Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1. A model depicting the relationships among privacy dimension, perceived risk, and online
subscription and purchasing
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a
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sus
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sus
p
aCt
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aCt
p
aCt
osp
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LEGEND
P
A
= Privacy
Active,
P
SUS
= Privacy Suspicious,
P
ACT
= Privacy Active,
R
= Risk,
OSP
= Online subscription and purchasing
LEGEND
P
A
= Privacy
Active,
P
SUS
= Privacy Suspicious,
P
ACT
= Privacy Active,
R
= Risk,
OSP
= Online subscription and purchasing
LEGEND
P
A
= Privacy
Active,
P
SUS
= Privacy Suspicious,
P
ACT
= Privacy Active,
R
= Risk,
OSP
= Online subscription and purchasing
In proposing the next stage of the privacy hier-
archy, a relationship between privacy suspicious
attitudes and privacy active behaviors, we adopt
a hierarchy of effects argument. We argue that
privacy suspicion of company online behavior may
lead to proactive behavior by expert household
end users to protect their privacy and that higher
levels of privacy suspicion lead to privacy active
behavior (Hypothesis 1b). Moreover, consistent
with our hierarchy of effects approach, whereby
awareness leads to affect before action, we propose
that there will be no direct link between privacy
awareness and privacy active behavior. This leads
to Hypothesis 1c that privacy awareness does not
directly affect privacy active behavior.
We now consider the relationships between the
stages of the privacy hierarchy and perceived risk.
Research by Nowak and Phelps (1995) suggests
that privacy awareness leads to a greater percep-
tion of threat to consumer privacy. We thus hypoth-
esise higher levels of end user privacy awareness
lead to heightened perceived risk (Hypothesis 2a).
Culnan and Bies (2003) argue that consumers
will perceive disclosure of personal information
to be low risk if they believe the company to be
open and honest about their information practices.
Conversely, it can be argued that if end users are
suspicious of a company's honesty, their perceived
risk is likely to be heightened. Therefore, we hy-
pothesise that the extent of end user suspicion of
a company will be positively related to perceived
risk (Hypothesis 2b).
We have argued that a hierarchy of effects ex-
ists for privacy and that privacy awareness leads
to privacy suspicion, which subsequently leads
to privacy active behavior. It is further argued
that privacy active behavior by expert end users
is also influenced by perception of risk. Thus, a
relationship between higher levels of perceived
risk and privacy active behavior is proposed
(Hypothesis 3).
Returning to the end stage of the privacy hi-
erarchy, we suggest that privacy active behavior
influences online subscription and purchasing.
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