Goal Strength in Consumer Service Settings: Role of Hyper-personalisation and Privacy Framing

Abstract

Purpose – This study adopts a Consumer-Dominant Logic (CDL) perspective to investigate how higher levels of goal-aligned hyper-personalisation influence consumer goal strength over time. Unlike the provider-driven Service-Dominant Logic (SDL), CDL emphasises consumer agency, life contexts, and value formation alignment. This study reframes personalisation from what service providers deliver to how consumers interpret and assign value based on their active life goals and lived experiences. The core aim is to examine whether dynamically generated hyper-personalised content - aligned with consumer goals - enhances motivational engagement across time and under varying privacy framing conditions.

Design/methodology/approach – A three-wave longitudinal discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted with 1,434 consumers in a Telecommunications and Entertainment AI-enabled service context. Participants selected dynamically constructed
content across four progressive hyper-personalisation levels, with Cluster 4 reflecting highest goal alignment. Respondents were randomly assigned to either neutral or negative privacy framing groups. Three Linear Mixed Models (LMMs) tested the two main hypotheses: (1) the overall impact of hyper-personalisation on consumer goal strength (across
between-person and within-person levels), and (2) the moderating role of privacy framing. A post-hoc model explored perceived importance of hyper-personalisation as a psychological factor.

Findings – Both hypotheses were supported. Higher levels, goal-aligned hyperpersonalisation significantly strengthened consumer goal pursuit, especially when aligned with consumer’s active life goals. Neutral privacy framing showed short-term boosts requiring reinforcement over time; negative framing revealed delayed recovery, with motivational resilience once privacy concerns dissipate. Findings confirm hyper personalisation’s multidimensional nature and privacy framing’s moderating role. Post-hoc analysis showed
perceived importance’s influence on goal alignment.

Originality/value – This study contributes a novel CDL-based behavioural lens, empirically linking goal congruence with sustained motivational engagement over time and context. It advances hyper-personalisation literature by validating person-centered, contextaware strategies for consumer engagement. Findings inform privacy-conscious, adaptive implementation of hyper-personalised services.