Mutual self-disclosure online in the B2C context

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the relationship between company identity information disclosure, trust, and consumer self‐disclosure intentions during the first visit to a company website.Design/methodology/approach – This study conducts one‐factor (company identity information disclosure) between‐subject experiment design. Participants were randomly assigned into two groups: company identity information disclosure – high vs low. Furthermore, this study also uses LISREL to analyse the model.Findings – The analytical results indicate that when a company website discloses much of its identity information, consumers trust the company more, and exhibit greater intentions to provide their personal information. Specifically, this study's results show that consumer's trust mediates the relationship between company identity information disclosure and consumer self‐disclosure intentions.Practical implications – Companies often invite consumers to disclose personal information on websites, and then use th...

[1]  D. Bem.  Self-Perception Theory , 1972 .

[2]  D. Byrne.  Interpersonal attraction and attitude similarity. , 1961, Journal of abnormal and social psychology.

[3]  Henry H. Emurian,et al.  An overview of online trust: Concepts, elements, and implications , 2005, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[4]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[5]  L. F. Barrett,et al.  Intimacy as an interpersonal process: the importance of self-disclosure, partner disclosure, and perceived partner responsiveness in interpersonal exchanges. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[6]  Dalmas A. Taylor,et al.  Disclosure reciprocity and liking as a function of gender and personalism , 1985 .

[7]  Youngme Moon,et al.  Don’t Blame the Computer: When Self-Disclosure Moderates the Self-Serving Bias , 2003 .

[8]  Charles J. Kacmar,et al.  The impact of initial consumer trust on intentions to transact with a web site: a trust building model , 2002, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[9]  M. Patterson.  An arousal model of interpersonal intimacy. , 1976 .

[10]  D. Iacobucci,et al.  A Meditation on Mediation: Evidence that Structural Equations Models Perform Better than Regressions , 2007 .

[11]  Sijun Wang,et al.  Signaling the trustworthiness of small online retailers , 2004 .

[12]  P. Schurr,et al.  Influences on exchange processes: Buyers' preconceptions of a seller's trustworthiness and bargaining toughness. , 1985 .

[13]  Colin Camerer,et al.  Not So Different After All: A Cross-Discipline View Of Trust , 1998 .

[14]  M. Argyle,et al.  EYE-CONTACT, DISTANCE AND AFFILIATION. , 1965, Sociometry.

[15]  C. Nass,et al.  Machines and Mindlessness , 2000 .

[16]  Doo-Hee Lee,et al.  The Influence of Consumer Self-Disclosure on Web Sites on Advertising Response , 2008 .

[17]  D. D. Schoenbachler,et al.  Trust and customer willingness to provide information in database-driven relationship marketing , 2002 .

[18]  M. Patterson.  A sequential functional model of nonverbal exchange. , 1982 .

[19]  P. Cozby.  Self-disclosure: a literature review. , 1973, Psychological bulletin.

[20]  Suzanne P. Weisband,et al.  Self disclosure on computer forms: meta-analysis and implications , 1996, CHI.

[21]  Donna L. Hoffman,et al.  Building consumer trust online , 1999, CACM.

[22]  Veda C. Storey,et al.  Compliance to the fair information practices: How are the Fortune 500 handling online privacy disclosures? , 2006, Inf. Manag..

[23]  Seung Ho Cho,et al.  Effects of Motivations and Gender on Adolescents' Self-Disclosure in Online Chatting , 2007, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[24]  K. C. Murphy,et al.  Some Effects of Similarity Self-Disclosure. , 1972 .

[25]  T. Postmes,et al.  Social Cues and Impression Formation in CMC , 2003 .

[26]  H. Reis,et al.  Intimacy as an interpersonal process. , 1988 .

[27]  L. Miller,et al.  Self-disclosure and liking: a meta-analytic review. , 1994, Psychological bulletin.

[28]  T. Postmes,et al.  Short Communication A social identity approach to trust: Interpersonal perception, group membership and trusting behaviour , 2005 .

[29]  Daniel R. Horne,et al.  The Privacy Paradox: Personal Information Disclosure Intentions versus Behaviors , 2007 .

[30]  Marios Koufaris,et al.  The development of initial trust in an online company by new customers , 2004, Inf. Manag..

[31]  K. Vohs,et al.  Self-regulation and self-presentation: regulatory resource depletion impairs impression management and effortful self-presentation depletes regulatory resources. , 2005, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[32]  V. Derlega,et al.  Liking for the norm-breaker in self-disclosure. , 1974, Journal of personality.

[33]  R. Bagozzi,et al.  On the evaluation of structural equation models , 1988 .

[34]  F. Sultan,et al.  Are the Drivers and Role of Online Trust the Same for All Web Sites and Consumers? A Large-Scale Exploratory Empirical Study , 2005 .

[35]  Ann E. Schlosser,et al.  Converting Web Site Visitors into Buyers: How Web Site Investment Increases Consumer Trusting Beliefs and Online Purchase Intentions , 2006 .

[36]  A. Joinson,et al.  Self-disclosure, Privacy and the Internet , 2009 .

[37]  Lucas D. Introna.  Privacy and the computer: why we need privacy in the information society , 1997 .

[38]  B. Blau,et al.  Depth Of Self-Disclosure As A Function Of Assured Confidentiality And Videotape Recording , 1985 .

[39]  Barton A. Weitz,et al.  Self-Disclosure on the Web: the Impact of Privacy Policy, Reward, and Company Reputation , 2002 .

[40]  Youngme Moon.  Intimate Exchanges: Using Computers to Elicit Self-Disclosure from Consumers , 2000 .

[41]  Miles Hewstone,et al.  Reducing explicit and implicit outgroup prejudice via direct and extended contact: The mediating role of self-disclosure and intergroup anxiety. , 2007, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[42]  Katelyn Y. A. McKenna,et al.  Coming Out in the Age of the Internet: Identity “Demarginalization” Through Virtual Group Participation , 1998 .

[43]  N. R. Simonson,et al.  Therapist self-disclosure: Its effect on impressions of therapist and willingness to disclose. , 1973 .

[44]  J. Cho.  The mechanism of trust and distrust formation and their relational outcomes , 2006 .