Privacy Concerns in Social Commerce: The Impact of Gender

Abstract

Today, social commerce is one of the most rapidly growing subsectors of e-commerce, creating new opportunities for brands of all types and sizes. However, despite its popularity and potential, social commerce faces significant challenges, including issues of privacy, trust and ethics. This paper sets out to identify key aspects of privacy which influence ongoing user engagement with social commerce, so that social media, and other social commerce, platforms can more effectively address the issue. In particular, the paper seeks to determine the extent to which these aspects of privacy are a function of gender and, therefore, to increase our understanding of the role of gender in determining a user’s likelihood of sustainable engagement with s-commerce. To explore these issues, the study deploys a mixed methodology (semi-structured interviews and questionnaires) to examine the views of a broad demographic of s-commerce users in Saudi Arabia. The results allowed us to identify three distinct aspects of online privacy that significantly influence the likelihood of engaging in s-commerce and also demonstrated that the relative importance of these aspects is a function of gender. The study enhances current understanding of the role of gender in intention to use s-commerce and provides a framework for further research. The findings of the study will be of interest to all parties involved in the design and provision of s-commerce services, including social media platforms.

Cracking the Code

“…Empirical research has shown that the theory of planned behavior supports a wide range of behaviors (Yang & Xu, 2021). Thus, it is commonly used in information-systems research to predict and analyze different forms of behavior (Mutambik et al, 2023d;Sommestad et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2020). Communication with others in organizations can affect people's feelings, responses, and behaviors.…”

Enforcing Information System Security

“…Attitudes are based on three components: a cognitive component, the ideas and beliefs about something; an affective component, involving how the person, issue, or event affects emotions and feelings; and a behavioral component, determining how attitude can affect behavior or intention to perform a behavior (Cherry, 2018). Moreover, past and present experience shapes attitudes (Ajzen, 2001;Mutambik et al, 2023b;Safa et al, 2017). This applies to IS, where a positive attitude toward policy compliance should result in more employee compliance.…”

Factors Influencing the Use of Mobile Social Commerce Application with UTAUT2 Extended Model

“…Fortes and Rita describe the important role of privacy factors in online transactions [18]. Furthermore, Mutambik explains that privacy-related data is a significant concern requiring protection [19]. Tseng proposes that privacy impacts trust in social commerce application [15], a point reinforced by Fortes and Rita [18].…”