Knowing your customers: Using a reciprocal relationship to enhance voluntary information disclosure

Customer information is increasingly being solicited by organizations as they try to enhance their product and service offerings. Customers are becoming increasingly protective of the information they disclose. The prior research on information disclosure has focused on privacy concerns and trust that lead to intentions to disclose. In this study, we tread new ground by examining the link between intent to disclose information and the actual disclosure. Drawing from social response theory and the principle of reciprocity, we examine how organizations can influence the strength of the link between intent and actual disclosure. We conduct an experiment using 15 pieces of information in a non-commercial context that examines voluntary individual information disclosure. Our results indicate that by implementing a reasoned dyadic condition where the organization provides reasoning on why they are collecting particular information; individuals are more likely to actually disclose more information. The results open up opportunities to go beyond intent, and study the actual disclosure of sensitive information. Organizations can use the concept of reciprocity to enhance the design of information acquisition systems.