This study expands previous models of avoidance on online advertising, in particular, Cho and Cheon's (2004) model, and examines two new dimensions on why people avoid advertising on the Internet. The study presents a comprehensive theoretical model and examines seven exogenous latent variables based on structural equation modeling, SEM. By using SEM, we found that seven latent variables including user-perceived ad quality, internet life style, primary motives, gender differences (initial ad avoidance), perceived ad clutter, prior negative experience, and perceived goal impediment (further ad avoidance) collectively explain why people avoid advertising on the Internet. We found that avoidance has two key dimensions “initial ad avoidance” and “further ad avoidance.”
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Avoidance is a situation where the users, consciously or unconsciously, try to avoiding a stimulus (Tellis, 1997). Avoidance from advertisement includes all activities of the users that prevent the audience from being exposed to the advertisement (Speck and Elliott, 1997). Many studies have been conducted about the effectiveness of Internet advertising. Some of these studies focus upon the medium and its nature, and try to increase the efficiency of Internet advertising by identifying the factors the medium (Shamdasani et al., 2001; Ko et al., 2005). Some studies, focusing on the characteristics of the message, have investigated the effectiveness of the advertisement (Rodgers and Thorson, 2000; Kim and Leckenby, 2002), and some other examined information processing by the consumer for raising the involvement level of Internet advertising (Rodgers and Thorson, 2000). Also, some researchers indicate that consumers avoid advertising on the internet due to cognitive, behavioral, and mechanical factors (Speck and Elliott, 1997).
Elliott and Speck (1998) asked a national panel of over 900 adults to report the degree to which ads in various media disrupt their media-exposure experience. TV received the highest disruption ratings, along with magazines. Ratings of radio were intermediate, followed by newspapers, direct mail, and the Yellow Pages. Elliott and Speck (1998) suggested that, although radio is an intrusive ad medium, listeners are more tolerant of disruptions in radio compared to TV because program units are shorter and programming involvement is lower.