Purpose

This study aims to explore the spillover effects of data breaches from a consumer perspective in the e-commerce context. Specifically, we investigate how an online retailer’s data breach affects consumers’ privacy risk perceptions of competing firms, and further how it affects shopping intention for the competitors. We also examine how the privacy risk contagion effect varies depending on the characteristics of competitors and their competitive responses.

Design/methodology/approach

We conducted two scenario-based experiments with surveys. To assess the spillover effects and the moderating effects, we employed an analysis of covariance. We also performed bootstrapping-based mediation analyses using the PROCESS macro.

Findings

We find evidence for the privacy risk contagion effect and demonstrate that it negatively influences consumers’ shopping intention for a competing firm. We also find that a competitor’s cybersecurity message is effective in avoiding the privacy risk contagion effect and the competitor even benefits from it.

Originality/value

While previous studies have examined the impacts of data breaches on customer perceptions of the breached firm, our study focuses on customer perceptions of the non-breached firms. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to provide empirical evidence for the negative spillover effects of a data breach from a consumer perspective. More importantly, this study empirically demonstrates that the non-breached competitor’s competitive response is effective in preventing unintended negative spillover in the context of the data breach.

中文翻译：

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数据泄露对消费者认知的溢出效应：来自电子商务行业的证据

目的

本研究旨在从消费者的角度探讨电子商务背景下数据泄露的溢出效应。具体来说，我们调查在线零售商的数据泄露如何影响消费者对竞争公司的隐私风险认知，以及进一步如何影响竞争对手的购物意愿。我们还研究了隐私风险传染效应如何根据竞争对手的特征及其竞争反应而变化。

设计/方法论/途径

我们进行了两项基于场景的实验和调查。为了评估溢出效应和调节效应，我们采用了协方差分析。我们还使用 PROCESS 宏执行基于引导的中介分析。

发现

我们找到了隐私风险传染效应的证据，并证明它会对消费者对竞争公司的购物意愿产生负面影响。我们还发现，竞争对手的网络安全信息可以有效避免隐私风险传染效应，甚至使竞争对手从中受益。

原创性/价值

虽然之前的研究考察了数据泄露对客户对被泄露公司的看法的影响，但我们的研究重点是客户对未泄露公司的看法。据作者所知，这项研究是第一个从消费者角度为数据泄露的负面溢出效应提供经验证据的研究之一。更重要的是，这项研究凭经验证明，未违规竞争对手的竞争反应可以有效防止数据泄露背景下意外的负面溢出效应。