Title: Players' attitudes towards advertising in mobile games

Authors: Juliana Maria Magalhães Christino; Érico Aurélio Abreu Cardozo; Luisa Sepúlveda Martins

Addresses: Department of Administrative Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Presidente Antônio Carlos, 6627, Sala 4012, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil ' Department of Administrative Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Presidente Antônio Carlos, 6627, Sala 4012, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil ' Department of Administrative Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Presidente Antônio Carlos, 6627, Sala 4012, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate particularities in the formation of favourable attitudes toward advertising in mobile game applications. For this purpose, the following constructs were elected: 1) entertainment, credibility, informativeness, irritation and personalisation from Sigurdsson et al. (2018); 2) general attitudes towards ads and general attitudes towards in-game ads from Poels et al. (2013); 3) the reward construct from Busch et al. (2013) as a pioneer extension ever made in studies related to in-app ads (within the apps) of the interstitial-type specifically in mobile games. A survey was conducted with 260 players. The data was analysed using structural equation modelling. The results showed 'entertainment', 'personalisation', 'attitudes toward general advertising' and 'irritation' are antecedents of attitude toward specific ads running in mobile games, along with 'rewards' are antecedents of behavioural intention to click and read the ads.

Keywords: attitude; players' attitudes; towards advertising; mobile games; publicity; advertising in mobile games.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2024.139297

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 2024 Vol.20 No.3/4, pp.339 - 363

Received: 26 Feb 2022
Accepted: 18 Jul 2022
Published online: 01 Jul 2024 *

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