This document is a thesis that investigates consumers' attitudes towards mobile advertising on social networking sites. It conducted a study of Coventry University students to examine factors that influence perceptions of mobile ads in a social media context. The results found that informativeness and emotional appeal are major predictors of the perceived value of mobile social network advertising. Consumers also perceive mobile ads as less annoying than ads on personal computers or television.

1. INVESTIGATION OF CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDES
TOWARDS MOBILE ADVERTISING ON SOCIAL
NETWORKING SITES (SNS)
By
Rustam Iskandarzade #6648062
Supervised by
Mark Goodman
Submitted to Coventry University Faculty of
Business and Law as a part of the requirement of
the MA Marketing Management
Word count: 12.421
August 2016

2. 2
Abstract
Mobile marketing and social media platforms have become an innovative channel for
communicating advertising messages to consumers by means of mobile phones. The growth in
mobile and SNS advertising expenditure in the last years requires that marketers and academics
understand perceptions and attitudes of consumers towards this form of advertisements. The
main purpose of this study is to investigate factors responsible for influencing consumers’
attitudes of mobile ads in a context of SNS. This study examined these factors based on a
sample of Coventry University students (UK). The results suggest that informativeness and
emotional appeal are the major factors predicting the value of mobile SNS advertising.
Moreover, the findings demonstrate that consumers perceive mobile ads lesser annoying than
ads appeared on PC or TV.
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Mark Goodman, for his
exceptional caring, guidance, and patience. He provided me with a superior atmosphere for
doing this research. Mr. Mark Goodman was always available whenever I had questions about
my research. He systematically allowed this paper to be my own work but guided be in the
right direction whenever he thought I required it.

3. 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.Introduction .................................................................................................................. 4
2. Literature review .......................................................................................................... 6
2.1 Mobile Marketing ................................................................................................................ 7
2.2 Attitudes towards mobile advertising .................................................................................. 8
2.3 Social Media Advertising ................................................................................................... 11
2.4 Uses and Gratifications theory .......................................................................................... 14
2.5 The Informativeness of mobile SNS ad .............................................................................. 16
2.6 Irritation caused by mobile SNS ad ................................................................................... 18
2.7 The Credibility of mobile SNS ad ...................................................................................... 19
2.8 The Emotional appeal of mobile SNS ad ........................................................................... 20
2.9 the Creativity of mobile SNS ad ........................................................................................ 21
2.10 The effect of perceived advertising value and attitudes towards mobile SNS advertising
................................................................................................................................................. 21
3.Methodology ................................................................................................................ 23
3.1 Research philosophy .......................................................................................................... 23
3.2 Research approach ............................................................................................................ 23
3.3 Research strategy ............................................................................................................... 24
3.4 Advantages and disadvantages of quantitative research methods ..................................... 25
3.5 Sampling ............................................................................................................................ 25
3.6 Data collection and questionnaire design .......................................................................... 26
3.7 Pre-testing .......................................................................................................................... 29
3.8 Data analysis ...................................................................................................................... 29
4. Results ........................................................................................................................ 31
4.1 General Tendencies ........................................................................................................... 32
4.2 Measurement model (reliability and validity) ................................................................... 37
4.2.1 Confirmatory factor analysis ............................................................................................... 37
4.2.2 Validity and Reliability ....................................................................................................... 37
4.2.3 Discriminant and Convergent validity ................................................................................. 38
4.2.4 Common method bias ........................................................................................................ 40
4.2.5 Multicollinearity .................................................................................................................. 40
4.3 Hypothesis test and structural paths ................................................................................. 40
5. Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 42
6. Conclusions and limitations ....................................................................................... 45
6.1 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 45
6.2 Limitations and direction for future research. .................................................................. 47
7. Reference list .............................................................................................................. 49
8. Appendix ..................................................................................................................... 61

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1.INTRODUCTION
The latest developments in mobile technologies have established a new channel for advertisers.
Specifically, mobile devices have become an attractive channel for transmission of advertising
messages to consumers (Liu et al. 2012). Marketing via mobile devices enables advanced forms
of customer – company relationships and it is anticipated to encourage the development of new
commerce-based services (Laszlo 2009). The mobile gadget has become a “portable
entertainment player, a new marketing tool for retailers and manufacturers, a multi-channel
shopping device, a navigation tool, a new type of ticket and money, and a new mobile Intranet
device” (Funk 2004:1)
Previous studies have explored attitudes of consumers towards SMS ads, investigated the
antecedents of favorable consumer behavior for an SNS advertising, and revealed when
consumers tend to accept mobile advertising (Liu et al. 2012; Lee and Hong 2016; Nwagwu
and Famiyesin 2015). However, whether a difference exists in consumer perceptions of
advertising on mobile devices versus personal computers has not yet achieved considerable
attention from researchers. Likewise, Venkatesh et al. (2003) claimed that consumers’
experiences on mobile devices differ significantly in comparison with personal computers due
to interface challenges, display limitations, and usage patterns. Therefore, the aim of this
research is to reduce existing research gap and to identify consumers’ attitudes toward
advertisements on social networking sites within a mobile context. The results of this research
may enhance our understanding and supply recommendations to marketers to refine and tailor
SNS ads.
Another important construct after mobile advertising, is advertising on social networking sites
(SNS). Nowadays, increasing extensive usage of SNS has switched the placement of
advertisements from traditional media to social media. The observed fast growth within mobile
advertising is predicted to expand the usage of digital advertising platforms by marketers up to
30% in the following years (eMarketer 2015). Moreover, social media also enables the Word-
of-mouth (WoM) campaigns, which in turn are generating greater brand awareness and higher
sales revenue (Godes & Mayzlin 2009). Additionally, WoM has been proven to strengthen the
relationship between firms and prospects. Therefore, advertising on social media receives
greater attention from marketers, who wish to generate higher consumption of advertised
products and services.

5. 5
The knowledge of consumers’ perceptions and attitudes toward SNS advertising is crucial for
marketers, because they seek to stimulate a specific type of behavior in each campaign (Kumar
and Mirchandani 2012). Several investigations examined the effectiveness of online ads
(Chatterjee 2008; Geissler et al. 2006; Wang and Sun 2010; Yoo et al. 2010); however, the
aforementioned studies focused primarily on the context of traditional websites, whereas this
study focused on social networking sites. There is a significant difference between them since
online advertising employs sponsored links and banner ads, whilst SNS advertising is usually
not distinguishable from user generated content. Consequently, studies from various digital
contexts may turn out inadequate (Duffet 2015). Subsequently, the quick augmentation of SNS
usage and growing advertising expenses requires distinct exploration on users’ perceptions in
the context of social networking sites, because users’ perceptions define attitudes which
influence consumers’ buying behavior (Taylor et al. 2011).
One of the main challenges facing advertisers while considering social networking campaigns
is whether SNS ads will assist in achieving goals effectively. The measurement of SNS ads
effectiveness has been found to be problematic for marketing professionals since the process
of outcome tracking is complicated (Lee and Hong 2016). Nevertheless, the extent to which
SNS advertisement is generating the proposed benefits can be measured by virtue of the social
interactions such as “Shares” or “Likes” to examine their attitudes towards the ad (Burg 2013).
Thus, SNS ads can be considered effective, only if they are capable of encouraging consumers
to react positively to the SNA. Subsequently, consumers’ favorable responses on mobile social
media tend to support dissemination of mobile SNS advertising among individuals, resulting
in greater awareness of the advertised product.
Additionally, research findings (Gustin 2012; Lipsma et al. 2012) suggest, that not only the
users exposed to SNA but also their friends are inclined towards greater expenditure after
viewing SNS advertising. Therefore, advertisement, which can persuade favorable perceptions
and reactions among SNS users, would more likely to produce the WoM effect. Subsequently,
this results in increased sales and high ROI of social media ads campaigns (Lee and Hong
2016).
There are some studies which examined the influences of mobile and SNS advertising (Carroll
et al. 2007; Laszlo 2009; Merisavo et al. 2007). Preceding studies on online marketing
communications were accountable for a major contribution towards identifying factors which
are influencing individuals’ attitudes towards advertisement (Ducoffee 1996; Okazaki et al.

6. 6
2007; Petrovici and Marinov 2007). However, does a difference in device type with respectful
screen size, mobility, and usage patterns influence these relationships? Moreover, does a
medium within mobile device influence these relationships?
With this in mind, this study aims to investigate how consumers perceive advertising on their
mobile phones within a social media context. For the purpose of this study, an investigation
was carried out among students of Coventry University. In detail, it was decided to select
students as they are representatives of Generation Y, and are found to be major consumers of
digital novelties such as mobile applications and social media sites (Dlodlo and Dhurup 2013;
Logan et al. 2013). Thus, students are considered as a target market for advertisers
The rest of this article is organized as follows. First of all, literature review helped to gain an
essential understanding of the fundamental concepts, which then were utilized in the
construction of the hypotheses and theoretical model. Specifically, the literature on mobile
marketing and the attitudes towards it, social media advertising, and Uses and Gratifications
(U&G) theory would supply insights of factors which can influence consumers’ attitudes
towards mobile SNA. Subsequently, the paper justifies the research design, sampling, and data
analysis. Next, the article reveals the results and critically analyzes the main findings of this
research. Lastly, the paper presents limitations, along with implications, and directions for the
future research.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter is organized as follows. Firstly, the revision of literature on mobile marketing
and social media advertising revealed the most important findings in these areas. Moreover,
the literature review acknowledges proposed theories and knowledge, and identifies the gap
in existing literature. Next, the revision of Uses and Gratifications theory justifies the
selection of the major theoretical framework for this study. Additionally, it helped to identify
the major factors which can influence consumers’ attitudes towards mobile SNS ads.
Subsequently, literature reviews each dimension which influences consumers’ attitudes
towards mobile SNS advertising. Finally, six hypotheses were proposed and structural model
was built in order to achieve the aims of this study

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2.1 MOBILE MARKETING
Nowadays, consumers are more accessible on mobile devices than ever before, and this
transforms mobile marketing into a very competitive communication platform versus
traditional marketing media (eMarketer 2016). According to Rohm and Sultan (2006), it is
getting harder for marketers to reach target audiences via traditional promotions and
advertising. Additionally, they revealed that traditional media like TV, newspaper or radio is
associated with inactive “lean-back” communication, whilst mobile advertising is linked with
both “lean-back” and “lean-forward” communications. This implies that in the latter scenario
the experience of brands and final users reaches the entirely new level with greater involvement
and engagement.
There is a positive trend in the development of new knowledge in mobile marketing literature.
The first studies on digital and mobile advertising were published in the beginning of the 21st
century. Specifically, the studies of Petty (2003), Tahtinen (2005), and Leppaniemi (2006)
significantly contributed to the development of knowledge in this area. Subsequently, mobile
advertising literature started to achieve more attention from researchers globally in comparison
to previous years. According to Okazaki et al. (2012), the main driver of academic interest in
mobile marketing is an increased usage of mobile commerce by marketers. As a result, the
obstacles hindering the development of marketing conceptualization had been removed
(Richard and Meuli 2013).
The concept of mobile marketing has been defined differently by numerous authors. However,
some similarities enabled us to break down definitions into two distinct groups. First, where
the emphasis is on purchase stimulation. Specifically, the findings of Leppaniemi and
Karjaluoto (2005) and Haghirian et al. (2005) demonstrated that mobile marketing is the
procedure of stimulating individuals to purchase products and services by virtue of mobile
devices.
Second, where the accent is on the engagement with customers. Concretely, Mobile Marketing
Association (2009) defines mobile advertising as “a set of practices that enables organizations
to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through
and with any mobile device or network”. Likewise, Okazaki et al. (2012) stated that mobile
advertising is a communication that gives rise to or assists in new client acquisition, via
engaging visual or textual messages.

8. 8
The aforementioned definitions are to some extent consistent with the advertising frame of
reference proposed by Bennett (1995). Specifically, the frame of reference states that mobile
advertising is a type of paid and non-personal communication, employing mass media to
influence or persuade consumers. However, Balasubramanian (2002) revealed that the
attachment of mass media to the mobile marketing definition contradicts the reality since the
mobile marketing is one-to-one, interactive and customized communication.
All in all, based on the discussion above, the definition of Mobile Marketing Association
(2010) is the most accurate and therefore, will be utilized for the purpose of this study. The
main reasons include the focus of definition not only on a perspective of marketers but also on
consumers. Specifically, it enables an omnipresent and interactive marketing environment for
marketers and provides target audience with personalized information with regard to their
location and interests.
2.2 ATTITUDES TOWARDS MOBILE ADVERTISING
The value of advertising is the principal construct of this research. The advertising value is a
key determinant factor of customers’ response, but it has achieved only a little attention from
scholars (Liu et al. 2012). According to Ducoffee (1996), advertising value is an individual
assessment of the relative importance or the usefulness of advertising to users. In subsequent
research (1996), he emphasized that the examination of advertising value can be beneficial to
marketers, especially in terms of increasing the effectiveness of advertising.
The literature review illustrates that the numerous studies have been conducted on identifying
consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising. However, there is no prevalent pattern in
their outcomes. One of these studies is the article of Tsang et al. (2004), which examined
attitudes of consumers towards mobile advertising, and the correlation between attitudes and
behavior in Finland. The outcomes demonstrated that users usually are negatively inclined
toward the mobile ad unless they had agreed to receive it.
Furthermore, Tsang et al. (2004) found that entertaining ads have the major impact on
consumers’ attitudes, and are chased by perceived irritation and credibility. Meanwhile, the
positive correlation was found between attitudes and intents to accept mobile advertising

9. 9
messages. Interestingly, the study revealed that interviewees are more willing to receive
incentive-based mobile advertising rather than non-incentive messages. Lastly, it was revealed
that consumers’ attitudes are directly influenced by time and place where ads were read.
Likewise, Wongman (2010) examined the factors which persuade respondents’ attitudes
towards mobile advertising, based on data gathered from approximately 800 interviewees in
Hong Kong. According to the results of the study, consumers treat SMS advertising
unfavorably, and such dimensions as entertainment, informativeness, ubiquity, and irritation
have substantial consequences on their attitudes. Specifically, entertainment possesses the most
robust effect on attitudes amongst all feelings.
In other research, Faraz and Hamid (2010) examined the factors which can evoke favorable
attitudes towards mobile ads. The results illustrated that informativeness, personalization,
credibility, irritation, and entertainment of mobile advertising have a significant impact on
generating favorable attitudes toward mobile advertising messages. However, Lappaniemi and
Karjaluoto (2005) approached the same issue from another perspective. Namely, they explored
the factors which encourage the favorable perception of mobile ads from the standpoint of both
consumer and companies in Finland. The results of their study revealed four factors influencing
the willingness of consumers to accept mobile ads. Namely, regulatory elements, the role of
mobile environment, the development of technology, and direct market medium.
In their study Lee et al. (2006), focused on the factors which influence the behavior of
consumers in the mobile advertising settings in Taiwan. Specifically, authors examined the
relationship between consumers’ attitudes toward mobile advertising and their motivations to
accept mobile advertisements. The results of the study unveiled, that positive reactions
originated from the perceived advertising were considerably affected by powerful intentions,
powerful intentions were considerably affected by favorable attitudes, and favorable attitudes
were considerably affected by a strong motive.
Similarly, Keshtgar and Khajehpoury (2011), researched the factors that influence the attitudes
of consumers toward mobile advertising, and the correlation between their behaviors and
attitudes in Iran. However, their findings differ significantly from findings of Lee et al. (2016).
Namely, entertainment was found to be a major factor influencing respondents’ attitudes
toward mobile advertisement. In addition, the study disclosed that consumers do not always

10. 10
possess unfavorable attitudes to mobile ads, rather they favor prior consent and inducement.
As a result, these leads to the positive impact on users’ intents to accept and read mobile
advertising.
In another study, Van der Waldt et al. (2009) investigated the perceptions of young consumer
cluster towards mobile advertising in South Africa. The study demonstrated that perceptions
of consumers regarding entertainment value, credibility, and informativeness of mobile adverts
were favorably associated with their general attitude towards mobile advertising.
Subsequently, the study disclosed that respondents’ perceptions of irritation element of mobile
adverts are correlated negatively with their attitudes toward mobile advertising.
On the other hand, research of Radde et al. (2010), which had also aimed to identify attitudes
of younger segment towards mobile advertising in South Africa, unveiled different findings.
Specifically, their study revealed that social influence appears the main predictor of the
consumers’ intentions to accept mobile advertising. Additionally, behavioral intents were also
found to be influenced by the level of innovation and attitudes of consumers.
Liu et al. (2012) researched the factors that influence attitudes toward mobile advertisement in
the context of different cultures; Japan and Austria. The framework introduced by authors
illustrates the factors influencing the attitudes, correlation between them, advertising value,
and stemming attitudes towards mobile advertising. The findings demonstrated that
infotainment and credibility of the mobile advertising are amongst the critical factors predicting
the value of the advertisement. Interestingly, the results had also shown that Japanese
consumers are more annoyed by mobile ads in comparison to Austrian respondents.
Likewise, research conducted by Caroll et al. (2005) in New Zealand suggests that more that
50% of interviewees perceive mobile advertising negatively. Surprisingly, findings uncover
that even if individuals had given consent and even if the ad message is relevant to them, only
30% of consumers would receive those mobile ads enthusiastically.
Jun and Lee (2007) examined the attitudes of respondents toward mobile advertising by means
of the Uses and Gratifications theory. The findings revealed that attitudes are influenced by the
mobile phone usage reasons. More precisely, it was found that individuals who use mobile
phones due to convenience and mobility reasons, manifest positive attitudes toward mobile

11. 11
advertising. Additionally, findings demonstrated that usage of multimedia, such as videos,
music, and ringtones is positively associated with the attitudes towards ads.
By contrast, Jun and Lee (2007) revealed that the influence of entertainment on consumers’
attitudes is insignificant. The reason behind it can be the difference in culture (Nwagwu and
Famiyesin 2015). Namely, Tsang et al. (2004) conducted the research within Taiwan, whereas
Jun and Lee (2007) studied respondents in the USA. Hence, this discrepancy suggests that
attitudes towards mobile advertising depend on culture, and should be examined in the context
of each country separately.
All in all, based on the literature review on mobile marketing the following findings can be
summarized. On the one hand, the majority of the findings revealed that consumers’ attitudes
towards mobile advertising are influenced by such factors of the ads as informativeness,
entertainment, credibility, and irritation. Additionally, advertising value was considered to be
the main predictor of attitudes towards mobile ads. Therefore, these factors will be utilized for
the purpose of this study. On the other hand, the minority of studies revealed such influencing
factors as social influence, ubiquity, and strong motives. These factors will not be utilized in
this research since they received only little acknowledgment by other authors.
2.3 SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING
SNS advertising is online advertising on social media platforms, where marketers can target
customers who have registered an account on social media (IAB 2009). Contrary to traditional
marketing, which can target consumers based on psychographic or demographic variables,
SNS advertising targets audiences more accurately using advanced targeting options such as
lifestyle, interests, friends, and online behavior (Li and Lien 2009).
Advertising on SNS has become more attractive for marketers than ever before. Specifically,
Cormier (2010) claimed that advertising expenditure on social media constitutes a quarter of
all advertising expenses. Additionally, Social Media Marketing Industry Report (2011)
revealed that approximately 60 percent of advertisers utilize SNS platforms to promote their
products and services. Moreover, SNS offer a platform where marketers can advertise with
significant cost advantages compared to traditional media (Okazaki, Taylor and Zou 2006).

12. 12
Lastly, Stone (2010) revealed that the main advantage of SNS advertising in increasing interest
of marketers is the ability to transmit personalized advertising messages.
The phenomenon of social media generated numerous opportunities and challenges for
marketers. Firstly, it has transformed into an interactive platform, which enables conversations
not only between consumers and company, but also between consumers (Lee and Hong 2016).
Secondly, social media users have also transformed from inactive recipients of advertising
messages into active influencers and creators. Thus, social marketing altered the entire process
of communication and became more consumer focused. Lastly, social media is the place where
the worth of the brands and products is developed via the synergy between all stakeholders
(Hutter et al.2013).
The table below (see Table 1) illustrates the summary of the existing attitudinal studies on SNS
advertising.
Table 1
Author Purpose of the study Findings
Lee and
Hong
(2016)
The main objective of this study
was to identify consumers
attitudes and responses towards
SNS advertising
The results revealed that advertising creativity and
informativeness were the main drivers of favorable
behavioral responses towards SNS ads. Moreover, a
positive relationship was found between intention to
engage in favorable consumer’s responses and purchase
intentions.

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Hadija et
al. (2012)
The purpose of this study was
to identify students’ attitudes
towards SNS advertising with
regard to content that appealed
to university students. The
study had also explored the
relationships between SNS ads
and students’ favorable or
unfavorable opinions
The research demonstrated that a majority of the
respondents did not perceive SNA unfavorably, but they
did no notice these ads, or simply blocked them out in a
light of more interesting and engaging content.
Bannister
et al.
(2013)
The main objective of this study
was to investigate consumers’
attitudes towards SNS ads and
to gain insights of their
perceived relevance.
The research concluded that students in the USA evoke
negative attitudes towards SNS ads. Additionally,
interviewees claimed that they perceive ads on SNS as
uninformative, uninteresting, irrelevant, and do not tend
to click on these ads.
Barreto
(2013)
The purpose of this study was
to identify whether users of
social networking sites are
actually looking and noticing
advertising which was
displayed on SNS.
The research demonstrated that social media ads are
accountable for the lesser attention levels compared with
recommendations of friends. Interestingly, the study
revealed that there is no difference between the
perception levels of men and women.
Hansson et
al. (2013)
The study explored consumers’
attitudes towards ads on SNS.
Moreover, the research
identified the optimal usage
patterns of SNS as a marketing
tool.
The research found that 30% of respondents had
favorable attitudes toward SNS advertising, whilst 70%
had no opinion. Moreover, most students believed that
ads on social media are important for companies in order
to drive sales and stay competitive.
Logan et
al. (2013)
The main purpose of the study
was to examine consumers’
perceptions of the value of SNS
ads versus television with
regard to information and
entertainment.
The study confirmed that while ads on SNS fulfill the
information exchange need, SNA was revealed to be
more effective when it embraced entertainment for the
recipients. Interestingly the same findings were found
for advertising on television.

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Ruane and
Wallace
(2013)
The study aimed to gain an
understanding of relationships,
which females (representatives
of Generation Y) have with
brands online.
The study revealed that the SNS ads created recognition
of needs and this was used as a source of information.
Subsequently, SNS ads also increased the consumption
among female representative of Generation Y.
Saxena
and
Khanna
(2013)
The main objective of this study
was to examine whether an
entertaining and informative
content had an impact on the
advertising value of SNS.
The study confirmed that SNS ads, which provided
entertaining and informative content, increased the
advertising value. Meanwhile, a decrease in advertising
value was found when ads considered being irritating or
annoying. The study had also found that information has
a stronger influence on advertising value compared with
entertainment value of an SNS ad.
Whiting
and
Williams
(2013)
The purpose of this study was
to explore the perceived
gratifications of consumers
through the usage of social
networking sites.
The finding demonstrated that there are 10 uses and
gratifications to use social networking sites. Specifically,
the majority of respondents (90%) claimed that they
utilize SNS to find more information regarding the
organizations, deals, sales, and products.
To summarize, the multitude of studies examined attitudes toward SNS advertising mainly
conducted in the US and Europe. It should be noted that the population of studies was largely
represented by students, and some of these researches employed small sized samples. Based
on the findings above, consumers evoke positive attitudes towards SNS ads which possess
informativeness, entertainment and advertising creativity. Meanwhile, consumers perceive
SNA negatively when it is uninteresting or annoying. Interestingly, it was found that males and
females perceive SNS advertising equally. Consequently, another factors which can influence
consumers’ attitudes towards SNS ads were identified and will be employed in this study.
2.4 USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY
Uses and Gratifications (U&G) theory was initially proposed to study the effectiveness of
advertising on radio medium in the early 1940s. Subsequently, it has been widely employed in
examining the numerous advertising mediums ranging from television, mobile TV (Rubin

15. 15
2009; Shim et al. 2015; Choi et al. 2009; Lee 2013) to mobile advertising and social networking
sites (Paragas et al. 2011; Hashim et al 2015; Wei et al. 2015).
The Uses and Gratification theory is proposed to study: (1) the gratifications that are holding
and attracting consumers to the various forms of media, (2) the rationale behind consumers’
engagement in various types of media behavior, and (3) the characteristics of content that can
satisfy social and psychological needs of consumers (Wimmer and Dominick 1994). Moreover,
U & G theory helps to explain the role of audiences in opting for a certain media type and
claims that media consumers are driven by personal needs and gratifications (Blumer and Katz
1974; Krcmar and Strizhakova 2009). To summarize, U&G theory views consumers as
energetic communicators, who are driven by unique motivations that differ amongst
individuals and throughout communication process (Rubin 2009).
According to Eighmey and McCord (1998), U&G theory plays an essential role in delivering
in-depth insights of customers’ motivations and concerns in the traditional media environment.
However, Liu et al. (2012) claimed that U&G theory can be extended to the examination of
consumers’ perceptions on digital devices. Therefore, based on the studies which employed
U&G theory in the context of mobile devices (Nwagwu and Famiyesin 2015) and social media
environment (Duffet 2015) it can be concluded that the same dimensions are applicable to
mobile SNS advertising.
The agreement remains regarding the most significant dimensions of U&G theory and
comprise informativeness, irritation and entertainment (Eighmey and McCord 1998; Luo 2002;
Okazaki 2004). Moreover, studies of Okazaki (2004) along with Wang and Sun (2010) and Liu
et al. (2012) demonstrated the usefulness of integrating entertainment and information
dimensions into individual construct – informativeness. Additionally, another crucial factor
influencing the perception of advertising by consumers is credibility, since customers evaluate
to which extent the service is trustworthy before pursuing information (Choi, Hwang, and
McMillan 2008; Okazaki 2005).
The model, as displayed in Figure 1, is proposed on the basis of the premise that
informativeness, irritation, credibility, creativeness, and emotional appeal of mobile SNS
advertising are all influencing the evaluation of advertising value by consumers. Meanwhile,
attitudes of consumers towards ads are evoked as a result of perceived advertising value.

16. 16
Figure 1
Moreover, at this point it is important to emphasize that U&G theory is not the only approach
that can be employed in investigating students’ attitudes towards SNS advertising. According
to the literature review, the number of studies have utilized either Keller’s motivation theory
or theory of reasoned action (TRA) as their primary theories (Motiwalla 2007). Namely, the
former approach assesses consumers’ motives from managerial standpoint, whereas the latter
theory examines behavioral intentions influenced by attitudes. Thus, adoption of Keller’s
model or TRA approach was not favorable for this study, because they could provide varied
interpretations of consumers’ attitudes towards mobile SNA.
Based on the discussion above, it can be concluded that irritation, informativeness, emotional
appel, creativity, and credibility of advertising may serve as the key dimensions in evaluation
of customers’ attitudes toward SNS advertising in the mobile context. Subsequently, the above
mentioned factors are discussed in the following sections.
2.5 The Informativeness of mobile SNS ad
Resnik and Bruce (1977) were amongst the first scholars who acknowledged an important role
of informative advertising in enabling consumers to make wiser decisions. Informativeness is
the ability of the marketer to inform customers about valuable products and services, and
empower them to make a better decision that yields the greatest value (Rotzoll, Haefner, and
Sandage 1990). Likewise, Ducoffe (1996) defines informativeness as the degree to which
advertisers and advertising medium offer customers helpful and resourceful information.

17. 17
Uses and gratifications theory has been widely applied in the examination of online behavior
of consumers on websites and mobile devices (Liu et al.2011; Luo 2002; Okazaki 2004). The
value assigned by consumers towards the informativeness of advertising can be observed as a
natural continuation of U&G theory. This theory views the provision of information as a need-
satisfying function (Ducoffee 1995). Additionally, information has been found to be an
invaluable incentive in mobile marketing medium, because consumers tend to respond
positively to such advertisement (Aitken, Gray, and Lawson 2008). Therefore, information is
accounted for the “U”, and is the valuable part of the informativeness concept.
Generally, marketers transmit information by means of advertising messages (Gordon and
Turner 2007). Customers, who use mobile devices, have their own expectations. Specifically,
they want to receive content which is tailored to their needs and interests (Robins 2003, Pagani
2004) as well as, favor messages that possess relevance to their needs (Milne and Gordon
1993). Not surprisingly, Liu et al. (2011) revealed a positive correlation between the quality of
information and consumers’ perceptions of the company and its offerings. Therefore,
information communicated by means of mobile devices also needs to embrace such qualitative
characteristics as timeliness, accuracy, and usefulness (Nasco and Bruner 2008).
Moreover, Chowdhury et al. (2006) revealed that resourceful and appropriate information is
not leading consumers to the feeling of annoyance or irritation. Likewise, Scharl et al. (2005)
found that entertaining mobile ad messages, which are informative and relevant to target
consumers, are more likely to amplify consumers’ buying intentions of advertised offerings.
As expected, it was found by Ducoffe (1996) that informativeness of advertising is strongly
associated with advertising value.
In the same manner, U&G research shows that entertainment can fulfill customers’ needs for
“escapism, esthetic enjoyment and diversion” (McQuail 1983). Subsequently, these needs can
be integrated in the content of advertising messages in order to involve consumers to a greater
extent, and increase their level of familiarity with the advertised offerings (Lehmkul 2003).
Therefore, entertainment is accounted for the “G” element, the entertaining part of
informativeness construct (Liu et al 2011).
Consumer’s feeling of enjoyment, evoked whilst watching advertising, is considered as the
most significant driver in forming overall attitudes towards ads (Heng, Lih-Bin, and Hocj-Hai
2009; Shavitt, Lowrey, and Haefner 1998). Furthermore, Chowdhury et al. (2006) claimed that

18. 18
there is a substantial relation between entertainment value and perceived value of advertising.
This means that entertaining advertising messages can add value for customers, increase
loyalty, and favorably influence their impressions.
To summarize, informative and entertaining SNS advertising messages will attract consumers’
attention, stimulate them to link ads with the favorable images, and empower users to share ads
with friends throughout the social media voluntarily. According to the conceptual foundations
above, the following hypothesis can be proposed.
H1. There is a positive relationship between informativeness and attitudes towards
perceived advertising value
2.6 Irritation caused by mobile SNS ad
The working definition of irritation was proposed by Eighmey and McCord (1998), as the
extent to which the internet is disordered and annoying to consumers. Nowadays, marketers
bombard the black box of consumers with numerous advertising messages throughout the
different platforms and media. Hence, there is a high probability that mobile advertising is
associated with an intrusion to privacy (Heinonen and Strandvik 2007).
Numerous studies of American interviewees demonstrated that consumers criticize advertising
only if it causes irritation or annoyance (Bauer and Greyser 1968). Likewise, Ducoffee (1995)
stated that consumers tend to associate advertising as an irritating and unwanted influence
while ads embrace the components of annoyance, offense, or are excessively manipulative. To
support this argument, Wong and Tang (2008) emphasized that irritation is the major reason
why mobile advertising is perceived negatively.
Moreover, Siau and Shen (2003) claimed that people are still uncomfortable with the idea of
mobile business and doubtful regarding whether mobile ads are secure and feasible. For
instance, Tsang et al. (2004) found that consumers may ignore irritating SMS advertising
messages due to annoyance, offense and insult they cause. Not surprisingly, irritation is
accountable for reduced advertising effectiveness as well as, lowered perceived value by
consumers (Aaker and Bruzzone 1985; Luo 2002).

19. 19
Several studies have revealed that consumers feel insecure on the internet. Specifically,
customers can no longer rely on intuitive feelings of place and presence which manage their
observable behavior, to ensure that other individuals are not watching or recording them (Rust,
Kannan, and Peng 2002). Similarly, Stewart and Pavlou (2002) stated that mobile advertising
can supply both distracting and overwhelming information; hence, this can be viewed as the
interference into mobile consumers’ privacy. Subsequently, consumers are more likely to
generate the feelings of confusion about the advertising and as a result, demonstrate the
negative reaction to it.
Therefore, it can be concluded that irritation evoked by non-understandable or unwanted
mobile advertising communications may have a negative effect on the perception of mobile
SNS advertising.
H2. The irritation felt as a result of mobile SNS advertising is negatively associated with
perceived advertising value.
2.7 The Credibility of mobile SNS ad
Advertising credibility is defined as the extent to which consumer perceives the content and
claims of advertisement to be believable and truthful (Mac-Kenzie and Lutz 1989). The
research of above-mentioned authors revealed the existence of two credibility subsystems, first
embraces advertising credibility, whereas the second includes advertiser credibility. The
credibility of the former is impacted by various driving forces, but specifically by the carrier
of the message and by the extent of organization’s credibility (Goldsmith, Lafferty, and Newell
2000). The credibility of the advertiser, in turn, refers to the information source credibility
assigned by customers. Additionally, stemming credibility justifies to consumers the goodwill,
reputation, and integrity associated with the company (Okazaki, Katsukura and Nishiyama
2007).
The credibility of advertising is assessed by means of the delivered content of the ad. This is
especially important in the case of the wireless internet communication as it assures that a
consumer receives a time-sensitive information linked to a distant event or transaction
(Balasubramanian, Peterson, and Jarvenpa 2002). The credibility of the advertisement is
considered to be critical while consumers either are in the final stages of a decision-making
process or act in the light of information uncertainty (Okazaki, Katsukura, and Nishiyama

20. 20
2007).
From the discussion above it can be proposed that there is a positive relation between the
advertising credibility and perceived value of advertising.
H3. The perceived credibility of mobile SNS advertising is positively associated with
advertising value.
2.8 The Emotional appeal of mobile SNS ad
Emotional appeal refers to the persuasion process, which is intended to evoke an emotional
reaction to a communicated message by virtue of affective content such as; sad stories, horror
movies, or triumphant melodies (Liu et al. 2016). According to the ELM model, the effect of
an emotional appeal is more robust in persuading audience while they have either limited
motivation or little abilities to cognitively process the advertised message (Petty and Cacioppo
1986). Moreover, the emotional appeal has been found to deal with the emotional reactions
which are triggered by the motivational relevance of the message to consumer (Alhabash et al.
2013).
Emotions are associated with an individual’s state of sentiment in the light of an affect.
Specifically, emotions can be both positive (e.g., joy, love) and negative (e.g., sadness, fear).
Relevant articles acknowledged emotion as an essential component that can significantly affect
the perception and the effectiveness of the communicated message (Xie et al. 2004; Lee and
Hong 2016).
Furthermore, the empirical study conducted by Swani et al. (2013), was investigating word-of-
mouth within SNS environment, and revealed that advertising content with emotionally
appealing content generates more WOM. For instance, the emotionally appealing content on
SNS originated 16 estimated mean Facebook likes, whilst the content without emotional appeal
generated only 8.
Moreover, it was found that affective responses (feelings, moods) are merged with cognitive
responses (rational evaluation) when the persuasive message is received. Subsequently, this
process leads to the formation of attitudes towards the advertising (Batra and Ray 1986). In

21. 21
addition, Alhabash et al. (2013) found that the emotionally appealing ads have a higher
probability to be shared compared to ads without emotional appeal. Hence, these arguments
could be extended to the mobile SNS ads, as they also possess similar characteristics.
Consequently, the following hypothesis can be proposed: the heavier emotional appeal of a
mobile SNS ad, the more favorable attitudes consumer generates towards it.
H4. Emotional appeal is positively associated with advertising value
2.9 The Creativity of mobile SNS ad
The creativity of advertising was defined as the extent to which the advertisement is unexpected
and original (Haberland and Dacin 1992). The dominating characteristics of advertising
creativity are relevance and divergence. Namely, the latter is concerned with the factors that
are unique, unusual and different, whilst the relevance is associated with factors that are
valuable, useful, appropriate, and meaningful to the audience (Smith et al. 2007).
Creative in nature advertising messages were found to capture relatively more attention
compared to noncreative ads, and evoke favorable attitudes towards the advertised products
and services (Reinartz and Saffert 2013). Moreover, the research findings of Reinartz and
Saffert (2013) suggested that in terms of sales revenue, creative advertisement outperform a
non-creative ad by 100%.
Likewise, experimental study of Smith et al. (2007) revealed that creative advertisement tends
to heighten consumers’ motivation to read the ad, improves their attitudes towards ads, and
ensures the transfer of favorable affect to the brand. Consequently, from the arguments above
it can be hypothesized that there is a positive relationship between mobile SNA creativity and
advertising value.
H5. Creativity of mobile SNS ad is positively associated with advertising value
2.10 The effect of perceived advertising value and attitudes towards mobile SNS
advertising
Values are considered as foundations of judgments, attitudes, and actions associated with
advertising and some aspects of social life (Beatty et al. 1985). The value of advertising has
been found to be a predictor of advertising effectiveness, and can serve as an indicator of

22. 22
consumer satisfaction with advertised products and services (Ducoffee 1995). Moreover, a
value is a “belief about some desirable end-state that transcends specific situations and guides
selection of behavior” (Scwartz and Bilsky 1987).
Perceived value of advertising can be viewed as a subjective judgment of the utility or worth
of advertising. Specifically, attitudes are mental conditions utilized by consumers to frame their
perceptions of an environment, and manage their responses towards it (Aaker et al. 1995).
Meanwhile, attitudes towards advertising are acquired predispositions of consumers to respond
in a favorable or unfavorable manner towards ads (MacKenzie and Lutz 1989). Furthermore,
attitudes towards advertising are the major influencers of consumer behavior (Iacobucci and
Churchill 2010).
Another important concept of perceived advertising value and attitudes towards advertising is
an exchange process. Namely, exchange involves the transmission of the value to each
participant of this process (Houston and Gassenheimer 1987). Accordingly, it is essential to
take into account perspectives of all participants in order to achieve a greater effectiveness.
The main objective of marketers is to influence and stimulate consumers to buy their products
and services. Therefore, the value of each ad is judged against this measure (DuCoffee 1996).
On the other hand, consumers judge a successful exchange to the extent the advertising value
can satisfy their expectations.
During the last years, advertising platforms and technologies experienced significant
transformations which allowed consumers to watch preferred ads and to screen out unwanted
ones (Mayer 2015). Lastly, it was found that ads that are limited in providing value are more
likely to influence a negative effect and form unfavorable attitudes towards advertising
(Ducoffee 1996).
To summarize, the value of advertising is an important construct that predicts attitudes towards
advertising, and also because advertising value is linked with effectiveness. Based on the
discussion above, it can be proposed that a high perceived advertising value will positively
affect consumers’ attitudes towards mobile SNS advertising.
H6. There is a positive relationship between perceived high value of advertising and
attitude towards mobile SNS advertising.

23. 23
3.METHODOLOGY
The methodology chapter of this research is organized as follows. First, research philosophy
and research approach explain a fundamental direction chosen for this study. Next, research
strategy and research design describe in detail - how the research was conducted. Subsequently,
the discussion justifies why the quantitative methods were more favorable for the purpose of
this study rather qualitative methods. The following section clarifies the sampling methods.
Namely, the segment of the population that was selected as a sample for this research was
justified. Afterward, the process of data collection and questionnaire design was explicitly
explained. The following section demonstrates how the questionnaire instrument was
optimized as a result of pre-testing. Lastly, the data analysis section illustrates which statistical
techniques were employed in the analysis of collected data.
3.1 Research philosophy
This research reflects the positivism philosophy in order to embrace the philosophical position
of the natural sciences. The main advantage of this philosophy over the others in the light of a
given study is that the outcomes of the research findings can be law-like generalizations
comparable with those developed by natural and physical scientists (Remenyi et al. 1998). In
addition, the positivism philosophy allows researcher neither to influence nor to be affected by
the topic of the study, hence to be independent and external to the process (Remenyi et al.
1998). Consequently, the existing theories and studies are utilized to produce hypotheses and
subsequently are tested via quantitative methods.
3.2 Research approach
The deductive approach has been used in this study in order to identify consumers’ attitudes
toward SNS advertising in a mobile context and identify the causal relationships between
dimensions (see Figure 2). The chosen approach is consistent with the positivism philosophy
(Gill and Johnson 2002) and enables to test research objectives. Additionally, it should be noted

24. 24
that the time frame of this project is limited to undertake inductive approach, which focuses on
building theory; hence, is not consistent with the main research objective.
Figure 2
3.3 Research strategy
Descriptive studies fit the overall purpose of the research since the study aims is to define and
describe attitudes of consumers towards SNS advertising in a mobile context. The survey
strategy was adopted in this study as it commonly associated with the deductive approach
(Saunders et al. 2008). Moreover, previous similar studies in this area conducted by Okazaki
(2004), Liu et al. (2012), and Lee and Hong (2016) had utilized the survey instrument to
accomplish the research aims and objectives.
Furthermore, according to Saunders et al. (2008) surveys allow the aggregation of the massive
volume of data from a substantial population in an inexpensive way. Thus, survey is consistent
with the purpose of the research, however, the acquisition of a large amount of data is
unattainable due to the lack of time and resources allocated to this project.
Nevertheless, for the purpose of this research the survey strategy can be considered viable as

25. 25
it permits the collection of quantitative data, which after inferential and descriptive statistics
revealed causes for specific relationships. Furthermore, the survey assigned greater control
over the process of research compared to other available strategies.
3.4 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
METHODS
For the purpose of this study, quantitative methods were considered over the qualitative
methods, due to several advantages. Firstly, quantitative methods allow to test and validate
formerly constructed theories regarding why and how the phenomena occur (Field 2009).
Secondly, the chosen method supplies quantitative, accurate, numerical data, which is collected
moderately quickly and at a lower cost (Bryman and Bell 2011). Hence, the time and resources
consumed by the data analysis procedure are lesser compared to qualitative methods. Lastly,
the major advantage of quantitative methods is the fact, that research findings are independent
of the researcher, which means that results are statistically significant.
On the other hand, qualitative methods were not considered, because the quality of the research
findings strongly depends on researcher’s skills, and can be influenced by his biases or
idiosyncrasies (Field 2009). Moreover, in some cases, scientific communities do not agree with
or acknowledge the findings of qualitative methods. Additionally, the quantity of the data
usually makes data analysis and interpretation time-consuming, with higher associated costs.
Finally, during the presentation of results, the qualitative methods are always linked with
challenges on anonymity and confidentiality (Saunders et al. 2008). However, quantitative
methods also possess some disadvantages. Specifically, the findings may be too general and
abstract for application to particular regional situations, environments, and individuals.
Nevertheless, by considering the time allocation, research objectives, and aims, the quantitative
research methods are best suited than qualitative.
3.5 SAMPLING
The simple random sampling has been selected for the purpose of this research, as it is
advantageous in terms of usability and represents the larger population accurately (Saunders et
al. 2013).

26. 26
It was decided to select the students of Coventry University as a sample for several reasons.
Firstly, the multitude of studies revealed the online usage patterns of consumers. Specifically,
it was found that the Generation Y, also known as Millennial generation, is the major consumer
of online technological and online digital innovations like mobile apps and social networking
sites. Consequently, they are considered as a target audience for online advertisers (Dlondo
and Dhurup 2013; Hadija et al. 2012; Logan et al. 2013; Ramnarain and Govender 2013; Taylor
et al. 2011).
Secondly, some of the studies have identified that students are the heavy users of social
networking sites compared with other segments (Jordaan et al. 2011; Saxena and Khanna 2013;
Shambare 2012; Smith et al. 2012); thus are exposed to mobile SNA.
During the research, a total of 150 self-administered questionnaires were disseminated, and
90% of them, or 135 were returned by interviewees. Nevertheless, 10 questionnaires were not
inserted into the data analysis set, because respondents did not match the required criteria of
having an account on social networking sites. Additionally, after a further filtering, the
remaining 6% of questionnaires, or 9 were excluded because of such reason as outliers and
missing values. Consequently, only a total of 116 valid questionnaires were utilized throughout
the data analysis, which means that a response rate was equivalent to 77%. Lastly, it should be
noted that since the sample is considered as the convenience sample, the findings are limited
in providing generalizations.
3.6 DATA COLLECTION AND QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN
For the purpose of this research, the structured self-administered questionnaires were used in
order to collect the substantial amount of data. Interviewees were firstly asked to pass two
screening questions prior to a further allowance in survey participation (see Table 2). At this
point, it should be pointed out that no differentiation was made between mobile advertising on
various SNS platforms, and no advertisement’s picture was presented to respondents. This
means that they were asked to recall their own experiences with mobile SNS advertising,
regardless of the SNS platform.

27. 27
Table 2
The following part of the questionnaire displayed four multiple-choice questions about SNS
usage patterns (independent variables) as illustrated in Table 2. Afterward, a twenty item scale
was used in order to measure the informativeness, credibility, irritation, emotional appeal, and
creativity (dependent variables) of a mobile SNA. The scale was primarily adapted from
Ducoffee (1996), Tsang et al (2004), Taylor et al. (2011), and Liu et al. (2002) (see Table 3).
This research employed a five-point Likert scale to measure interviewees’ responses ranging
from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The main reason includes, that the 7 or 11 items scale
produce data of diminished quality, whereas the 5 items scale has a higher validity score
(Revilla et.al 2013). Lastly, the demographic related questions included three questions
concerning age, gender, and nationality of a respondent, which are considered as independent
variables.
Initially, the questionnaire was distributed online via Bristol Online Survey (BOS), in order to
collect data. At the same time, the contingency plan included the distribution of self-
administered questionnaires by hand in order to obtain the desired number of responses. Thus,
a sum of 150 useable forms was accomplished over the period of two weeks (spoilt and
incomplete questionnaires were rejected).

28. 28
Table 3

29. 29
3.7 PRE-TESTING
During the pre-testing stage, the questionnaire was handed over to 15 students of the Coventry
University (United Kingdom). The main goal was to pre-test the clarity of the questionnaire
instrument. Moreover, the pre-test aimed to examine research instrument’s reliability, and to
ensure that questions and multiple-choice answers served for all imaginable responses. The
questions were pre-tested several weeks earlier the major study was carried out. As a result of
the pre-testing, the questionnaire was slightly reorganized and redesigned.
For instance, the 4th usage-related question which asked “How long have you used social
networking sites?” and where the choices were ranging from “less than one year” to “four
years and more” was changed. The majority of the students reported that they find it difficult
to sort answers based on the alternatives provided. Therefore, the multiple options were re-
designed in the following way: “Less than one year”, “between one and two years”, “between
two and three years”, “between three and five years”, and “five years and more”.
The second adjustment was related to the reversed Likert scale questions. Reversed questions
which dealt with irritation dimension asked “Generally, I do not find the mobile SNS
advertising frustrating/annoying”. As a consequence of pre-testing, it was discovered that
students found these questions tricky and relatively time-consuming due to the combination of
negation and inverse verb. Therefore, the group of reversed questions about irritation
dimension was reverted back to “Generally, I find the mobile SNS advertising
frustrating/annoying”. However, in order to maintain the reversed questions, it was decided to
re-design a group of creativity related questions into reversed form.
3.8 DATA ANALYSIS
The data gathered from respondents was captured, coded, and further analyzed by virtue of
statistical package for the social sciences - IBM SPSS (version 22) and its extension AMOS.
Completed questionnaires were accurately reviewed in order to determine whether they can be
incorporated in data analysis with respect to correctness and completeness. For this reason, the
Likert-scale questions were organized in a manner that positive and negative questions were

30. 30
frequently substituted in order to prevent a solely selected column of answers.
Firstly, this study attempted to gain an overall overview of responses. Therefore, it was decided
to use descriptive statistical analysis in order to reveal response patterns of students with
regards to the requested questions. Moreover, descriptive analysis was beneficial in
understanding demographic and usage characteristics of students.
Secondly, it was decided to employ more complicated statistical techniques in order to identify
whether relationships between collected data and constructs are viable. Namely, Confirmatory
factor analysis (CFA) was adopted as it is considered as a general approach to factor analysis.
The major goal of the CFA is to determine the primary meaning of items (Pallant 2010).
Moreover, CFA was widely used in related studies to examine whether hypotheses are viable,
and whether the relationships exist between variables and constructs.
Next, it was decided to conduct a reliability and validity tests. One of the reliability tests in this
research was the Internal Consistency Test. Specifically, Cronbach’s alpha was used, since it
is considered as a general measure of internal consistency. In addition, the aforementioned test
was utilized to examine the amount of support for each individual variable. While illustrating
the findings of Cronbach’s alpha, the scales which are equal or are above 0.7 thresholds are
considered as satisfactory (Field 2009).
Subsequently, this study employed discriminant and convergent validity tests. The main cause
for these tests included their ability to measure whether proposed constructs are related or
unrelated (Domino et al. 2006). Moreover, discriminant and convergent validity test had also
aided researchers in related studies to identify whether the relationships exist between
constructs.
The literature suggests that self-administered questionnaires possess a higher probability of
common method bias (Field 2009). This means that common method bias can become a serious
concern for this study. Therefore, it was decided to test whether the common method bias exists
in the collected data.
Lastly, after ensuring that all the constructs are related, and there is no any concern with
reliability, validity, or common method bias, it became possible to test proposed hypotheses.
Specifically, structural equation model was analyzed by virtue of path analysis on AMOS. The
main purpose of Path analysis is to examine a significance of hypothesized causal relationships

31. 31
between variables (Bryman and Cramer 1990). As a result of path analysis, it became possible
to identify which of the hypotheses were supported and which were rejected.
4. RESULTS
A total of 116 responses were selected for a purpose of data analysis. The results of descriptive
statistics illustrated that approximately 86 percent of respondents have an account on social
networking sites for more than 5 years (see Figure 3). Meanwhile, the minority of respondents
reported that they have SNS accounts between 3 and 5 years (10%) and less than 1 year (4%).
Figure 3
In terms of log on frequency, it is observed that the vast majority of respondents or 95%, log
on to their social networking accounts most days (see Figure 4). Next, the answers of the
interviewees regarding the duration per log on, indicated that roughly 43% spent between 1
and 2 hours, while 26% of respondents spend less than 1 hour during log on (see Figure 5).
Consequently, these results illustrate that respondents are active social networking sites users
and therefore, are familiar with and exposed to the mobile SNS advertising.
5
12
101
Length of usage SNS
Between 1 and 2
years
Between 3 and 5
years

32. 32
Figure 4
Figure 5
The sample was almost evenly distributed between genders. Specifically, males accounted for
51,7%; while females accounted for 48.3%. According to Smith (2008), the domination of
respondents constituting one gender can significantly affect the results of a survey.
Consequently, the response bias was prevented by the almost even distribution of the survey
between genders.
4.1 GENERAL TENDENCIES
5
112
1
Log on frequency
Once a week
Most days
2-4 times a week
31
51
10
15
11
0 10 20 30 40 50
LESS THAN 1
BETWEEN 1 AND 2
BETWEEN 2 AND 3
BETWEEN 3 AND 5
5 HOURS OR MORE
Number of respondents
Log on duration

33. 33
The bar chart below (Figure 6) demonstrates the responses of interviewees to the
informativeness dimension questions. Namely, respondents were requested to indicate whether
they agree or disagree that mobile SNS ads are entertaining (INFO1), pleasing (INFO2), a good
source of information (INFO3), and helpful for decision making (INFO4). The results showed
that most of the respondents were in agreement with all of the above-mentioned statements.
Specifically, the number of people who agreed with statements regarding the entertainment and
helpfulness of mobile SNA was roughly twice as much compared with those who disagreed.
Meanwhile, the percentage of people who agreed or strongly agreed with statements regarding
whether mobile SNA is pleasing, or a good source of information surpassed insignificantly
those who disagreed. Thus, this means that majority of respondents found mobile SNS
advertising more entertaining and helpful, while only some found it pleasing or a good source
of information.
Figure 6
The table below (Figure 7) illustrates how respondents assessed statements regarding the
irritation dimension of mobile SNS advertising. Specifically, questions asked whether they find
mobile SNA annoying (IRRI1) and frustrating (IRRI2). Interestingly, it was observed that
respondents did not find mobile SNS advertising as frustrating or annoying. Especially, in the
case of perceived frustration, the number of respondents who disagreed or strongly disagreed
12
11
7
11
21
24
30
24
15
25
25
20
47
37
41
48
23
21
15
15
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
INFO1
INFO2
INFO3
INFO4
Number of respondents
Questions
Informativeness
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree

34. 34
with statement surpassed those who agreed or strongly agreed by 35 percent. Meanwhile, the
significant proportion of respondents also disagreed with statements regarding annoyance of
mobile SNS advertising. Hence, conversely to the expectations, the respondents did not
perceive mobile SNS ads as irritating.
Figure 7
The bar chart below (Figure 8) shows how respondents responded to the questions about the
credibility dimension of mobile SNS advertising. In detail, the statements asked whether
students find mobile SNS ads convincing (CREDI1), believable (CREDI2), and credible
(CREDI3). Conversely to the proposed hypothesis, respondents have a tendency to perceive
mobile SNA doubtful. Especially, there were approximately twice as many respondents who
disagreed or strongly disagreed than those who agreed or strongly agreed with statements both
regarding believability and convincing nature of mobile SNS advertising. Thus, it can be
concluded that respondents perceived the credibility of mobile SNS advertising negatively.
Simply put, credibility of mobile SNS advertising does not directly impact perceived
advertising value.
18
15
42
46
16
31
22
21
20
5
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
IRRI1
IRRI2
Number of respondents
Statements
Irritation of mobile SNS ad
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree

35. 35
Figure 8
The chart below (Figure 9) demonstrates the response patterns of Coventry University students
towards creativity dimension of mobile SNS advertising. Specifically, the questions of this
dimension were negatively reversed, and asked whether the respondents do not find mobile
SNS ads creative (CREA1), intriguing (CREA2), and surprising (CREA3). Interestingly, the
majority of respondents indicated a negative preference towards the perceived creativity and
intrigue of the mobile SNS ad. However, 51 respondents indicated that they disagree or
strongly disagree with the following statement “Generally, I do not perceive the mobile SNS
ad creative” versus 33 respondents who agreed or strongly agreed. Consequently, one of the
creativity statements was acceptable to respondents, whereas two of them were not. This
means, that a further statistical analysis is needed to identify whether the hypothesis is proved
or rejected.
11
14
16
54
47
41
26
21
13
21
31
39
6
5
9
0 10 20 30 40 50
CREDI1
CREDI2
CREDI3
Number of respondents
Statements
Credibility of mobile SNS ad
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree

36. 36
Figure 9
The final dimension of the proposed model is the emotional appeal, and the responses of the
interviewees towards it are illustrated in the bar chart below (Figure 10). In detail, the questions
asked whether respondents had intense feelings (EMO1) and were emotionally attracted by the
mobile SNS advertising. From the chart below it is immediately obvious that the majority of
respondents positively responded to the both of the statements. However, the number of
students who found it hard to answer these questions was also high. Thus, it can be summarized
that 38 percent of respondents perceived emotionally appealing mobile SNS ads positively,
whereas 21 percent expressed the neutral opinion.
Figure 10
9
12
10
28
26
41
35
18
34
39
41
28
7
21
5
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
CREA1
CREA2
CREA3
Number of respondents
Statements
Creativity dimension of mobile SNS ad
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
8
12
27
21
25
23
42
49
16
13
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
EMO1
EMO2
Number of respondents
Statements
Emotional appeal of mobile SNS ad
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree

37. 37
4.2 MEASUREMENT MODEL (RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY)
4.2.1 CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS
Firstly, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used by the virtue of AMOS 22.0 in order
to test the measurement model. This study adopted CFA as it helps a researcher to assess the
hypothesis by determining whether the relationship exists between observed variables and
constructs (Suhr 1990). Specifically, the goodness of fit was assessed via the six model fit
measures. As a result, all indices demonstrated a good fit between the observed data and
hypothesized model. Consequently, the measurement model fit was valid with respect to the
cutoff criteria (Kline 2005).
4.2.2 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
Secondly, the measurement model was tested for validity and reliability. Specifically,
Composite reliability (CR) and Cronbach’s alpha values were used for the purpose of reliability
assessment. This study employed Cronbach’s alpha as it is the most general objective
measurement of reliability, and it intends to assess the level of internal consistency between
variables of one construct. The values above the 0.7 thresholds are considered to be acceptable,
but the recommended scores are over 0.8 thresholds (Pallant 2009; Tavakol et al. 2011; Fornell
and Larker 1981). The research instrument included three negatively phrased questions in order
to decrease response bias. Therefore, they were reversed, or they could have negatively
impacted the Cronbach’s alpha results (Field 2009). As highlighted in Table 4, the index of
Cronbach’s alpha for the constructs was ranging from 0.714 to 0.942, and composite reliability
coefficients were above 0.713 This means that all constructs were above the recommended
threshold of 0.7. Consequently, the constructs employed in this research represent an
acceptable level of reliability.

38. 38
Table 4
Dimensions Cronbach's alpha
Composite
reliability
Informativeness 0.942 0.922
Irritation 0.758 0.901
Credibility 0.78 0.74
Creativity 0.714 0.834
Emotional Appeal 0.820 0.718
Advertising value 0.873 0.856
Attitudes towards mobile SNS 0.872 0.713
4.2.3 DISCRIMINANT AND CONVERGENT VALIDITY
Thirdly, the measurement model was assessed for discriminant and convergent validity.
Aforementioned statistical techniques are very important because convergent validity helps to
test whether the constructs that supposed to be related, are indeed related. Meanwhile,
discriminant validity tests whether constructs that should not be related, are indeed unrelated
(Domino et al.2006).
On the first step, the factor loadings of all observed variables were examined to assess
convergent validity. It should be pointed out, that the factor loadings exceeded the suggested
threshold of 0,5, which was recommended by Hair et al. (2006); hence, they are considered
significant.
On the following steps, the convergent validity was further analyzed by testing composite
reliability and average variances extracted values. The results demonstrated that the composite
reliability exceeded 0.7 threshold and average variances extracted values exceeded 0.5
thresholds. This shows that both composite reliability and average variances extracted values
of the constructs were above the respective cutoff criteria (Hair et al.2006). Composite
reliability values were ranging from 0.713 to 0.922 and average variances values were ranging

39. 39
from 0.638 to 0.821. This illustrated fair convergent validity (Table 5). Moreover, the square
roots of the average variances extracted values obtained for constructs were higher in
comparison to the construct’ correlation with other remaining constructs (Table 6), supporting
the discriminant validity (Fornell and Larcker 1981). Consequently, discriminant and
convergent validity along with reliability confirmed to be sufficient for the purpose of a
measurement model.
Table 5
Dimensions
Composite
reliability
Average variance
extracted
Informativeness 0.922 0.821
Irritation 0.901 0.811
Credibility 0.740 0.651
Creativity 0.834 0.568
Emotional Appeal 0.718 0.714
Advertising value 0.856 0.649
Attitudes towards mobile SNS 0.713 0.638
Table 6

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4.2.4 COMMON METHOD BIAS
The data utilized for the purpose of this study was collected by means of the self-administered
questionnaire instrument. This means that there is always a possibility for a common method
bias, as the data is self-reported. Therefore, common method bias was tested prior to the further
examination of hypothesized model. Specifically, the severity of common method bias was
assessed by performing Harman’s single-factor test (Podsakoff and Organ 1986). In order to
perform Harman’s single factor analysis, the data of each variable was placed into an un-rotated
explanatory factor analysis. The results of this test illustrated that the major covariance
explained by one factor was 34.9 percent and is below the threshold of 50 percent,
recommended by Podsakoff and Organ (1986). Hence, the common method biases do not
possess a serious concern for this research.
Moreover, it was decided to perform an extra test in order to verify the common method bias.
Namely, the unmeasured common latent factor was adopted, as suggested by Podsakoff et al.
(2003) and Liang (2007). The test was performed via AMOS 22. Results demonstrated that the
difference between standardized coefficient with a common factor and standardized
coefficients without a common latent factor is lesser than 0.2. Consequently, common method
bias does not possess a significant concern for the data set in this study.
4.2.5 MULTICOLLINEARITY
Lastly, a multicollinearity test was performed via SPSS. The multicollinearity analysis was
conducted in order to prevent issues caused by a set of multicollinear variables during analysis
and interpretation stages. Moreover, the statistics literature review demonstrates that it is
common to employ a variation inflation factor in order to define whether there is an overlap
between variables. The overlaps between variables exist only in the case when variation
inflation factor exceeds 10. The results of the test revealed that the figures were ranging from
1.07 (min) to 2.11 (max), which means that no overlaps exist between variables. All in all, the
results illustrated that there is no significant concern with multicollinearity, or a situation where
variables are so strongly correlated that is hard to obtain reliable estimates.
4.3 HYPOTHESIS TEST AND STRUCTURAL PATHS
To test the hypotheses, it was decided to construct a structural equation model. Namely, the
assessment of the causal paths was conducted by virtue of AMOS 22.0. The eventuating indices

41. 41
signified a good fit when examined with regards to the cutoff criteria (Kline 2005). Figure 11
below illustrates the path significance, standardized path coefficient, and explained variance
for the paths. As a result, three hypotheses were rejected while three were supported.
Figure 11
Furthermore, the findings of the structural model demonstrated the essential role of
informativeness and emotional appeal in determining individuals’ attitudes towards advertising
value. In detail, informativeness (β = 0.37, p < 0.001) was found to have a substantial positive
effect on perceived mobile SNS advertising value. Meanwhile, the structural equation test
indicated that perceived emotional appeal (β = 0.25, p < 0.01) was positively associated with
advertising value.
However, the effects of advertising credibility (β = 0.12, p < 0.01) and advertising creativity
(β = 0.17, p < 0.01) towards mobile SNS advertising value were found to be insignificant (β =
0.14, p = 0.10). Interestingly, the effect of perceived irritation (β =0.09, p=0.11) did not have
a negative association with mobile SNA value. All in all, the results showed that perceived
advertising value of mobile SNA had a positive effect on advertising value (β = 0.34, p <
0.001). Thus, hypotheses H1, H5, and H6 were supported, whereas H2, H3, and H4 were not
(see Table 7).

42. 42
Table 7
Hypotheses
H1. There is a positive relationship between informativeness and attitudes towards perceived advertising value
H2. The irritation felt as a result of mobile SNS advertising is negatively associated with perceived advertising
value.
H3. The perceived credibility of mobile SNS advertising is positively associated with advertising value.
H4. Emotional appeal is positively associated with advertising value
H5. Advertising creativity is positively related with advertising value
H6. There is a positive relationship between perceived high value of advertising and attitude towards mobile SNS
advertising.
5. ANALYSIS
This study sought to identify the attitudes of consumers towards mobile SNS advertising and
to examine the proposed model by virtue of structural equation modeling. The findings of this
research contribute to our understanding of the antecedents that have an effect on the perceived
value of mobile SNS advertising. The results revealed two major influencers of attitudes
towards perceived advertising value: informativeness and emotional appeal.
H1. There is a positive relationship between informativeness and attitudes towards
perceived advertising value
The results show that informativeness positively influences advertising value of mobile SNS
ads. Delivering information is considered as one of the major roles of advertising. This function
is even more important today since market place is diversified by numerous competitive

43. 43
adverting platforms. Hence, in order to catch customers’ attention mobile SNS advertising
should be enjoyable and interesting. Additionally, the role of entertainment is also considered
to be significant, as it builds emotional linkages between audiences and brand messages
(Cauberghe and De Pelsmacker 2010).
Moreover, the function of informativeness can be described from the utilitarian, or instrumental
perspective. Specifically, utilitarian values of advertising on SNS were found to reinforce
favorable attitudes towards brand pages (Muk and Chung 2014). Likewise, Khan et al. (2005)
revealed that utilitarian aspects of the offering can support the functional needs of consumers.
This means that the quality and usefulness of information displayed in mobile social media
ads, like the benefits of products, can consequently assist consumers in making optimal
purchase decisions.
Lastly, the findings of this study are analogous with research findings of Lee and Hong (2016)
and Liu et al (2011). Specifically, the former study investigated the attitudes of students toward
SNS ads, whereas the latter study researched attitudes of consumers towards SMS ads.
Consequently, this illustrates that the significant role of informativeness can also be extended
to the context of mobile SNS.
H4. Emotional appeal is positively associated with advertising value
This study found that emotional appeal of mobile SNS ads also influences perceptions of
respondents towards advertising value. Hence, the proposed hypothesis was supported. That
is, emotional appeal plays a significant role in forming favorable user attitudes towards
advertising value in a mobile context. This effect of emotional appeal can be described by
means of emotion, as it was found to be an essential element, which affects the message
effectiveness (Xiu et al. 2004). Additionally, even a segment of consumers that possess little
motivation are persuaded by emotionally appealing ads, and they tend to share with these SNS
ads with their friends (Petty and Cacioppo 2006).
There is a discrepancy between research findings of this research and the study of Lee and
Hong (2016). As mentioned earlier, their study investigated general attitudes of consumers
towards SNS in the USA. The possible explanation for this discrepancy can be a difference in
consumers’ experiences in terms of a device (desktop versus PC, notebook, tablet). Another
possible explanation can be the difference in a culture of respondents. This suggests that device
type and culture of consumers play a significant role in the perception of SNA.

44. 44
H5. Advertising creativity is positively related with advertising value
Advertising creativity failed to positively influence perceived advertising value. The
literature on advertising suggests that ad creativity is associated with the functional human
needs and motivations to consume something original, new, and out of ordinary (Haberland
and Dacin 1992). Additionally, the study of Lee and Hong (2016) identified that there is a
positive relationship between SNS ad creativity and advertising value.
However, contrary to the expectations, the creativity of mobile SNS advertising failed to
influence consumers’ attitudes towards advertising value. The possible explanation for this
can be the restrictions of mobile phones in terms of screen size, monitor resolution, colors
depth, and sound effects. Simply put, these restrictions hinder the communication of various
elements of SNS ad in exactly the same way as on the other devices. Consequently, mobile
SNS ads fail to reflect creativity and to provide hedonic value to consumers.
H3. The perceived credibility of mobile SNS advertising is positively associated with
advertising value.
Contrary to the proposed hypothesis, the credibility failed to influence respondents’ attitudes
towards mobile SNS advertising. Namely, respondents claimed that they usually do not find
mobile SNS ads as trustworthy and credible. Thus, the credibility of mobile SNA can be
essential in itself, but is not expected to be sufficiently influential to evoke favorable attitudes
of users towards mobile SNA.
Interestingly, observed results also contradict the previous findings on mobile and social media
advertising (Goldsmith et al. 2000; Okazaki2004; Wang and Sun 2010; Lee and Hong 2016).
Specifically, the aforementioned studies found that credibility plays an indispensable role in
developing customer-client relations. Consequently, the credibility of advertising, which was
found significant within SNS platforms on devices other than mobile, should get more attention
from marketers in order to create more credible ads on mobile devices.
H2. The irritation felt as a result of mobile SNS advertising is negatively associated with
perceived advertising value.
Generally, individuals perceive mobile advertising negatively with regards to irritation it
causes. Specifically, for many consecutive years, advertising was criticized for pushing
products and services that recipients did not want and for causing insecurity within society

45. 45
(Wang and Sun 2010). Additionally, the literature review indicated that irritation tends to
negatively affect advertising value and attitudes toward web advertising (Luo 2002).
However, the findings of this research revealed that respondents did not view mobile SNA
negatively. The possible explanation for this can be that mobile SNS ads are now more targeted
than ever before. That is, SNS allow marketers to utilize not only demographic targeting but
also lifestyle, interest, and behavioral targeting (Statista 2016). Consequently, the improved
targeting options make an SNS ad more relevant to target audience, and less frustrating or
annoying.
H6. There is a positive relationship between perceived high value of advertising and
attitude towards mobile SNS advertising.
Subsequently, it was found that perceived advertising value is the major determinant of
individuals’ attitudes toward mobile SNS advertising. The findings of this research had also
illustrated that the perceived advertising value significantly and positively predicted
respondents’ attitudes towards it. Moreover, the findings revealed that consumers, who rate
their perceptions of advertising value high, were likely to possess positive attitudes towards
mobile SNS advertising. Lastly, these results are consistent with the prior literature regarding
the attitudes of consumers towards advertising (Ducoffee 1996; Tsang et al 2004 Petrovici and
Marinov 2007).
6. CONCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS
6.1 CONCLUSION
Mobile SNS advertising has now transformed into an essential marketing tool. Marketers and
advertisers will be able to receive more benefits from it only if they are capable of using the
limited resources of mobile SNS ads. Therefore, in order to increase the effectiveness from
advertising, it is important for marketers to gain an in-depth understanding of characteristics
applicable to mobile SNS ads.
The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of students towards mobile SNS

46. 46
advertising. Specifically, the research analyzes the factors which can influence the perceived
advertising value and its effect on attitudes towards mobile SNS advertising. As a result, this
study offers some theoretical and managerial implications.
Firstly, this research contributes to the existing literature by proposing a novel research model.
Namely, it demonstrates the relationships among dimensions (informativeness, irritation,
credibility, creativity, and emotional appeal) influencing perceived advertising value and the
attitudes towards mobile SNS ads. Additionally, this research adopted the Uses and
Gratifications theory in order to gain a better understanding of consumers’ attitudes towards
mobile SNS advertising value. The results of this study unveiled the complex relationships
among the proposed constructs and theoretically deepened our knowledge of consumer’s
attitudes towards mobile SNA.
The second contribution of this research is that it provides further support for the preceding
studies that examined mobile advertising and social media advertising, and demonstrated that
perceived value of advertising is the major predictor of attitude towards advertising.
Specifically, this research unveiled that informativeness and emotional appeal are positively
associated with perceived advertising value, whereas credibility and creativity of mobile SNS
ads are negatively associated. Meanwhile, the effect of irritation was not found to have a
negative impact on perceived mobile SNS advertising value. Thus, based on a comparison of
findings of this research and related studies, it can be concluded that SNS mobile advertising
is not perceived equally on different devices such as PC or tablet.
Finally, the findings of this research offer valuable implications for marketers. Specifically, the
understanding of consumers’ attitudes towards mobile SNS ads enables marketers to create and
deliver advertising messages in a more effective way with regards to consumers’ preferences.
Moreover, findings suggest the importance of targeting SNS users separately with regards to
device type (mobile versus PC and tablet) in order to improve the perceived advertising value.
Lastly, there was achieved an acceptable goodness of fit between the proposed model and
collected data. Hence, the proposed model is able to provide valid representation of the
relationships between constructs.

47. 47
6.2 LIMITATIONS AND DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH.
Though the findings of this research can contribute to the existing literature by identifying
factors, which can influence perceived advertising value and attitudes towards mobile SNS
advertising, it has a few limitations.
Firstly, predicting dimensions utilized in this research are not fully comprehensive. Future
research is required to investigate other predicting factors such as demographic factors,
perceived trust, and satisfaction, which can also influence attitudes of consumers towards
mobile SNS ads.
Secondly, university students, with an average age of 23, are active social networking sites
users but they may not constitute an accurate representation of the consumer population.
Further research is needed to examine the proposed model by utilizing a representative sample
of real-world consumers.
Thirdly, it would be rewarding to replicate this research by utilizing a motion picture (e.g.,
video commercials) instead of just asking questions regarding mobile SNS advertising, or using
still pictures. According to Sung and Cho (2012), the media type influences the perception of
advertising in SNS and that video ads evoke more favorable attitudes to SNS advertising than
any other ad format.
Fourthly, the model used throughout this research does not involve the behavioral construct.
The main reason includes that this study focused on understanding factors which influence
advertising value and attitudes towards mobile SNS ads. However, the inclusion of the
behavioral construct in a form of the dependent variable could have resolved the extensive
implications for marketers along with academics.
Next, while this study focused on investigating attitudes towards mobile SNA, it would also be
worthwhile to test other responses of consumers such as sharing, liking, and commenting,
because they are considered as active consumer behavior (Lee and Hong 2016).
Moreover, one of the biggest limitations of this study is the level of generalization. Specifically,
due to the restrictions of time and resources, the sample included responses of only 116 students
from Coventry University. Hence, a future quantitative research with a viable sample size is
needed to achieve generalizability.

48. 48
Lastly, further research is required to explore the role of the product category in influencing
perceived advertising value and consumers’ attitudes towards mobile SNS ads. It can be
claimed that the hedonic offerings comprise a greater impact of emotional appeal on attitude,
while utilitarian products or services involve insignificant impact. Hence, future research will
enhance our knowledge about the factors influencing the formation of advertising value with
respect to the mobile SNS.

49. 49
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8. APPENDIX
The screenshot below demonstrates ethics approval by Coventry University.
The screenshots below illustrate the questionnaire instrument employed in this study.

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