Brand in the Hand: A Cross‐Market Investigation of Consumer Acceptance of Mobile Marketing

Given the great potential of developing marketing campaigns delivered via mobile devices and the evolution of near field communication technologies, this study examines factors influencing consumers’ acceptance of un‐tethered, or mobile, marketing across the three influential markets of U.S., China, and Europe. The authors examine the extent to which the usefulness of mobile information and programs and individual characteristics (namely innovativeness, personal attachment, and risk avoidance) jointly influence attitudes toward mobile marketing, and how the latter influences consumers’ mobile marketing activity across three large and influential markets. Perceived usefulness, consumer innovativeness, and personal attachment are found to directly influence attitudes toward mobile marketing in all three markets. In China and Europe, risk avoidance also negatively influences attitude toward mobile marketing. Marketers seeking to build and maintain customer relationships via the mobile platform should view these individual characteristics as levers that brands can tap into to amplify consumers’ acceptance of mobile marketing