Consumer vulnerability: understanding transparency and control in the online environment
Abstract
Purpose
In the online environment, consumers increasingly feel vulnerable due to firms’ expanding capabilities of collecting and using their data in an unsanctioned manner. Drawing from gossip theory, this research focuses on two key suppressors of consumer vulnerability: transparency and control. Previous studies conceptualize transparency and control from rationalistic approaches that overlook individual experiences and present a unidimensional conceptualization. This research aims to understand how individuals interpret transparency and control concerning privacy vulnerability in the online environment. Additionally, it explores strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.
Design/methodology/approach
An interpretivism paradigm and phenomenology were adopted in the research design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 41 participants, including consumers and experts, and analyzed through thematic analysis.
Findings
The findings identify key conceptual dimensions of transparency and control by adapting justice theory. They also reveal that firms can communicate assurance, functional, technical and social values of transparency and control to address consumer vulnerability.
Originality/value
This research makes the following contributions to the data privacy literature. The findings exhibit multidimensional and comprehensive conceptualizations of transparency and control, including user, firm and information perspectives. Additionally, the conceptual framework combines empirical insights from both experiencers and observers to offer an understanding of how transparency and control serve as justice mechanisms to effectively tackle the issue of unsanctioned transmission of personal information and subsequently address vulnerability. Lastly, the findings provide strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the editor, associate editor and two anonymous reviewers for the guidance and constructive feedback during the review process. An early version of paper, titled Understanding Control and Transparency in Consumer Data Privacy, was presented as a poster and published in the proceedings of 2022 ANZMAC Conference.
Since the submission of this article, there has been an update in the affiliations of the following author(s): Donia Waseem is now affiliated with the Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and International Business at Kent Business School, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. This author has moved from the University of Bradford to the University of Kent.
Citation
Waseem, D., Chen, S.(J)., Xia, Z.(R)., Rana, N.P., Potdar, B. and Tran, K.T. (2024), "Consumer vulnerability: understanding transparency and control in the online environment", Internet Research, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-01-2023-0056
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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