Online anthropomorphism and consumers’ privacy concern: Moderating roles of need for interaction and social exclusion |
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Institution: | 1. Monash University, Australia;2. Deakin University, Australia;3. SIM University, Singapore;1. School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong;2. Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong;3. Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom;1. School of Business and Economics, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia;2. Department of Marketing, UWA Business School, The University of Western Australia (M263), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Perth 6009, Australia |
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Abstract: | Online privacy concern has become a critical ethical and managerial issue for online retailing. However, we know limited information about what marketing practices may exacerbate consumers’ privacy concern. This study intends to examine the undesirable intertwining effect of online anthropomorphism and individual features on consumers’ privacy concern and downstream variables. Three experiments were conducted to test hypotheses. The results suggest that consumers who have a low need for interaction in business encounters and who experience social exclusion indicate a higher privacy concern and lower willingness to register online in anthropomorphic (vs. non-anthropomorphic) websites. Moreover, the interactive effect of online anthropomorphism and social exclusion extends to consumers’ online purchase intention, which works via privacy concern as a mediator in this process. The findings suggest that incorporating anthropomorphic elements online may exacerbate consumers’ perceptions of privacy risk and detract their behavioral intention toward the websites and thus individual features should be taken into account. We conclude by discussing the implications, limitations, and directions for future research. |
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Keywords: | Online privacy concern Anthropomorphism Need for interaction Social exclusion |
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