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Purpose With the increasing dependence on market-based distribution of health-care resources in the USA, spending on health-care service advertisements directly targeting consumers has also increased. Previous research has shown that the ads fail to deliver information deemed essential by regulators. Nevertheless, the attitude of consumers toward health-care service advertising has been more positive than negative. The purpose of this study is to create a taxonomy of advertising information features to better describe the relationships between information features in the advertisements and consumer attitudes toward them. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 128 health-care consumers in a western state in the USA. Findings Factor analysis generated seven groups of information features. Among them, information features about access, cost and quality of care were rated as most helpful, whereas providers’ clinical qualifications and communication were rated least helpful. The advertising attitude measure was validated to contain two subscales, one regarding health-care service advertising and the other regarding physicians who advertise. People who highly rated the consumerism features had more positive attitudes toward health-care service advertising and people who highly rated provider clinical qualification features had more negative attitudes toward advertising physicians. Originality/value This study made methodological improvements in health-care service advertising research that would be crucial for its theoretical development. It also shed light on consumer characteristics and perceptions about information features that could influence their attitudes toward health-care service advertising.
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The Expansion of Varieties in the New Age of Advertising
The last decades have seen large improvements in digital advertising technology that al-lowed firms to target better specific consumer tastes. This research studies the relationship between digital advertising, the rise of varieties, and economic welfare. A model of advertising and varieties is developed, where firms choose the intensity of digital ads directed at specific consumers as well as traditional ads that are undirected. The calibrated model shows that improvements in digital advertising have driven the rise in varieties over time. Empirical evidence is presented using detailed micro data on firms’ products and advertising choices since 1995. Causal analysis using exogenous variation in consumers’ differential access to the internet supports the suggested mechanism.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2044117
- PAR ID:
- 10489105
- Publisher / Repository:
- Review of Economic Dynamics
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Review of Economic Dynamics
- Volume:
- 50
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 1094-2025
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 171-210
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2023.07.008
