Privacy concerns and trust, their impact on customers' information sharing intentions: a multi-country comparison

Today companies are more and more interested in collecting personal information from customers in order to deliver goods and services effectively and to improve their Marketing database and CRM efficacy. However, the ease with... [ view full abstract ]

Today companies are more and more interested in collecting personal information from customers in order to deliver goods and services effectively and to improve their Marketing database and CRM efficacy. However, the ease with which data can be acquired and disseminated, also thanks to the digital technologies, has led to many potential customers demonstrating growing concerns and ethical issues about disclosing personal information. Privacy concern and trust play a different role on the necessary condition for companies to exploit the technological opportunities: customers’ willingness to share information. On this topic it is difficult to make too many generalizations, since the cultural differences and the different country regulations seem to weigh significantly. The paper presents the results of a study investigating this phenomenon in 15 countries.