Location information disclosure in location-based social network services: Privacy calculus, benefit structure, and gender differences

Hedonic benefits have stronger impacts on perceived benefits than utilitarian benefits.There is an interaction effect between perceived benefits and privacy risks.Males stress on utilitarian benefits while females stress on hedonic benefits.Males stress on perceived benefits while females stress on privacy risks. As the mechanisms underlying users' location information disclosure behavior under the context of location-based social network services (LBSNS) have been rarely investigated, this study builds a research model to examine the privacy calculus, benefit structure and gender differences. Specifically, hedonic benefits have stronger impacts on perceived benefits than utilitarian benefits and there is an interaction effect between perceived benefits and privacy risks. Further, utilitarian (hedonic) benefits are more influential for males (females) than for females (males) when formulating overall benefit perceptions, and perceived benefits (privacy risks) have stronger impacts on disclosure intention for males (females) than for females (males). Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.