Sharing private information online: The mediator effect of social exchange
Journal
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series
Pages
231-239
Date Issued
2009
Author(s)
Abstract
Advances in information technology facilitate extensive collection and analysis of personal information for the purpose of strategic use by websites or companies. However, the typical reluctance of web users in sharing personal information significantly reduces such opportunity enabled by information technology. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to construct and empirically assess a causal model that explains how web users intend to share their personal information online. In particular, this theoretical model proposes that social exchange attitude mediates the impacts of trust and privacy concern on the intention of sharing personal information. An sample as large as 1249 is collected to test the proposed model. The empirical data strongly supports the hypotheses and suggests that trust and concern for privacy directly and indirectly affects the intention to share personal information via the attitude of social exchange. The direct and indirect impacts of trust are both positive. On the other hand, the direct impact of concern for privacy is negative, whereas the indirect impact is positive.
Type
conference paper