Abstract

The primary contribution of this study is the examination of whether the timeliness in announcing the discovery of a data breach impacts the reduction in consumer trust in an e-commerce company, as well as later trust rebuilding efforts taken by the company. This study examines the effect of both trust reducing events (announced data breaches) and trust enhancing events (provision of data protection) on the level of perceived trust. The timeliness of the announcement of the breach by an e-commerce company was manipulated between two randomly assigned groups of subjects by changing the announcement of the breach between immediately upon its discovery by the company’s management and an announcement made two-months after the breach was discovered. The results suggest that companies that delay the announcement of a data breach are likely to suffer a larger drop in consumer trust than those companies that immediately disclose the data breach.

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