Title: Beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours toward advertising on social media in the Middle East: a study of young consumers in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Authors: Sara Kamal; Shu-Chuan Chu

Addresses: School of Business Administration, American University, Dubai, P.O. Box 28282, Dubai, UAE ' College of Communication, DePaul University, 1 E. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604, USA

Abstract: As social media continues to attract global users, many international advertisers seek to use social media as a venue for their advertising messages. This study examined social media usage as well as beliefs, attitudes and behaviours towards advertising on social media in the UAE. Specifically, this study extended Pollay and Mittal's (1993) advertising beliefs and attitudes model by applying it to advertising on social media. In the context of this study, Dubai, UAE which has the world's highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita as well as the highest level of internet penetration and social media usage in the Middle East, represents a group of consumers that are of interest to practitioners. The results indicate that beliefs are positively related to attitudes, which consequently predict behaviours toward social media advertising. Demographic factors and levels of usage are also examined. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are presented.

Keywords: social media usage; social networking; networks; advertising beliefs; Dubai; United Arab Emirates; UAE; Middle East; young consumers; consumer attitudes; consumer behaviour; international advertisers; advertising messages; Richard Pollay; Banwari Mittal; gross domestic product; GDP; internet penetration; demographic factors; usage levels; internet marketing; world wide web.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2012.047427

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 2012 Vol.7 No.3, pp.237 - 259

Published online: 04 Sep 2014 *

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