Determining perceptions, attitudes and behaviour towards social network site advertising in a three-country context

ABSTRACT

Regardless of the growth in social media and social network advertising (SNA), little theoretical and empirical knowledge exists on the differences between countries, and the perceptions and attitudes towards social network advertising. The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationships between users’ perceptions (personal and societal), their attitudes and their behaviour towards Facebook advertising, across three countries, as well as the moderating role of privacy and general advertising attitudes. Online surveys were administered and a convenience sampling resulted in 1,166 respondents. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed model.

The research indicates that the social support theory shows promise for examining the perceptions and attitudes towards SNA. Furthermore, the validity of the conceptual model is confirmed in all three countries; however, the strength of these relationships differs. Additionally, it is evident that consumers’ culture influences the role of privacy and trust in SNA perceptions.

KEYWORDS:

• Social networking advertising (SNA)
• Facebook
• advertising
• perceptions
• attitudes
• trust
• social support theory
• privacy concern

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa [no: 84258].