Abstract

This study examines how skepticism moderates internet users' trust revisions from the announcement of a data breach and subsequent restorative actions to compensate users impacted by the breach. Skepticism has been tied to belief revisions in several different contexts. Data analysis supports the hypothesis that users with high skepticism are related to larger drops in trust in reaction to a data breach, especially when there is a delay in announcing the data breach. This study also contributes to the existing literature on e-commerce trust by supporting findings of other research that examines whether a company's forthrightness in announcing a data breach impacts trust reduction after a data breach and subsequent trust increases after efforts to repair trust.

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