The use of online personalized advertisements has drawn attention among firms, in efforts of acquiring and maintaining competitive advantage. By collecting individual consumer information, firms are able to personalize advertisements to specific individuals in online contexts. The collection and use of individuals’ personal information have given rise to privacy concerns among consumers. However, contemporary research displays disparate conclusions regarding the extent to which these privacy concerns influence the effectiveness of online personalized advertisements. In order to provide insights regarding this discrepancy, this study explored the theoretical foundations of consumer perceived benefits and risks, upon which contemporary research was based. Two focus groups were conducted to explore how consumers perceive benefits and risks of online personalized advertisements. Using pattern matching, the interpretation of the empirically gathered material implied that consumer perceived benefits, in form of perceived relevance, appears to be insufficient in appealing to the interests and preferences of consumers. Instead, consumers’ perceptions of relevance appear to be dependent on several elements. Furthermore, the findings imply that consumers are aware of the risks through personal information disclosure, yet appear to be unconcerned by them. Instead, consumers seem to possess a sense of hopelessness in online environments, that attempts to restrict the availability of their personal information are pointless.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate how consumers reason about personalized online advertising. Research questions:  Do consumers perceive the risks and benefits of personalized online advertisements? How do consumers adapt their behavior based on the risks and benefits perceived by online personalized advertisements?   Methodology: This study is implemented using a qualitative research method and a deductive approach. The empirical data for the study was gathered through twenty individual semi-structured interviews. The researchers employed thematic text analysis to systematically process the acquired data, which was subsequently examined using behavioral-science theories.  Analysis & Conclusion: According to the findings, consumers believe that they receive more relevant ads as a result of advertisements being tailored to them and are willing to share their personal information in order to receive personalized ads. The risks of personalized advertisements stem from privacy issues. However, there is a difference in perceived risks between consumers, in that consumers who are more aware of how their personal information is used by companies see greater risks with personalization. Consumers' attitudes towards personalized ads from companies that they have never signed up for, interacted with or shopped from differ depending on the communication channel through which the ads are displayed. This is because personalized advertisements via e-mail, as opposed to advertisements on websites, are considered to include more personal information such as customer name and e-mail address. As a result, consumers perceive that it is more worrying to receive personalized emails without having supplied their name or email address to the email senders than seeing personalized advertising on websites with which they have never engaged before.