Effect of penitence on social media trust and privacy concerns: The case of Facebook

Influence of personality traits on generation Z consumers' click-through intentions towards personalized advertisements: A mixed-methods study

Personalized social media advertisements (PSMAs) are developed by using consumers' personal information like names, demographic details, location, past buying history, and lifestyle interests to quickly grab consumers' attention within the cluttered space of digital advertisements. Generation Z consumers are highly connected to social media. Hence, this study attempts to understand how Generation Z consumers with different personality traits perceive personalized advertisements (PAs) on Facebook, and subsequently, how their perceived personalization influences their intention to click on PAs based on perceived usefulness and privacy concerns associated with those advertisements. The theoretical underpinning of this research is based on the self-congruency theory and privacy-calculus theory. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design has been adopted, where a quantitative analysis (Study 1) is followed by a qualitative approach (Study 2). For Study 1, responses were collected from 324 Generation Z consumers through a structured questionnaire and the data was analyzed using the structural equation modeling technique to measure relationships among the constructs. Further, in Study 2, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 Generation Z consumers, a purposively selected subset of informants from Study 1, to explore the potential causes of those relationships observed in Study 1. It has been found from the study that consumers' perception of PSMAs varies based on their personality traits. Consumers with dominant extraversion, conscientiousness, and neurotic personality traits perceive PSMAs positively whereas the openness to experience and agreeableness dominant consumers perceive those negatively. Positive perception of PSMAs among consumers increases the perceived usefulness of communications and subsequently improves the click-through intentions of the consumers. Generation Z Consumers' perception of PSMAs does not have any influence on their privacy concerns. Consumers' high privacy concerns reduce the click-through intention rate toward PSMAs. The study will help digital marketing managers to strategically deliver PSMAs, thereby enhancing the efficiency of their advertisements.

Predicting online privacy protection for Facebook users with an extended theory of planned behavior

The current research uses an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) model to predict Facebook users' (N = 376) intentions to protect their privacy online. It aims to replicate and extend Saeri et al. (2014) who found partial support for an extended TPB model that included descriptive norms, perceived risk, and trust. Facebook users completed an online questionnaire assessing attitudes, norms (subjective and group), perceived behavioral control (PBC), perceived risk, trust, privacy concerns, and intentions to protect their privacy online. Results revealed that attitudes, subjective norms, and PBC (i.e. the TPB) predicted online privacy intentions, as well as descriptive group norms and privacy concerns. However, perceived risk, trust, and injunctive group norms were not significant unique predictors of online privacy intentions. The implications for understanding influences on individuals' willingness to protect their privacy online are discussed.

When WhatsApp changed its privacy policy: explaining WhatsApp discontinuation using an enablers-inhibitors' perspective

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors that enable and inhibit WhatsApp users' discontinuance intention (DI) following the change in WhatsApp's privacy policy.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the enabler-inhibitor model as a framework, a research model consisting of discontinuation enabler distrust (DT) and the DT's antecedents [(negative electronic word of mouth (NEWOM), negative offline word of mouth (NOWOM) and privacy invasion (PI)], discontinuation inhibitor inertia (INR) and INR's antecedents (affective commitment, switching cost and use habit) and moderator structural assurance was proposed and tested with data from 624 WhatsApp users using partial least square structure equational modeling (PLS-SEM).

Findings

The results show that DT created due to NEWOM and a sense of PI significantly impact DI. However, INR has no significant impact on DI. Structural assurance significantly moderates the relationship between DT and DI.

Originality/value

The paper collected data when many WhatsApp users switched to other platforms due to the change in WhatsApp's terms of service. The timing of data collection allowed for collecting the real impact of the sense of PI compared to other studies where the effect is hypothetically induced. Further, the authors acknowledge social media providers' efforts to address privacy criticism and regain users’ trust, an area that has received little attention in prior literature.

The role of trust and privacy concerns in using social media for e-retail services: The moderating role of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the customers habits of purchasing as well as shopping behaviours. This study seeks to develop an integrated model of the critical role of trust and privacy concerns in influencing consumers purchase behaviour through social media. It also explored the moderating role of COVID-19 on these relationships. Quantitative data were collected using survey strategy through questionnaires to address different levels of the study. Our proposed model was tested with 1,200 consumers, 600 prior to COVID-19 and 600 during COVID-19. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling was conducted to assess the hypotheses. The findings revealed that purchase intention depends on trust and privacy concerns. Information quality, security concerns, ease of use, privacy/security assurance seal, and disposition to third party certification are the main drivers of trust and privacy concerns. Furthermore, our proposed model during COVID-19 period has higher explanator power (R2 = 0.741) than before COVID-19 period (R2 = 0.603 and consumers buying behaviour has been increased during COVID-19. The results offer important implications for retailers and are likely to stimulate further research in the area of purchase behaviour through social media.

Impact of Social Media on Geopolitics and Economic Growth: Mitigating the Risks by Developing Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Computing Tools

Social media is one of the most revolutionary innovations in computer science that facilitates connecting people in the world to share information, ideas, and thoughts. In recent years, social media has demonstrated tremendous growth, which has affected individuals, businesses, communities, and economies. The focus of the present study is to identify the impact of social media on geopolitics and economic growth. The study is based on a systematic review of previous literature on the subject. It has been revealed through the findings that social media impacts geopolitics by decreasing the level of censorship and increasing the spread of news or information, while it also enables the politicians to influence individuals over online social networks through the great level of access. On the other hand, it has been identified that social media has both positive and negative impacts on geopolitics and economic growth. Social media is able to unite diverse groups and individuals spread across the planet dedicated to specific issues. The formation of communities and the ability of social media to unite groups show how social media could contribute positively to geopolitics and economic growth. But it decreases the productivity level of the individuals; on the other hand, it does contain the potential to create a participatory economy, which can be beneficial for a particular country. Some argue that social sharing has encouraged people to use computers and mobile phones to express their concerns on social issues without actually having to engage actively with campaigns in real life. Their support is limited to pressing the “Like” button or sharing content. This study performs a thorough study selection exercise and a quality assessment to ensure that the present study is valuable to academia and the relevant stakeholders, especially the experts of computer science who can develop the smartest artificial intelligence and cognitive computing tools that can help mitigate those risks of social media for the geopolitically volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world and ensure smooth economic growth.

"In Flow"! Why Do Users Share Fake News about Environmentally Friendly Brands on Social Media?

Social media has triggered an increase in fake news spread about different aspects of modern lives, society, politics, societal changes, etc., and has also affected companies' reputation and brands' trust. Therefore, this paper is aimed at investigating why social media users share fake news about environmentally friendly brands. To examine social media users' behavior towards environmentally friendly brands, a theoretical research model proposed and analyzed using structural equations modeling in SmartPLS on a convenience sample consisting of 922 questionnaires. Data was collected by means of a quantitative-based approach via a survey conducted among social media users from an emerging market. The results show that social media flow has a mediated impact on sharing fake news about environmentally friendly brands on social media. Considering the critical consequences of fake news, the paper argues that understanding the dissemination process of this type of bogus content on social media platforms has important theoretical and managerial implications. Understanding the psychological mechanisms that influence people's behavior in sharing fake news about environmentally friendly brands on social networking sites (SNS) could help in better understanding the factors and the effects of this phenomenon. The originality of this research consists of proposing flow theory from positive psychology to be used as a theoretical framework to explain users' behavior of sharing fake news about environmentally friendly brands on social media.

Social network behavior inappropriateness: the role of individual-level espoused national cultural values

Purpose

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effects of individual-level (espoused) cultural values (collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity and long-term orientation) on the individuals' acceptability of inappropriate social network behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs survey data collected from 482 social network users (261 in the United States and 221 from India).

Findings

Results show that individuals with high power distance, masculinity and long-term oriented cultural values are more accepting of inappropriate social network behaviors of others, while those with strong uncertainty avoidance cultural values have high degree of social network behavior inappropriateness, which is defined as the extent to which behaviors of social network users are considered unacceptable by others.

Research limitations/implications

The paper highlights the need for more academic research on the intersection of culture and social network behaviors. This study emphasizes the need for adopting an interdisciplinary approach to understand individuals' social network behaviors.

Practical implications

The paper offers recommendations to global organizations pertaining to the need for creating social network policies in such a way that encourages their global workforce to openly, yet respectfully, share their ideas using social networks.

Originality/value

Using an interdisciplinary approach, the present study extends our understanding of a recently proposed social network behavioral inappropriateness construct and explains how differences in cultural values may lead to differences in individuals' social network behaviors.

User concerns regarding information sharing on social networking sites: The user's perspective in the context of national culture

Information sharing via social networking systems (SNS) is a common practice among academics, as well as others, that brings substantial benefits. At the same time, privacy concerns are widespread among SNS users, which may tend to inhibit their maximising the benefit from using the systems. This paper investigates the proposition that SNS user attitudes and behaviour are affected by privacy concerns, and that the effects are subject to significant cultural factors. A broad assessment of the literature provides the context for the study. Working in the context of Saudi Arabia, we apply a mixed-methods approach beginning with in-depth interviews, exposing in detail a range of views and concerns about privacy and SNS use, also allowing us to identify three key factors that bear on SNS usage and users’ concerns. Analysis of these factors in the light of the “theory of reasoned action” derives a structural model predicting several hypotheses relating the factors and users’ attitudes and behaviour. We assess the model through development of a questionnaire, administered to a large pool of academic participants, that allows us to examine how the model responds in general, and via multigroup partial least squares analyses, differentially to gender and to culturally distinct (Arab vs. non-Arab) constituents of the participant group. Results show good support for the hypotheses and clear gender and culture effects. Picking up issues from the interviews, discussion focuses on users’ views about SNS providers’ privacy policies and their inadequacy regarding culturally specific ethical concerns. We argue that these views may reflect different regulatory environments in combination with other cultural factors.

Understanding online information disclosure: examination of data breach victimization experience effect

Purpose

The study aims to empirically understand individuals' tendency to disclose private information online following different forms of data breach (i.e. reversible and irreversible victimization).

Design/methodology/approach

Survey methodology is applied to measure the perception of victims of data breaches on key indicators of information disclosure.

Findings

Analysis of responses from 309 victims of data breaches show that while victims' irreversible data breach victimization experience influences both dimensions of privacy concerns, reversible data breach victimization experiences influenced only peer privacy concerns (PPCs). Furthermore, only institutional privacy concerns impacted online disclosure and fully mediate the relationship between victimization experience and online disclosure.

Research limitations/implications

The findings contribute to the privacy literature by expanding the dimension of victimization and considering their differential effect on privacy concerns. Additionally, the study uncovers the efficacy of privacy dimension on privacy recalibration following a data breach announcement.

Practical implications

For practice, the results provide insights for managers on how to manage customer restitution after a data breach. Management of the process of privacy recalibration should not be homogenous but be based on degree of consequence.

Social implications

This research provides deeper understanding of how the ascendancy of privacy breaches affect privacy management. The findings illuminate why the increasing trend in online activities is observed.

Originality/value

The study is the first to identify two dimensions of data breach victimization experience based on the breach level index (BLI). The two dimensions of victimization (i.e. reversible and irreversible privacy victimizations) were used to understand individuals' tendency to disclose private information online.

Revisiting Behavioral Integrity: Progress and New Directions After 20 Years

Behavioral integrity (BI) describes the extent to which an observer believes that an actor's words tend to align with their actions. It considers whether the actor is seen as keeping promises and enacting the same values they espouse. Although the construct of BI was introduced in 1999 and developed more fully in 2002, it builds on the work of earlier scholars that discussed related notions of hypocrisy, credibility, and gaps between espousal and enactment. Since the 2002 paper, a growing literature has established the BI construct, largely but not exclusively in the leadership realm, as a critical antecedent to positive attitudes such as trust and commitment, positive behaviors such as turnover and performance, and as a moderator of the effectiveness of leadership initiatives. BI is by definition subjectively assessed, and perceptions of BI are susceptible to various forms of perceptual biases. A variety of factors appear to affect whether observers interpret a particular word-action alignment or gap as an indication of the actor's high or low BI. In this article, we examine and synthesize this literature and suggest directions for future research. We discuss the early history of BI research and then examine contemporary research at the individual, group, and organizational levels of analysis. We assess what we have learned and what methodological challenges and theoretical questions remain to be addressed. We hope in this way to stimulate further research on this consequential construct.

Accessing the Influence of Perceived Value on Social Attachment: Developing Country Perspective

Perceived value has a positive impact on users' social attachment in social media usage contexts and is a topic at the forefront of current research in consumer behavior. Although studies have begun to investigate the factors influencing social attachment, there is a lack of research on how perceived value affects social attachment. Therefore, this study uses privacy concern theory, to build a theoretical model with moderated and mediation roles, using Chinese Tik Tok users as data and survey sample, and applying Mplus7.0 to analyze the mediation mechanism and boundary conditions of the relationship between perceived value and social attachment through the structural equation model. In Study 1, data were collected from 600 Tik Tok users to verify the mediating role of the sense of belonging in perceived value and social attachment relationship. The users participating in the questionnaire survey were mainly from mainland China. In Study 2, two waves of data were collected from 500 Tik Tok users to verify the mediating role of the sense of belonging, and support part of the moderating role of privacy concern. However, except that the relationship between information value and social attachment is inhibited by privacy concern, the relationship between entertainment and social value and social attachment is not regulated by privacy concern. This research examines the practical effects of perceived value in the context of social media use, reveals the internal mechanism of the impact of perceived value on social attachment, and provides a reference for the innovative management and commercial practice of social media.

Privacy Concerns and Mobile App Store

Mobile apps have been transforming how individuals and organizations share information and conduct business. This research studies the relationships among user readiness factors, privacy concerns, and user acceptance of mobile app stores. A survey was conducted among college smart phone users. Results indicate that the privacy concerns construct has a direct negative effect on purchase intention of mobile apps in the app store. In addition, user readiness has a direct positive effect on attitudes to the app store, and a net positive effect on purchase intention of apps in the app store. Implications of our findings were discussed.

Personal information management on social media from the perspective of platform support: a text analysis based on the Chinese social media platform policy

Purpose

In this study, specific measures adopted by the social media platforms in China supporting personal information management are investigated via surveys targeting such platforms. The purpose of this paper is to find out how social media platforms understand information management, and from which aspects and through what specific methods they provide support for information management, which contributes to understanding the issues and strategies associated with personal information management on social media.

Design/methodology/approach

The dimensions and specific contents of the current platform support provided for information management are clearly defined by performing qualitative text analysis based on the content obtained from 11 platform policies published by five representative Chinese social media platforms.

Findings

How social media platforms support personal information management on creation, collection, utilisation, sharing, storage, protection, removal and modification is identified. By analysing the status quo of support provided by the Chinese social media platform, some issues are proposed for discussion. Improved normative management is required to address the coexistence of multivalued information and management risks. However, the user rights are limited because the platform policies tend to be more focused on the perspective of the social media platform. Furthermore, the platform policy contents regarding information management are incomplete, and the applicability of these policies should be improved.

Originality/value

This study seeks to contribute to personal information management on social media from the perspective of platform support. The perspective from the platforms as the service providers supporting information management also helps identify information management challenges and potential strategies. Furthermore, combining with the personal information management perspective, this study provides a background understanding of information management under a social collaborative framework for platforms, authorities, users and memory institutions.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-06-2020-0249

Does Cultural Difference Matter on Social Media? An Examination of the Ethical Culture and Information Privacy Concerns

While social media has become a very popular tool for sharing information and news worldwide, the ethical culture of the users emerged as a significant issue in cyber space. This research investigates the role of perceived ethical culture and information privacy concerns on social media behaviors. More importantly, this study investigates the role of cultural difference in the relationship among those factors. Based on the study results of U.S. and Korean social media users, this study found ethical culture to be positively associated and information privacy concerns negatively associated with users’ information-sharing behavior on social media. In addition, the study results indicated that the size of the impact of the two facts are varied between the two countries. This study’s results direct that users’ perceived ethical culture and privacy concerns are important factors affecting social media users’ information sharing. However, these factors could have a different impact with cultural differences.

Determinant Factors Influencing Thai Tourists’ Intentions to Use Social Media for Travel Planning

Currently, information technology plays an important role in the tourism industry. Tourists like to use social media more widely for their travel planning, which affects the high competition between entrepreneurs while facing the challenge of improving the quality of data services provided through social media. This study developed a model of the relationships between structure factors that affect intentions to use social media for travel planning. The said model integrates the technology acceptance model (TAM) theory, the theory of planned behavior (TPB), and trust and satisfaction factors. In reference to a survey of 1333 samples from domestic tourists who used social media through their smartphone, it was found that satisfaction, attitudes, subjective norms, and perception can be used to control behavior, with a positively direct effect on intentions of use. In addition, we examined the indirect effect on intentions of use. Perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and subjective norms had a positively significant indirect effect on intentions of use. These research results allow tourism entrepreneurs to precisely understand the stimulating factors of tourists’ intentions to use social media for travel-planning decisions, which will help lead to the development of tourism-marketing strategies and the support of sustainable competition.

A two-factor theoretical model of social media discontinuance: role of regret, inertia, and their antecedents

Purpose

Although materializing the benefits of social media substantially depends on sustained user participation, social media service providers are experiencing a decline in the number of users. Despite the relevance of studying and managing discontinuance behaviors, a systematic empirical investigation remains lacking. The present study draws on the idea of a two-factor model and aims to examine the enabler, inhibitor and their antecedents in the context of social media discontinuance.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed theoretical model was empirically validated through an online survey study of 238 social media users in China.

Findings

Findings indicated that two negative outcomes of social media use (i.e. social overload and invasion of privacy) induce regret experience and ultimately foster discontinuance intentions. The development of discontinuance intentions was undermined by the level of inertia, which is rooted in social media habit, sunk costs and affective commitment.

Originality/value

This study draws attention to the fundamental difference between continuance and discontinuance behaviors, advances the existing understanding of postadoption behaviors by focusing on discontinuance inhibitors (e.g. inertia) and develops the first two-factor model for social media discontinuance by integrating the regret and status quo bias literature.