Start Date
10-12-2017 12:00 AM
Description
Many apps require access to personal data, which often raises users’ risk perceptions and thus might lower their disclosure intentions. To date, research has focused on the effects user reviews have on benefit expectations. Surprisingly, previous research has almost neglected the influence of other possible social cues. Using an experiment, we investigate how two distinct social cues, namely reviews and peers’ behavior, influence information disclosure intentions, and which underlying mechanisms drive the outcome. Our results indicate that negative reviews increase perceived risk and decrease expected benefits. Positive reviews seem to have less impact than expected. Higher app usage by peers decreases risk perception and, more importantly, increases social pressure to disclose information. Peer behavior exerts the strongest influence on information disclosure intentions. The findings have important implications for researchers and app providers on how to use social cues to increase users’ app acceptance.
Recommended Citation
Kroschke, Mirja and Steiner, Michael, "The Influence of Social Cues on Users’ Information Disclosure Intentions – The Case of Mobile Apps" (2017). ICIS 2017 Proceedings. 7.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2017/HumanBehavior/Presentations/7
The Influence of Social Cues on Users’ Information Disclosure Intentions – The Case of Mobile Apps
Many apps require access to personal data, which often raises users’ risk perceptions and thus might lower their disclosure intentions. To date, research has focused on the effects user reviews have on benefit expectations. Surprisingly, previous research has almost neglected the influence of other possible social cues. Using an experiment, we investigate how two distinct social cues, namely reviews and peers’ behavior, influence information disclosure intentions, and which underlying mechanisms drive the outcome. Our results indicate that negative reviews increase perceived risk and decrease expected benefits. Positive reviews seem to have less impact than expected. Higher app usage by peers decreases risk perception and, more importantly, increases social pressure to disclose information. Peer behavior exerts the strongest influence on information disclosure intentions. The findings have important implications for researchers and app providers on how to use social cues to increase users’ app acceptance.