Willingness to Provide Personal Information Online: The Role of Perceived Privacy Risk, Privacy Statements and Brand Strength

Perceived privacy risk is one reason that consumers do not always provide crucial personal information to firms online. This research reports on an experimental investigation into the role of two important factors – privacy statements and brand strength – likely to affect perceived privacy risk and willingness to provide personal information. Using realistic web pages as stimuli, we find that privacy statements do little to ease consumer concerns about the disposal and use of personal information whereas longer term measures strategic options such as developing a stronger brand image have a strong affect, even to the extent that consumers become willing to provide their personal information to websites with a strong brand name yet unwilling to share their personal information with websites with a weak brand name.