Understanding Consumers' Reactance of Online Personalized Advertising: from a Perspective of Negative Effects

Despite the increasing popularity of IT-enabled personalization, the online consumers’ attitude of reactance appears to be a major inhibiting result in their acceptance of the online personalized advertising. The objective of this study is to study consumers’ reactance of online personalized advertising from the perspective of negative effects. Especially, we identify the rational choice factors rooted in the rational choice theory in the context of reactance and test their impacts on reactance, with consideration of individual feeling factors in a specific situation of personalization paradox. We also identify the contingent effects of consumers’ goals. By analyzing the survey data from 281 respondents, our results indicate that the curiosity and vulnerability significantly impact on the rational choice factors, and the influences of the rational choice factors on consumers’ reactance vary in the context of consumers’ different goals (searching and browsing). Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.