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INTRODUCTION
Mobile viral marketing is the 'distribution or communication that relies on consumers to transmit content via mobile communication techniques and mobile devices to other potential consumers in their social sphere and to animate these contacts to also transmit the content' (p. 53). 1 Mobile viral marketing has added more value to Internet viral marketing. First, ubiquity of mobile devices allows consumers to pass along mobile viral content anywhere and at any time and so gives immediacy to a viral marketing campaign. Furthermore, as mobile viral content usually comes from relatives or close friends, recipients often feel it more acceptable and credible than promotional messages directly sent by advertisers. 2 Finally, mobile spamming is prohibited by law and not tolerated by consumers in the United States as American wireless subscribers have to pay for receiving any unsolicited mobile message. As a result, mobile viral marketing is an optimal approach to extend a promotional message's reach and influence at little or no extra costs for advertisers. 3 Nevertheless, the success of any mobile viral marketing campaign ultimately depends on message recipients' attitude toward, intent of and actual behavior of forwarding marketing messages to their friends and relatives. So, it is essential for marketing researchers and practitioners to understand the determinants of consumer attitude, intent and behavior in regards to passing along mobile viral content.
At present, limited research has focused specifically on the social-demographic characteristics, attitudes, values, motivations, intents and behaviors of mobile viral agents.2, 4, 5, 6, 7 Almost no similar study can be located in the United States. Consequently, understanding of American consumers' viral marketing attitude, intent and behavior is limited, and effective strategies for American mobile marketers to tap the full potentials of mobile viral marketing are much needed.
Our pioneering study intends to explore to what degree American young consumers' subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, perceived utility of forwarded messages, ease of use (EOU) and perceived cost influence their attitude toward viral marketing. It also examines to what extent their viral marketing attitude and these factors predict their mobile viral marketing intent and actual behavior. In doing so, our study extends the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and technology acceptance model (TAM) to mobile viral marketing research. In turn, we...