Abstract

Little is known about the influence of motivators that drive consumers to grant permission to be contacted via personalized communication. In this study, a framework is developed to investigate the effect of select drivers of consumers granting permission to receive personalized messages. The authors distinguish between drivers related to benefit and cost to the consumers. They identify the influence of perceived personal relevance, entertainment, and consumer information control as well as monetary incentives and lottery participation as benefit-related factors. Cost-related factors entail the registration process, privacy concerns, and perceived intrusiveness. The authors find that, except for monetary incentives and lottery participation, the identified drivers significantly influence consumers' decision to grant permission. The strong negative influence of privacy concerns on the probability of granting permission can be lessened by two benefit-related factors, namely message content with entertainment value or personal relevance for the consumer. The study helps to improve firm measures aimed at getting more permissions — granted by customers for interactive campaigns.

Discussion

Summary of Results and Implications

Interactive marketing communication is frequently perceived as a disruption of privacy that can result in serious reactance (Diamond and Noble 2001; Van Diepen, Donkers, and Franses 2009). Similarly, the storage and use of personal information are known to trigger sustained privacy concerns of individuals (Dolnicar and Jordaan 2007). Permission marketing represents a potential solution to this dilemma (Tsang, Ho, and Liang 2004). It aims to meet legal requirements as well as provide informational self-determination to the consumer. Thus, permission-based marketing activities can reduce reactance and enhance attention concerning the interactive marketing content. However, companies need to know which factors influence consumers to grant permission (Krishnamurthy 2001). The results obtained from our representative study offer insights into important drivers and barriers relevant to consumers' consent behavior. We identify eight cost-related and benefitrelated drivers as well as 12 additional control variables to explain why consumers grant permission. By executing this study, we contribute to the literature on personalization, privacy and direct marketing by developing and testing a rich conceptual model on the drivers of granting permission decisions. We demonstrate that permission decisions are primarily based on a consumer-sided benefit–cost calculus, which is in line with the existing literature on privacy (e.g., Dinev and Hart 2006; Martin, Borah, and Palmatier 2017).