How Cultural Differences Affect Consumers' Privacy Calculus and Willingness to Share Personal Information
(A2020-57911)

AUTHORS

Christopher Schumacher, University of St. Gallen

KEYWORDS

privacy calculus; cultural differences; sharing information

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to test how cultural differences across countries systematically moderate the relationship between consumers' privacy calculus and consumers' willingness to share personal information. We develop a conceptual framework that proposes main and mod-erating effects of cultural differences on consumers’ willingness to share personal information. We test our hypotheses using multilevel modeling on data collected from 15,068 consumers from 24 countries. We show that consumers’ privacy calculus and consumers’ willingness to share personal information are affected by cultural differences. Both consumers’ privacy cal-culus and cultural differences can help explain consumers' distinct reactions when requested to provide some personal information.