Abstract This research explores the role of reciprocity, personalization, and ad content type of OBA on participants’ attitudes toward the OBA, attitudes toward the brand, intentions to click the ad, and intentions to purchase the advertised product. Guided by recent research on OBA, the current study intends to address some key areas of the phenomenon that need more clarification and advancement. The Social Exchange Theory (SET) and the Privacy Calculus Model are used as the theoretical foundations, which were not explored in the OBA research in the past. Two 2 (reciprocity: reciprocal vs. non-reciprocal) X 2 (personalization: personalized vs. generic) X 2 (ad content type: verbal vs. visual) experiments were conducted to investigate the predicted hypotheses and research questions. Both studies utilized scenario-based online experiments. A fictitious brand “ArtCell” was used for Study 1 used whereas, a real brand “iPhone X” was used for Study 2 to design the stimulus materials. This research unveiled important insights that contribute to the theory and practice of OBA, and overall online advertising. Both Study 1 and 2 found similar results for most of the predicted relationships yet, there are distinctions. Study 1 found no strong support for the influence OBA message reciprocity on participants’ attitudes and intentions. None of the main effect hypotheses was supported. The interactions between reciprocity and OBA content type were approached to significance. Combinedly, these results suggest that participants could not establish a reciprocal relationship with the fictitious brand. Therefore, the reciprocal nature of the SET did not work in this case. In other words, it is evident that it is hard for a new or unknown brand to establish a reciprocal relationship with consumer despite offering a generous discount (i.e., instant discount) in the OBA context. However, in Study 2, message reciprocity significantly influenced participants’ attitudes toward the OBA (H1a), and intentions to click the ad (H1c). Moreover, there was a significant interaction effect between OBA reciprocity, and ad content type on attitudes toward the brand. Participants who watched the reciprocal and visual ad, reported more favorable attitudes toward the brand. These findings confirm that participants could establish a reciprocal relationship with iPhone X, which is a well-known brand in the U.S. Such relationships are derived because of participants’ trust and expectation toward the brand. The current study found some intriguing insights into OBA scholarship and practice. It advances the existing knowledge of OBA and online advertising. It is also the first attempt to explore the research problem from a social exchange perspective. It is expected that the findings from this research will contribute to the study of advertising and enlighten further avenues for research. Practical implications and limitations are discussed.

Keywords: Online Behavioral Advertising, Communication, Digital Media, Experimental Research, Consumer Research