Privacy concerns and self-efficacy in e-commerce : testing an extended APCO model in a prototypical EU country

Bartol, Jošt (author), Vehovar, Vasja (author), Bošnjak, Michael (author), Petrovčič, Andraž (author)

Privacy concerns are an important factor in internet users’ decisions to participate in e-commerce, defined here as the use of the internet by individuals to purchase goods or services. While various studies have examined how privacy concerns and e-commerce participation are influenced by online shopping self-efficacy, personality traits, or demographic characteristics, these aspects have rarely been examined together in one single explanatory model. Therefore, this paper proposes an integrated model of e-commerce participation based on the APCO model (Antecedents, Privacy Concerns, Outcomes; Smith et al., 2011) in which internet users’ personality traits and demographic characteristics influence their privacy concerns and online shopping self-efficacy, which in turn affect e-commerce participation. The model was tested on a sample of internet users (n = 3,736) in Slovenia, a prototypical EU country in terms of internet use and online shopping. The results from path analysis showed that individuals with greater privacy concerns were less likely to participate in e-commerce, while those with higher online shopping self-efficacy were more likely to do so. Online shopping self-efficacy also reduced privacy concerns and mediated the effect of demographic characteristics on privacy concerns and e-commerce participation. Therefore, a viable strategy to increase e-commerce participation is to increase internet users’ self-efficacy. Moreover, users with different personalities seem to have different coping strategies related to privacy concerns and online shopping self-efficacy. Overall, this study highlights the importance of online shopping self-efficacy for comprehensively analyzing the antecedents and outcomes of privacy concerns in e-commerce.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Big Five personality traits, privacy concerns, path analysis, self-efficacy, survey, e-commerce
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences; FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: 11 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 60, art. 101289
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-147375
• UDC: 342.721:004.738.5:339.162.3(497.4)
• ISSN on article: 1567-4223
• DOI: 10.1016/j.elerap.2023.101289
• COBISS.SI-ID: 157488643
• Publication date in RUL: 03.07.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Electronic commerce research and applications
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 1567-4223
• COBISS.SI-ID: 512362777

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: elektronsko poslovanje, spletno nakupovanje, zasebnost, Slovenija