Managerial problem – Personalization is a ubiquitous practice in online retail. One of the most popular tools is personalized product recommendations (PPRs) placed on e-commerce websites. Customers that rely on PPRs when choosing among alternatives exhibit higher average spendings and retention than those who do not use PPRs. Therefore, PPRs represent a promising personalization tool for online retailers wishing to instill consumer loyalty and increase revenues. Whereas PPRs help consumers make more informed choices with less effort, consumers do not unconditionally accept them.

Research gap – Extant studies that tried to uncover the drivers of consumer acceptance of PPRs are highly fragmented. There are three different theoretical perspectives that were applied by scholars to explain the use of PPRs: decision support perspective, privacy perspective, and promotion perspective. However, these perspectives are rarely integrated to provide a comprehensive account for PPR acceptance antecedents.

Purpose – The current study aims to contribute to the literature on personalization acceptance by integrating three theoretical perspectives to examine the effects of different PPR characteristics on intention to use PPRs and the psychological mechanisms that underline these effects.

Findings – Using the nationwide representative sample of 1253 Russian online consumers, the study investigates how four PPR characteristics (relevance, transparency, controllability, and clutter) influence consumer acceptance of PPRs through raising shopping efficacy, ensuring trust, and mitigating consumer psychological reactance. The findings demonstrate that not all PPR characteristics have a significant effect on consumer PPR acceptance. The study suggests different strategies that online retailers may apply to curb consumer resistance to use PPRs.