SMS Advertising, Permission and the Consumer: A Study

Purpose – This study aims to examine the phenomenon of consumers' willingness to give permission to receive short message service (SMS) advertisements. The purpose of this research is threefold: to better understand the phenomenon of consumers' willingness to give permission to receive text message (SMS) advertisements, to provide empirical data that supports our understanding, and to develop and test a basic model of consumers' willingness to give permission to receive SMS advertisements. Design/methodology/approach – The study utilised a multi-method research approach with both qualitative and quantitative data – via focus group and scenario-based survey. Findings – The results show that even if the relevance of the advertisement is high it does not on its own make consumers give permission; it needs to be combined with the control over opt-in conditions to assure consumers and gain permission. Regarding brand familiarity, this appears to have little impact on consumers' willingness to give permission to receive SMS advertisements. The opt-in conditions valued the most are: the possibility to withdraw at any time, personal data disclosure only with consent, and mobile phone operators as a primary advertising filter. Originality/value – The principal contribution of the paper is in furthering our understanding of the concept of permission as related to the emerging topic of SMS advertising. The paper provides evidence and data triangulation in an area that so far has had little empirical investigation

Validation of a self-administered version of the Mediterranean diet scale (MDS) for cardiac rehabilitation patients in Canada

<p>The Mediterranean dietary pattern has been linked with lower incidence of cardiovascular disease and the Mediterranean diet scale (MDS) has been created to incorporate and test the inherent characteristics of this dietary pattern. This study aimed to psychometrically validate a self-administered version of the MDS in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) patients in Canada. To establish content validity, the scale was reviewed by an expert interdisciplinary panel. A final version of the tool was tested in 150 CR patients. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.69. All ICC coefficients met the minimum recommended standard. Factor analysis revealed four factors, all internally consistent. Criterion validity was supported by significant differences in total scores by duration in CR. Construct validity was supported by agreements between the self-administered MDS and original MDS in all items and with the 3-day food record in 8 of 13 items. In conclusion, the self-administered version of the MDS demonstrated good reliability and validity.</p