Start Date
10-12-2017 12:00 AM
Description
Identity theft has been a growing concern as criminals, more and more easily, utilize online channels to steal personally identifiable information (PII) for fraud and scams. Identity theft protection services for monitoring and recovering from identity theft are a means of protecting from the potential damages of identity theft. Drawing on the literature in the area of anticipated emotion and protection motivation theory, this study explores the role of anticipated distress of losing one’s PII, in motivating adoption of identity theft protection services. We tested our hypotheses with 636 valid responses collected via Qualtrics panel. Our results show that anticipated distress is positively associated with adoption intention of identity theft protection services, and its effect is partially mediated by perceived threat of identity theft and perceived coping efficacy of the services. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed
Recommended Citation
Wang, Jingguo; Yazdanmehr, Adel; Li, Yuan; and Rao, H.Raghav, "Opting for Identity Theft Protection Services: The Role of Anticipated Distress" (2017). ICIS 2017 Proceedings. 14.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2017/Security/Presentations/14
Opting for Identity Theft Protection Services: The Role of Anticipated Distress
Identity theft has been a growing concern as criminals, more and more easily, utilize online channels to steal personally identifiable information (PII) for fraud and scams. Identity theft protection services for monitoring and recovering from identity theft are a means of protecting from the potential damages of identity theft. Drawing on the literature in the area of anticipated emotion and protection motivation theory, this study explores the role of anticipated distress of losing one’s PII, in motivating adoption of identity theft protection services. We tested our hypotheses with 636 valid responses collected via Qualtrics panel. Our results show that anticipated distress is positively associated with adoption intention of identity theft protection services, and its effect is partially mediated by perceived threat of identity theft and perceived coping efficacy of the services. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed