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Linking information motivation to attitudes

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Article in Journal of Islamic Marketing · September 2014

DOI: 10.1108/JIMA-02-2013-0011

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JIMA
5,3
396
Received 6 February 2013
Revised 4 March 2014
Accepted 14 March 2014
Journal of Islamic Marketing
Vol. 5 No. 3, 2014
pp. 396-413
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1759-0833
DOI 10.1108/JIMA-02-2013-0011
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1759-0833.htm
Linking information motivation
to attitudes towards Web
advertising
Ali Bassam Mahmoud
Department of Marketing, Arab International University,
Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationships among Syrian consumers’
information motivation and beliefs about and attitude towards Web advertising.
Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional investigation is conducted and the proposed
model is tested and revised using structural equation modeling technique.
Findings – The results indicate that information motivation predicts three dimensions of beliefs about
Web advertising, i.e. positively for information and entertainment; and negatively for irritation. It is
found also that information motivation positively influences consumers’ attitudes towards advertising.
As well as, information, entertainment and irritation are found to partially mediate the relationship
between information motivation and attitude towards Web advertising. Additionally, values
corruption is found to negatively influence Syrian consumers’ attitudes toward Web advertising.
Research limitations/implications – Researchers are advised to use the validated scales in the
present study when it comes to measure beliefs about and attitudes toward Internet advertising in the
Syrian context or other Arab countries contexts. Also, further investigations using longitudinal design
are needed to check the validity of our results on a longer period of time, besides using qualitative
methods along with quantitative analyses could produce a wider vision to the results. Additionally, it is
recommended that other types of Internet usage motivation are included in future studies’ models.
Practical implications – Advertisers promoting in Syria are encouraged to influence Syrian
consumers’ attitudes towards Web advertising to be more positive and less negative through offering
free and high-quality content of information, especially for Internet users with high levels of informative
motivation. Additionally, producing informative, enjoyable, less annoying and less values corruptive
could help promoting for favorable attitudes towards Web advertising.
Originality/value – This research comes to be one of the first studies to investigate Syrian
consumers’ beliefs about and attitudes towards Internet advertising. Also, this study provides evidence
of the direct relationship between information motivation and general attitudes towards Web
advertising.
Keywords Attitudes, Consumer behavior, Syria, Beliefs, Internet usage, Information motivation
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Many authors describe advertising as ubiquitous and an important aspect of the modern
life (e.g. Shavitt et al., 1998). This promotional tool produces advertising messages that
are directed to masses and delivered using a variety of bearing media. As technology
has increasingly advanced all over the world, advertising industry is adopting and
developing new media that can offer higher levels of interactivity and personalization
with consumers. Zhou and Bao (2002) referred to interactivity as a unique characteristic
that differentiates the Internet, as an advertising medium, form other traditional Attitudes
advertising media. Berthon et al. (1996) were among the first researchers to investigate
the way advertising might operate on the Internet and they characterized it as a new
towards Web
medium in the marketing communication mix. Other researchers compared offline with advertising
online advertising, suggesting that traditional media (print, TV and radio) is based on
messages that are connected to entertainment, whereas the Internet is better viewed as
an information-based medium Lei (2000). Briggs and Nigel (1997) defined Web 397
advertising, in general, as banners appearing on Web sites that provide vehicles for
commercial communication. Further debate over how to characterize the Internet
followed. Wolin et al. (2002, p. 88) concluded that the Internet also has an entertaining
component. They count Web advertising as a broad format that is consisted of
“commercial content paid for by sponsors, designed for audiences, delivered by video,
print, audio, graphics or animation”. Recently, the Internet has been regarded as the
most powerful advertising medium (Radbâță and Kubenka, 2012). In recent years, the
Internet has been a remarkably growing advertising medium in Syria. Moreover,
regardless of the war storming this Middle Eastern country, Web advertising, among
other offline and online advertising forms, is still used widely by advertisers to promote
their products in Syria.
Little is known about the way that Internet users form their perceptions towards and
beliefs about Web advertising. For instance, Zhou and Bao (2002) were the first scholars
to explain why Internet users perceive Web advertising as informative or entertaining.
They concluded that the motives behind using the Internet are causing beliefs about
Web advertising to be formed. Wolin et al. (2002) referred to the Internet as a source of
challenges and opportunities for advertisers, and that includes the need for
investigating Internet users’ beliefs and attitudes towards this type of advertising,
especially when it comes to the results of previous research which considered consumer
attitudes towards advertising as an indication of advertising effectiveness (e.g. Russell
et al., 1994; Ducoffe, 1996; Mehta, 2000; Wolin et al., 2002; Wolin and Korgaonkar, 2005;
Karson et al., 2006; Wang and Sun, 2010a, 2010b; Sun and Wang, 2010; Mahmoud,
2012a). Effective Web advertising could promote for purchase intentions towards
advertised products (Sathish et al., 2011). As very few study have researched the area of
Web advertising in Syria, it is highly motivating to investigate the relationships among
beliefs about and attitudes towards Web advertising and how those variates could be
influenced by the motivations behind using the Internet in Syria.
Compared with users in traditional media, Coupey (1999) characterized Internet users
as more active, selective and constructive in information processing. The purpose of the
present study, therefore, is to test a model linking information as an Internet usage
motivation with beliefs about, and attitudes towards, Web advertising in the Syrian
cultural context. This model is proposed on the basis of previous research and will use
structural equation modeling.

Literature review and research hypotheses

Information as an Internet usage motivation
The need for information as an Internet usage motive has been an interest for several
researchers (e.g. Lin, 1999; Korgaonkar and Wolin, 1999; Zhou and Bao, 2002;
Mahatanankoon et al., 2004; Rodgers et al., 2005; Cotte et al., 2006; Rhoades et al., 2008).
As with other types of media, the Internet, through its content, offers multi-dimensional
JIMA gratifications of which one is information (Lin, 1999) .For example, reading or watching
the news on one Web site can satisfy the need of knowing what is going on in one’s
5,3 country. Therefore, we conduct an information search (Behavior) (Cotte et al., 2006) as a
result of the need that arises from the lack of information (Motive) (Korgaonkar and
Wolin, 1999) to receive a gratification in a form of acquiring and obtaining information
(Benefit) (Lin, 1999). So, searching for information appears as information and
398 self-education needs (Korgaonkar and Wolin, 1999) that could be met via one’s Internet
usage.

Beliefs about Web advertising

Beliefs have been conceptualized as predictions held by people concerning the
possibilities that their knowledge about a referent is true (Wyer and Albarracin, 2005),
or alternatively, that an event or state of affairs has or will occur (Fishbein and Ajzen,
1975; Eagly and Chaiken, 1998). Mahmoud (2012a, p. 92) defined beliefs about Web
advertising as all knowledge that one could perceive as correct for Web advertising. So,
consumers could perceive Web advertising as a good source of product information
(Ju-Pak, 1999). Likewise, consumers may be entertained by Web advertising, as it may
involve tactics such as interactivity and multimedia (Watson et al., 1998). Conversely,
Internet offers may be a source of irritation as advertising may cause feelings of
confusion if information is perceived as intense (Ducoffe, 1996). Some users of the
Internet may install advertisement blockers, which are software that prevent Internet
advertisements from downloading on the browsed Web site (McCormally, 2000). Also,
Web advertising could be perceived as promoting lifestyles embodied by types of
products and brands advertised online (Pollay and Mittal, 1993). Web advertising could
be a symbol of materialism as it encourages people to achieve satisfaction through
consumption (Pollay and Mittal, 1993). Falsity refers to the belief about advertising as a
source of false information and deceptive claims (Nadilo, 1998). Wolin et al. (2002) argue
that Web advertising has the ability to shape Internet users’ values; therefore, it could be
a cause of values corruption.

Attitudes towards Web advertising

In general, attitudes refer to the positive or the negative cognitive dispositions that one
person holds towards a referent. In this regard, some attitude theorists (e.g. Fazio, 1989)
propose that attitudes be thought of as object– evaluation associations. That is, an
attitude can be viewed as a simple two-node semantic network, with one node
representing the object and the second node the global evaluation of the object, and the
link between the two nodes the strength of the association (Fabrigar et al., 2005, p. 80).
Lutz (1985, p. 53) defines attitudes towards advertising, in general, as a learned
predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner to
advertising. In the context of the Internet, Mahmoud (2012a, p. 92) refers to attitudes
towards Web advertising as a general predisposition to like or dislike advertising
messages delivered online.

The conceptual model

Looking at acquiring information as a primary need that motivates consumers to use the
Internet (Korgaonkar and Wolin, 1999; Zhou and Bao, 2002), Zhou and Bao (2002) found
that Internet users with higher information search motivation would exhibit favorable
beliefs about Web advertising. Specifically, they concluded that consumers perceived
Web advertising as informative and entertaining because of the information motivation. Attitudes
Consequently, other dimensions of beliefs about Web advertising could be linked to
information search motivation. We hereby state the following hypothesis (See Figure 1):
towards Web
advertising
H1. Syrian consumers with higher information motivation will hold more favorable
beliefs about Web advertising.
As proposed by Lavidge and Steiner (1961), processing advertising by consumers will 399
follow the perceptual process in which cognition will precede the consumer’s affect.
Palda (1966) soon after summarized this theoretical framework in the familiar “cognition
¡ Affect ¡ Conation” advertising–response model (Smith and Swinyard, 1988). The
investigation of the relationship between beliefs about and attitudes towards
advertising goes back to the late 1960s, when Bauer and Greyser (1968) investigated
attitudes towards advertising and differentiated between two factors of beliefs about
advertising (i.e. economic and social effects). Years later, Alwitt and Prabhaker (1992)
found that negative affection towards advertising was related to the perception of
advertising as a source of irritation. Later studies have confirmed the significant role
that beliefs about advertising could play in predicting consumers’ attitudes towards
advertising (Wolin et al., 2002; Yang, 2003; Wang and Sun, 2010a, b; Kamal and Chu,
2012; Li-Ming et al., 2013). Some dimensions of beliefs about Web advertising like
information (Shavitt et al., 1998; Zhou and Bao, 2002; Usman et al., 2010; Eze and Lee,
2012; Zabadi et al., 2012; Mir, 2012; Saxena and Khanna, 2013), entertainment (Shavitt
et al., 1998; Zhou and Bao, 2002; Eze and Lee, 2012; Saxena and Khanna, 2013) and
irritation (Zabadi et al., 2012; Saxena and Khanna, 2013) are found to be more predictive
for attitudes towards Web advertising than other dimensions of beliefs. Additionally,
Zhou and Bao (2002) found that beliefs about Web advertising mediated fully the
relationship between information motivation and attitudes towards Web advertising. In
other words, they showed that Internet users with high information motivation held a
positive attitude toward Web advertising because they perceived Web advertising as
entertaining and informative.
With regard to the previous review, consideration to (H1) and Baron and Kenny
(1986) approach to hypothesizing mediations, we propose the following hypothesis (See
Figure 1):
H2. Beliefs will fully mediate the relationship between information motivation and
attitudes towards Web advertising.

Methods
We adopt a quantitative procedure in analyzing the data for the present study. We
collect our data through a cross-sectional correlational field study design (Tharenou
et al., 2007).

Figure 1.
The conceptual model
JIMA Sample
We randomly selected 384 e-mail addresses of active Internet users from one Internet
5,3 service provider operating in Syria. An online survey is e-mailed to the randomly
selected users, and this yielded 288 valid responses for our statistical analyses.

Measures
400 Measures of the present study are validated concerning the Syrian Arab culture (see
Table I). First, scale items to measure variables are translated from English to Arabic
and then back-translated from Arabic to English for the purpose of eliminating items
that give different meanings upon this procedure. Aiming to improve the translation
accuracy, bilingual third parties are asked to conduct the back-translation (Sun and
Wang, 2010). Then, we asked academicians from the department of Marketing &
International Trade in the Higher Institute of Business Administration and the
Department of Business Administration in Damascus University in Damascus to
evaluate the Arabic wording for our scales’ items to guarantee that our measures are
face-validated. As recommended by many researchers (e.g. Tharenou et al., 2007), our
questionnaire is piloted before distributed. The pilot study involves 57 Internet users.
The purpose of this procedure is to guarantee a good understanding and acceptance by
respondents, so some questions may need deletion or modification. Second, measures
are factor-analyzed using the approach of principal component analysis and varimax
rotation (see Table II) to check for the dimensionality of the scales measuring beliefs and
attitudes. Third, measures are assessed for reliability using Cronbach’s alpha to check
for their internal consistency (see Table III) and are assessed on a five-point Likert scale.

Results
Demographic data description
As Table IV exhibits, our respondents consist of 56.94 per cent men and 43.06 per cent
women. The majority of the respondents hold a bachelor’s degree (43.06 per cent), with
age ranging between 20 and ⬍ 30 years (65.97 per cent), and a monthly income of ⬍
10,000 SYP or unemployed.

Hypotheses testing
The model testing hypotheses of the present study (Figure 1) is evaluated through the
statistical method of structural equation modeling using SPSS-AMOS (v. 18) software.
Bootstrapping is used as well to confirm the significance of mediations exhibited in the
model, regardless of normality of our data (Byrne, 2010). We use the following statistics
in testing the goodness of fit: chi- square (␹2) (Bollen, 1989), normed fit index (NFI)
(Bentler and Bonett, 1980), comparative fit index (CFI) (Bentler, 1990), root mean square
residual (RMR) (Hu and Bentler, 1995) and root mean square error of approximation
(RMSEA) (Browne and Cudeck, 1993). Those statistics will help to test for how good the
model is in fitting the collected data. Table V shows the results of the proposed model
testing. The values of RMR (0.036 ⬍ 0.05) (Hu and Bentler, 1995), CFI (0.949 ⬎ 0.9)
(Bentler, 1990) and NFI (0.930 ⬎ 0.9) (Bentler and Bonett, 1980) indicate a good fit for the
proposed model. However, RMSEA (0.086 ⬎ 0.08) demonstrates a poor fit of the
proposed model for our data (Jöreskog and Sörbom, 1989) – besides there are three
insignificant paths: Internet usage motivation ¡ social role (p-value ⫽ 0.148 ⬎ 0.05),
Internet usage motivation ¡ materialism (p-value ⫽ 0.05 ⫽ 0.05), Internet usage
motivation ¡ falsity (p-value ⫽ 0.056 ⬎ 0.05), Internet usage motivation ¡ values
Scale Source Recoded Item Dimension

Likert Ducoffe (1996) N/A Is a good source of product information Information

Likert N/A Provides timely information
Likert N/A Provides meaningful information about the product use of other consumers
Likert N/A Provides useful information about new products
Likert Wolin et al. (2002), N/A Is entertaining Entertainment
Likert Ducoffe (1996), Wang and N/A Is pleasing
Likert Sun (2010a, 2010b) N/A Is fun to use
Likert N/A Is exciting
Likert Pollay and Mittal (1993), N/A It lets me know what is in fashion and what I should buy for keeping a good social image Social Role
Likert Wolin et al. (2002) N/A Tells me what people like myself are buying and using
Likert N/A Helps me know which products will or will not reflect the sort of person I am
Likert Wolin et al. (2002) N/A Makes you buy things you do not really need Materialism
Likert N/A Increases dissatisfaction among consumers by showing products which some consumers
can not afford
Likert N/A Is making us a materialistic society–interested in buying and owning things
Likert N/A Makes people buy unaffordable products just to show off
Likert Wang and Sun (2010a, b), R Helps the consumer buy the best brand for the price Falsity
Likert Wolin et al. (2002) N/A I do not believe online advertisements
Likert N/A Is not objective
Likert Ducoffe (1996) N/A Is irritating Irritation
Likert N/A Is confusing
Likert N/A Is annoying
Likert N/A Insults people’s intelligence
Likert Wang and Sun (2010a, N/A Makes people live in a world of fantasy Values Corruption
Likert 2010b), Wolin et al. (2002) N/A Takes undue advantage of children
Likert N/A Leads children to make unreasonable purchase demands on their parents
Likert Wolin et al. (2002), Wang N/A Overall, I consider online advertising as a good thing Attitude
Likert and Sun (2010a, 2010b) N/A Overall, I like online advertising
Likert N/A Overall, I regard online advertising as an essential thing
Likert N/A Overall, watching online advertising is important to me
Likert R Overall, online advertising is not interesting to me
Likert Lin (1999), Korgaonkar N/A It gives quick and easy access to large volumes of information Internet usage
Likert and Wolin (1999), Zhou N/A Overall, I learn a lot from using the Web motivation
Likert and Bao (2002) N/A It makes acquiring information inexpensive (Information)
Likert N/A To keep updated with what is going on around the world

Table I.

present study
Measures used in the
401
towards Web
Attitudes

advertising
 5,3

402
JIMA

Table II.
Factor analysis
Internet usage
motivation Values
(Information) Attitude Corruption Irritation Falsity Materialism Social role Entertainment Information Item

0.777 inf01
0.887 inf02
0.44 inf03
0.589 inf04
0.577 ent01
0.878 ent02
0.85 ent03
0.446 ent04
0.691 soc01
0.728 soc02
0.608 soc03
0.763 mater01
0.527 mater02
0.74 mater03
0.76 mater04
0.434 fals01
0.83 fals02
0.779 fals03
0.816 irr01
0.631 irr02
0.795 irr03
0.66 irr04
0.788 vc01
0.86 vc02
0.511 vc03
(continued)
Internet usage
motivation Values
(Information) Attitude Corruption Irritation Falsity Materialism Social role Entertainment Information Item

0.355 att01
0.756 att02
0.762 att03
0.808 att04
0.786 att05
0.866 iuminf01
0.836 iuminf02
0.746 iuminf03
0.723 iuminf04
2.529 2.550 2.287 2.892 2.051 2.421 1.845 2.519 2.582 Eigenvalue
63.224 50.996 9.148 11.567 8.206 9.685 7.379 10.074 10.326 %Variance

Table II.
403
towards Web
Attitudes

advertising
JIMA Alpha Items number Factor
5,3
0.712 4 Information
0.757 4 Entertainment
0.639 3 Social Role
0.750 4 Materialism
0.681 3 Falsity
404 0.807 4 Irritation
0.727 3 Values corruption
Table III. 0.743 5 Attitude
Reliability test 0.787 4 Internet usage motivation (Information)

%
Maximum Minimum Frequency Frequency Values Variable

56.94 164 Males Gender

43.06 124 Females
100 288 Total
9.03 26 High school or less Education
30.56 88 Intermediate Diploma
or some years of
College
43.06 124 Bachelor
17.36 50 Postgraduates
100 288 Total
50 Years 18 Years 22.22 64 ⬍ 20 years Age
65.97 190 From 20 to ⬍ 30 years
11.81 34 ⱖ 30 years
100 288 Total
350,000 SYP 0 (Unemployed) 53.82 155 Unemployed or of Income
⬍ 10,000 SYP
20.14 58 10,000 to ⬍ 20,000 SYP
12.85 37 20,000 to ⬍ 30,000 SYP
Table IV. 13.19 38 ⱖ 30,000 SYP
Demographic description 100 288 Total

corruption (p-value ⫽ 0.833 ⬎ 0.05), social role ¡ attitude (p-value ⫽ 0.058 ⬎ 0.05),
materialism ¡ attitude (p-value ⫽ 0.102 ⬎ 0.05), and falsity ¡ attitude (p-value ⫽ 0.281
⬎ 0.05). Therefore, our model needs to be revised and then retested. Considering
modification indices, AMOS suggests adding one new path (information motivation ¡
attitude) to improve the model fitting for the data. Therefore, we eliminate the
insignificant paths, draw the new suggested path and retest the alternate model.
Table VI shows the results of testing the alternate model. All paths are significant. The
goodness-of-fit statistics show that the alternate model is presenting a better fit for our
data. In this regard, we notice that ␹2 value is insignificant (␹2/df ⫽ 1.875 ⬍ 5), the
normed fit index is ⬎ 0.9 (NFI ⫽ 0.963), the comparative fit index is ⬎ 0.9 (CFI ⫽ 0.982),
the root mean square residual is ⬍ 0.05 (RMR ⫽ 0.029), and the root mean square error
of approximation has improved and become ⬍ 0.08 (RMSEA ⫽ 0.055) (Jöreskog and
 The proposed model
Attitudes
The relationship Estimate SE C.R. p-value towards Web
Information ⬍-- Internet usage motivation 0.272 0.05 5.426 0.000** advertising
(information)
Entertainment ⬍-- Internet usage motivation 0.2 0.066 3.042 0.002**
(information)
Social Role ⬍-- Internet usage motivation 0.112 0.077 1.447 0.148
405
(information)
Materialism ⬍-- Internet usage motivation 0.161 0.082 1.957 0.05
(information)
Falsity ⬍-- Internet usage motivation ⫺0.138 0.072 ⫺1.91 0.056
(information)
Irritation ⬍-- Internet usage motivation ⫺0.317 0.064 ⫺4.97 0.000**
(information)
Values Corruption ⬍-- Internet usage motivation 0.017 0.083 0.211 0.833
(information)
Attitude ⬍-- Values corruption ⫺0.128 0.037 ⫺3.407 0.000**
Attitude ⬍-- Irritation ⫺0.33 0.046 ⫺7.203 0.000**
Attitude ⬍-- Falsity 0.045 0.041 1.077 0.281
Attitude ⬍-- Materialism 0.098 0.06 1.635 0.102
Attitude ⬍-- Social role 0.137 0.072 1.893 0.058
Attitude ⬍-- Entertainment 0.32 0.046 7.023 0.000**
Attitude ⬍-- Information 0.27 0.057 4.778 0.000**
Chi-square p-value ⫽ 0.000; ␹2/df ⫽ 3.109
NFI 0.93
CFI 0.949
RMR 0.036
RMSEA 0.086
Table V.
Note: ** p ⬍ 0.01 Proposed model results

Sörbom, 1989; Hu and Bentler, 1995; Bentler, 1990; MacCallum et al., 1996; Byrne, 2010).
Consequently, we conclude that the alternate model expresses a good fitting for our data.
Also, Table VII shows that all indirect effects are significant. That is, we come to a
decision that H1 and H2 are partially supported, as it is exhibited in the following
results (see Figure 2):

Information motivation as a predictor of beliefs about Web advertising

Results show that information motivation predicts three dimensions of beliefs about
Web advertising, i.e. positively information (Estimate ⫽ 0.276, p-value ⬍ 0.01, r ⫽ 0.305)
and entertainment (Estimate ⫽ 0.201, p-value ⬍ 0.01, r ⫽ 0.177); and negatively
irritation (Estimate ⫽ ⫺0.322, p-value ⬍ 0.01, r ⫽ ⫺0.282) (Table VIII).

Information motivation as a predictor of attitude towards Web advertising

As suggested by our statistics, information motivation is found to positively influence
consumers’ attitudes towards advertising (Estimate ⫽ 0.145, p-value ⬍ 0.01, r ⫽ 0.331).
JIMA The alternate model
5,3 The relationship Estimate SE C.R. p-value

Information ⬍-- Internet usage motivation 0.276 0.048 5.736 0.000**

(information)
Entertainment ⬍-- Internet usage motivation 0.201 0.066 3.062 0.002**
(information)
406 Irritation ⬍-- Internet usage motivation ⫺0.322 0.059 ⫺5.465 0.000**
(information)
Attitude ⬍-- Values corruption ⫺0.099 0.036 ⫺2.78 0.005**
Attitude ⬍-- Irritation ⫺0.26 0.046 ⫺5.693 0.000**
Attitude ⬍-- Entertainment 0.283 0.041 6.827 0.000**
Attitude ⬍-- Information 0.2 0.057 3.529 0.000**
Attitude ⬍-- Internet usage motivation 0.145 0.05 2.933 0.003**
(information)
Chi-square p-value ⫽ 0.044 ␹2/df ⫽ 1.875
NFI 0.963
CFI 0.982
RMR 0.029
RMSEA 0.055
Table VI.
Alternate model results Note: ** p ⬍ 0.01

Internet usage
motivation Values
Dimension (information) corruption Irritation Entertainment Information Attitude

Irritation – – – – – –
Entertainment – – – – – –
Table VII. Information – – – – – –
Mediation effect Attitude 0.001** – – – – –
confirmation–indirect
effects significance Note: ** p ⬍ 0.01

Beliefs as mediators between information motivation and attitude towards Web

advertising
Though information (Estimate ⫽ 0.200, p-value ⬍ 0.01, r ⫽ 0.411), entertainment
(Estimate ⫽ 0.283, p-value ⬍ 0.01, r ⫽ 0.436), irritation (Estimate ⫽ ⫺0.260,
p-value ⬍ 0.01, r ⫽ ⫺0.480) and values corruption (Estimate ⫽ ⫺0.099, p-value ⬍ 0.01,
r ⫽ ⫺0.307) are concluded as antecedents to attitude towards Web advertising, only three
dimensions of beliefs, i.e. information (p-value ⬍ 0.01), entertainment (p-value ⬍ 0.01) and
irritation (p-value ⬍ 0.01) are found to partially mediate the relationship between
information motivation and attitude towards Web advertising (Baron and Kenny, 1986).

Discussion
The present study explores information as an Internet usage motivation and
investigates its relations with beliefs about and attitudes towards Web advertising
among Syrian consumers. In this regard, we find that consumers with higher levels of
 Attitudes
towards Web
advertising

407

Figure 2.
The alternate model

information motivation are likely to show more favorable beliefs about and attitudes
towards Web advertising and this result agrees with previous findings in the literature
(e.g. Shavitt et al., 1998; Wolin et al., 2002; Zhou and Bao, 2002; Yang, 2003; Wang and
Sun, 2010a, 2010b; Usman et al., 2010; Eze and Lee, 2012; Zabadi et al., 2012; Kamal and
Chu, 2012). In detail, three dimensions of beliefs about Web advertising (i.e. information,
entertainment and irritation) partially mediate the relationship between information
motivation and attitude towards Web advertising. Therefore, having Internet users
with high information motivation will indirectly get consumers to like Web advertising
because they see it as informative, entertaining and less annoying. Coming to the main
contribution of the present study, we find that information motivation directly, and
positively, influences attitude towards Web advertising.
Perceiving Web advertising as a values corruptive source negatively influences
Syrian consumers’ general attitude towards Web advertising (e.g. Wolin et al., 2002;
Wang and Sun, 2010a, 2010b). This means, for example, that consumers would dislike
Web advertisements, if they contained inappropriate content that could take advantage
of young consumers in a way that would lead them to make undiscerning purchase
decisions.
Our study finds that Syrian consumers perceive beliefs about Web advertising as a
multi-dimensional construct (i.e. it consists of the factors of information, entertainment,
the social role, materialism, falsity, values corruption and irritation), and evaluate their
attitude and information motivation as uni-dimensional constructs. This result concurs
with previous findings of the literature (e.g. Alwitt and Prabhaker, 1992; Wolin et al.,
2002; Wang and Sun, 2010b; Mahmoud, 2012a).

Implications
Regarding the Internet as a growing advertising medium in the Middle East, researchers
are advised to consider using the validated scales used in the present study when they
 5,3

408
JIMA

Table VIII.

inter-correlations
Descriptive statistics and
Standard
Dimension Mean deviation

Information motivation 4.441 0.550

Information 4.177 0.491 0.305**
Entertainment 3.262 0.621 0.177** 0.230**
Social role 3.317 0.799 0.137* 0.215** 0.459**
Materialism 2.913 0.833 0.118* ⫺0.006 0.248** 0.363**
Falsity 2.509 0.679 ⫺0.112 ⫺0.384** ⫺0.097 ⫺0.150* 0.040
Irritation 2.123 0.620 ⫺0.282** ⫺0.287** ⫺0.166** ⫺0.086 0.239** 0.365**
Values corruption 3.236 0.771 0.012 ⫺0.273** ⫺0.061 ⫺0.052 0.368** 0.296** 0.363**
Attitude 3.549 0.560 0.331** 0.411** 0.436** 0.128* 0.042 ⫺0.223** ⫺0.480** ⫺0.307**

Notes: ** p ⬍ 0.01; * p ⬍ 0.05

measure public beliefs about attitudes towards advertising and Internet usage Attitudes
motivation in the Syrian or even in the Arab countries or Islamic contexts.
Advertisers promoting in Syria are encouraged to influence Syrian consumers’
towards Web
attitudes towards Web advertising to be more positive and less negative. This could be advertising
through offering free and high-quality content of information via bearing Web sites
(Whittaker, 2013), especially to Internet users with high levels of higher levels of
motivation to acquire information via the Internet (Zhou and Bao, 2002) because they are 409
likely to feel less irritated, more entertained and well-informed about the advertised
product. Also, advertisers in Syria are also admonished to be working toward having
Web advertising to be more informative (e.g. providing information about the product
use of other consumers), more enjoyable (e.g. including flash games within Web
advertisements or enclosing amusing pictures), less annoying and confusing (e.g.
avoiding high volumes of advertisements within a Web site), and less value corruptive
or more pro-values through enhancing targeting tools in a way that prevents kids from
being exposed to inappropriate advertisements (e.g. most social networks
advertisements, like Facebook advertisements, are accurately communicated to
targeted segments of consumers). That would probably help reach favorable
consumers’ attitudes towards Web advertising because of possible efforts on reshaping
public beliefs positively about it (Ducoffe, 1996; Wolin et al., 2002; Wang and Sun,
2010a).

Limitations and suggestions for future research

The results of this research in regard to the relationships between information
motivation and beliefs about, and attitudes towards, Web advertising may need
further investigation in cases of other electronic advertising media (e.g. SMS
advertisements) or other traditional advertising media (e.g. newspapers, magazines
or radio advertisements) to test the validity of our results across different
advertising medium types (e.g. Mittal, 1994; Mahmoud, 2010). The present study
only examines one type of Internet usage motivation (i.e. information motivation). It
is advised that other types of Internet usage motivation are included in future
studies’ models (e.g. social escapism, having fun and economic) (Korgaonkar and
Wolin, 1999; Zhou and Bao, 2002).
A cross-sectional method is used in the present study, That is, some researchers
make criticism of using cross-sectional design in testing causal relationships (e.g. Reisel
et al., 2010). So, it is recommended to conduct further investigations for our results using
a longitudinal design, as having longitudinal data will help check consistency across
waves. Besides, this research lacks the use of qualitative data, which could contribute in
giving more meaningful results when used along with quantitative data (Tharenou
et al., 2007).

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Further reading
Mahmoud, A.B. (2012b), “An assessment of beliefs and attitudes of Syrian consumers
towards online advertising: field study”, Damascus University Journal of Economics
Law Sciences.

About the author

Ali Bassam Mahmoud, PhD is an Assistant Professor of marketing and management at Arab
International University and a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Tourism at Damascus University.
Dr Mahmoud has earned a PhD in Human Resource Management from the Higher Institute of
Business Administration (HIBA) and another PhD in Marketing from Damascus University.
Mahmoud has published widely in several local, regional and international refereed journals. His
research interests include attitudes and behaviors toward job, customer satisfaction and public
attitudes toward advertising. Mahmoud has taught a variety of modules such as principles of
marketing, marketing management, marketing research, sales management, strategic
management, consumer behavior, e-marketing, advertising and research methods at the
undergraduate level. Ali Bassam Mahmoud can be contacted at: elguitarrista@live.com

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