Wednesday, November 19, 2014 | 2:00pm – 3:30pm | Room 335, HSBC Business School Building

Abstract

People will feel uneasy if private embarrassing information about them is exposed in online social networks. While individuals are generally prudent in controlling access to their embarrassing information, such control is fundamentally challenged when the embarrassing information is co-owned with others. Drawing on the social exchange framework as the overarching theory, this paper examines the effects of information dissemination and network mutuality on perceived privacy invasion as well as perceived relationship bonding and how these perceptions shape individuals’ behavioral responses to an embarrassing exposure (i.e., inaction, avoidance, and approach). The results of a laboratory experiment involving 109 subjects provide strong evidence that information dissemination and network mutuality jointly influence individuals’ perceived privacy invasion and perceived relationship bonding. In addition, while perceived privacy invasion encourages transactional avoidance, it discourages approach behavior. Further, whereas perceived relationship bonding impedes both transactional avoidance and interpersonal avoidance, it leads to approach behavior. Overall, this study contributes to the IS literature by deepening the understanding of individuals’ behavioral response to embarrassing exposures triggered by others’ revelation.