Title: To reveal or conceal? Sponsorship disclosure in health apps and its impacts on sponsor motive attributions, credibility and download intentions

Authors: Eunsin Joo

Addresses: Department of Media and Communication, Chonnam National University, 77 Yongbong-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju, 61186, South Korea

Abstract: Amid the growing corporate sponsorship for health and wellness apps, this study employed attribution theory and sponsorship literature to assess how users perceive and evaluate sponsors, their intentions, and the apps themselves. An online experiment examined the influence of sponsor identification within apps on users' attitudes toward the sponsor, app credibility, and app download intentions. It further explored whether download intentions were sequentially influenced by perceived sponsor motives (either altruistic or self-serving), sponsor attitude and app credibility. Results indicated that when sponsorship was disclosed at any level, users were more likely to perceive sponsors as having self-serving motives. However, perceptions of sponsors' altruistic motives varied based on the degree of disclosure. Apps and sponsors were positively evaluated when associated with altruistic motives of sponsors, whereas negative evaluations arose from perceptions of self-serving motives. Both theoretical and managerial implications for mobile marketing communications and health app development are discussed.

Keywords: sponsorship disclosure; motive attributions; altruistic motives; self-serving motives; health app; app evaluations; cause-related marketing; mobile marketing communication.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2025.142982

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2025 Vol.25 No.1, pp.40 - 61

Accepted: 07 Oct 2023
Published online: 02 Dec 2024 *

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