Communicating Benefits and Threats? An Experimental Study on the Effectiveness of Two-Sided Messages for Advertising In-Store Technologies
(A2021-94735)

AUTHORS

Mohamed Souka, Bielefeld University; Nicola Bilstein, Bielefeld University; Reinhold Decker, Bielefeld University

ABSTRACT

To enhance shoppers’ experiences, retailers are increasingly implementing in-store technologies, which often implies the collection of personal-specific information. Still, little is known about how retailers can advertise newly introduced in-store technologies with the goal of simultaneously minimizing informational privacy concerns and maximizing usage intentions. Accordingly, this paper investigates the effectiveness of employing the two-sided message mechanism in the context of shoppers’ privacy concerns. The empirical results reveal that, compared to a one-sided advertisement (including only the benefits of the technology), a two-sided advertisement (including both the benefits of the technology and the required personal information) enhances attitudes and usage intentions towards the technology for low sensitive personal information. In addition, this effect is mediated by source credibility and perceived privacy risk.