The Effects of Levels of User Internet Skills and Interactivity on Attitude toward the Website

Interactivity has been regarded as the unique characteristic of the Internet that distinguishes from traditional mass media, and it should be considered as an indispensable variable in the investigation of effects and effectiveness of interactive advertising (Leckenby and Li 2000). The notion of the active role of the consumer proposed by Pavlou and Stewart (2000) reflects the importance of interactivity in our understanding how interactive advertising works. As such, many studies have focused on the effects of interactivity on consumers’ responses to interactive advertisements (e.g., a banner, or website) using different conceptualizations and operationalizations (e.g., Cho and Leckenby 1997; Fortin 1997; Ariely 1998; Novak et al 1999; Yoo and Stout 2001; Coyle and Thorson 2001). However, their findings are inconsistent. For example, Cho and Leckenby (1999) indicate that a higher degree of interactivity leads to a more favorable attitude toward the target ad. In contrast, Coyle and Thorson (2001) did not find any significant effect of interactivity on attitude toward the website. Such inconsistencies might result from a variety of reasons. Clearly, the way the construct of interactivity is conceptualized and operationalized differently by different researchers could be a contributing factor. But individual difference variables may moderate the effect of interactivity on attitude toward the website. Given the fact that a website visitor is also a computer user, it is proposed that user Internet skills be a very important moderating variable. The study reported in this paper represents an attempt to examine the main effects of user Internet skills and interactivity as well as the moderating effect of user Internet skills on interactivity’s effect on attitude toward the website.