| Author: | Wang, Jue |
| Title: | Willingness to disclose personal information via travel application in China : a communication privacy management (CPM) perspective |
| Advisors: | Au, Norman (SHTM) |
| Degree: | DHTM |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Subject: | Disclosure of information Tourists -- China -- Attitudes Tourism -- China Computer networks -- Security measures Electronic commerce -- Security measures Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | vii, 179 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | With the continued proliferation of mobile devices and Information Communication Technology (ICT), it is now common for people to actively share masses of their personal information through mobile travel applications. However, as this study reveals, tourism and mobile e-commerce relies on digital footprints and user-generated content to produce online targeted advertisements to further offer personalized services and interaction experiences. It should be noted that many of these personalized services hinge on the extraction of private information from their customers, much of which is personal, and perhaps unwilling to be disclosed. The mobile travel market in China encompasses more serious cases of unethical and illegal collection of customer information. According to a report from the China Internet Data Center, nearly one-third of the top 1,400 downloaded mobile apps in China's Android market have recorded non-compliant collection and uses of personal data. There are several famous travel application platforms in mainland China, including Ctrip and Fliggy, which are often criticized by consumers for price discrimination through improperly collecting masses of personal data. These data breach scandals have raised privacy concerns and aroused negative reactions and subsequent resistance to further usage of such apps and information disclosure. The delicate balance between the goals of the travel application service supplier and the user should be investigated within this research. With the e-commerce of mobile travel intending to commercialize and monetize private information, violation codes of customer privacy emerge; customers hope to divulge personal information in return for the benefit without compromising their privacy. The conflicts of interests between the mobile service supplier and consumer engenders the research question: How can a privacy concern framework be developed to measure tourist's willingness to disclose personal information which would enable mobile service suppliers to enhance the services provided to customers without privacy being compromised? Although several customer privacy concern frameworks have been developed to explore user’s willingness to disclose information, previous research has focused on information privacy in the context of websites and social media research and failing to recognize the use of new research contexts that encompass new aspects of traveler privacy. The current study intends to address this gap in the relevant literature by developing a conceptual framework for Privacy Boundary Management Design that affects customer’s willingness to disclose information in future tourism mobile applications. Therefore, this research proposes a theoretical framework model which is based on the framework of Communication Privacy Management (CPM), incorporating the Privacy Calculus theory, and it implies that it would affect satisfaction and future customer behavior. 400 questionnaires were collected through online surveys and used for data analysis. The study conducted confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. Eight out of the eleven hypotheses were validated by the conclusions of the research. Obtaining reliability, validity, and overall model fit satisfaction, the research model had to be customized for the context of travel apps to reveal the relationships between perceived benefit, perceived risk, privacy concerns, and a willingness to disclose information. To explain further, the user's privacy concern and perceived benefit are influential factors for perceived risk of information disclosure. In addition, the benefit and risk of information disclosure have had a significant impact on willingness to disclose varying information. The validation of this research model confirms that the combination of communication privacy management theory (CPM) and privacy calculus theory (PCM) is applicable in the context of travel apps. In general, this study aims to explore consumers' willingness to disclose personal information for advertisements and the personal services offered by travel apps, as well as provide reference for innovation in service and promotion of app marketers and providers. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7316.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 1.77 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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