought to address the privacy and data protection issues associated with these practices.

The authors performed a critical literature review of academic, grey and journalistic publications surrounding behavioural advertising to identify the capabilities of existing and emerging advertising practices and their potential ethical impacts. This information was used to explore how well-proposed regulatory mechanisms might address current and emerging ethical and privacy issues in the emerging mobile media environment.

The article concludes that all three regulatory initiatives fall short of providing adequate consumer and citizen protection in relation to online behavioural advertising as well as “smart” advertising.

The article demonstrates that existing and proposed regulatory initiatives need to be amended to provide adequate citizen protection and describes how a focus on privacy and data protection does not address all of the ethical issues raised.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate online advertising across different cultures such as Romania and the USA. In the meantime, this paper attempts to examine the relationships among beliefs about online advertising, attitudes toward online advertising (ATOA), and consumer responses to online advertising.

Surveys are conducted among 577 internet users from both Romania and the USA structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships among variables.

Belief factors (i.e. information seeking, entertainment, economy, credibility, and value corruption) are statistically significant predictors of ATOA; ATOA is a significant predictor of consumer responses to online advertising; as compared to Americans, Romanians tended to hold a more positive ATOA and are more likely to click advertisements, whereas Americans are more likely to buy online than do Romanians.

Convenient sampling technique and the operationalization of culture are main limitations associated with the paper.

Findings may help businesses and organizations employ online advertising more effectively and efficiently in their global marketing endeavors.

Currently little is known about online advertising in developing countries, particularly eastern European countries such as Romania. The current paper extends research on ATOA to a cross‐cultural context.

The aim of the present study is twofold. First is investigating the factors associated with the effectiveness of Facebook advertising and its resultant impact on behavioral and attitudinal loyalty. The second is testing the moderating impact of control over ads and brand authenticity.

This study is conducted by adopting the cross-sectional data collection technique, two samples with 396 and 482 sample sizes were collected at different points in time. Partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique, using Smart PLS 3.0 software, was applied to analyze the data.

The results show that the moderating effect of behavioral control on the relationship between advertising intrusive and attitude towards Facebook advertising was insignificant for both samples. Brand authenticity was significant in moderating the relationship between an individual's attitude towards Facebook advertising and behavior towards the brand for sample 1 and was insignificant for sample 2. Behaving towards brands resulted in attitudinal and behavioral loyalty intentions of individuals for both samples.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge in four ways besides contextual contribution. First, it investigated the moderating influence of perceived behavioral control on the relationship between advertising intrusiveness and attitude towards Facebook advertising. Second, this study also studied the relationship between attitude towards Facebook advertising and behavior towards the brand, moderated by brand authenticity. Third, this study extended the Facebook advertising Framework to behavioral and attitudinal loyalty. Fourth, this study methodologically contributes by conducting a two-sample study to enhance the generalizability.

With the developments of the digital era and considerable developments in ICT, advertisers are leveraging data-driven forms of online advertising to target consumers individually. The present study integrates privacy concerns with the constructs from the persuasion knowledge model to investigate consumer avoidance of online behavioural advertising (OBA).

The study employed an online survey method for data collection using a sample size of 345. Reliability and validity of the measurement scales were ensured, and hypotheses developed were tested through PLS-SEM using SMART PLS.

The results show that persuasion knowledge is a significant predictor of perceived benefits, perceived risks and privacy concerns. Also, privacy concern was found to significantly mediate persuasion knowledge-avoidance behaviour and perceived risk-avoidance behaviour. On the other hand, the perceived benefit was not found significant in influencing privacy concerns for OBA.

The present study is one of the initial attempts to understand the level of knowledge Indian consumers hold about OBA and how they evaluate and respond to these data-driven forms of advertising. The current study helps advance knowledge of the field and the theories used. Future studies might look at the effect of various demographic and psychographic aspects on consumer avoidance of OBA.

As the country is shifting to digital, it becomes really important to understand the privacy concerns that people perceive in regard with the current advertising practices.

Online advertising becomes an essential tool to reach the target audience. One of the most widely used strategies is re-targeting. Firstly, this study explores the impact of ethics, privacy and ads' perceived benefits (ad effectiveness and ad relevance) on consumers' attitudes toward online advertising. Secondly, the study investigates the mediating effect of attitudes toward re-targeting online advertising on consumers' purchase intentions. Finally, the study investigates the moderating effect of the perceived ethicality of re-targeting online advertising on consumers' purchase intentions.

Participants (n = 307) were recruited through an online survey platform (MTurk) in the USA. The sample consisted of 65% male and 35% female respondents. The majority are aged 25–34 years, followed by 35–44 years (20%), 45–54 years (14%), 18–24 years (8%) and 55 years and older (6%).

The results show that ad effectiveness and ad relevance influenced consumers' attitudes toward re-targeting. This study shows that consumers are willing to trade their privacy for better search quality. Moreover, perceptions toward the ethicality of re-targeting ads moderated the relationship between consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions.

This study will make several contributions. First, the study will extend the consequential theory in the context of online advertising. Second, the study will assist companies in using re-targeting strategies. The results will reveal which factor is the most important factor impacting consumers' attitudes toward re-targeting strategies.

This is one of the first few papers investigating consumers' perceptions of the ethicality of re-targeting online advertising.