Globally, consumers and firms are negotiating rising privacy expectations. This article advances research by developing a multidimensional privacy measure that captures the idea of privacy as an expectation to be left alone through control and access of their personal information, time, and space. Drawing on boundary regulation perspectives from law and environmental psychology, the authors conceptualize, develop, and measure the meeting privacy expectations (MPE) scale. Six studies show the reliability and stability of the 12-item MPE scale in depicting the three subdimensions and in meeting reliability and validity criteria. The results indicate that the MPE scale is not only distinct from previously established privacy scales but also a better predictor of behavioral intentions. Moreover, the scale is invariant across different cultures and influences cognitive trust and emotional violation. The authors find that meeting privacy expectations vary in their levels and outcomes cross-culturally. Marketers can use the MPE scale to globally track, assess, manage, and plan for meeting the changing consumer privacy expectations. The MPE scale is a good candidate to address the rising public policy issues related to privacy.
AcquistiA.BrandimarteL.LoewensteinG. (2020), “Secrets and Likes: The Drive for Privacy and the Difficulty of Achieving it in the Digital age,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 30 (4), 736–58.
2.
AcquistiA.JohnL.K.LoewensteinG. (2012), “The Impact of Relative Standards on the Propensity to Disclose,” Journal of Marketing Research, 49 (2), 160–74.
3.
AeonB.AguinisH. (2017), “It's About Time: New Perspectives and Insights on Time Management,” Academy of Management Perspectives, 31 (4), 309–30.
4.
AltmanI. (1975), The Environment and Social Behavior: Privacy, Personal Space, Territory and Crowding. Monterrey, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
BagozziR.P.YiY. (2012), “Specification, Evaluation, and Interpretation of Structural Equation Models,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 40 (1), 8–34.
7.
BanerjeeS. (2019), “Geosurveillance, Location Privacy, and Personalization,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 38 (4), 484–99.
BartY.ShankarV.SultanF.UrbanG.L. (2005), “Are the Drivers and Role of Online Trust the Same for all Web Sites and Consumers? A Large-Scale Exploratory Empirical Study,” Journal of Marketing, 69 (4), 133–52.
10.
BellmanS.JohnsonE.J.KobrinS.J.LohseG.L. (2004), “International Differences in Information Privacy Concerns: A Global Survey of Consumers,” The Information Society, 20 (5), 313–24.
11.
BergerJ. (2014), “Word of Mouth and Interpersonal Communication: A Review and Directions for Future Research,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24 (4), 586–607.
12.
BoermanS.C.KruikemeierS.Zuiderveen BorgesiusF.J. (2017), “Online Behavioral Advertising: A Literature Review and Research Agenda,” Journal of Advertising, 46 (3), 363–76.
13.
BöttgerT.RudolphT.EvanschitzkyH.PfrangT. (2017), “Customer Inspiration: Conceptualization, Scale Development, and Validation,” Journal of Marketing, 81 (6), 116–31.
14.
BrakusJ.J.SchmittB.H.ZarantonelloL. (2009), “Brand Experience: What Is It? How Is It Measured? Does It Affect Loyalty?” Journal of Marketing, 73 (3), 52–68.
ChenF.F. (2007), “Sensitivity of Goodness of Fit Indexes to Lack of Measurement Invariance,” Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14 (3), 464–504.
19.
ChenF.F.SousaK.H.WestS.G. (2005), “Teacher's Corner: Testing Measurement Invariance of Second-Order Factor Models,” Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 12 (3), 471–92.
20.
CheungG.W.RensvoldR.B. (2002), “Evaluating Goodness-of-Fit Indexes for Testing Measurement Invariance,” Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 9 (2), 233–55.
21.
ChristiansenC.H.MatuskaK.M. (2006), “Lifestyle Balance: A Review of Concepts and Research,” Journal of Occupational Science, 13 (1), 49–61.
22.
ChurchillG.A.,Jr. (1979), “A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs,” Journal of Marketing Research, 16 (1), 64–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224377901600110.
23.
ClarkeR. (1999), “Internet Privacy Concerns Confirm the Case for Intervention,” Communications of the ACM, 42 (2), 60–67.
24.
CockcroftS.RekkerS. (2016), “The Relationship Between Culture and Information Privacy Policy,” Electronic Markets, 26 (1), 55–72.
Da VeigaA. (2018), “An Information Privacy Culture Instrument to Measure Consumer Privacy Expectations and Confidence,” Information and Computer Security, 26 (3), 338–64.
27.
DerlegaV.J.ChaikinA.L. (1977), “Privacy and Self-Disclosure in Social Relationships,” Journal of Social Issues, 33 (3), 102–15.
28.
DinsmoreJ.B.SwaniK.DuganR.G. (2017), “To ‘Free’ or Not to ‘Free’: Trait Predictors of Mobile App Purchasing Tendencies,” Psychology & Marketing, 34 (2), 227–44.
Esmark JonesC.L.StevensJ.L.NobleS.M.BreazealeM.J. (2020), “Panic Attack: How Illegitimate Invasions of Privacy Cause Consumer Anxiety and Dissatisfaction,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 39 (3), 334–52.
31.
FerrellO.C. (2017), “Broadening Marketing’s Contribution to Data Privacy,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45 (2), 160–63.
32.
FordS.M. (2011), “Reconceptualizing the Public/Private Distinction in the age of Information Technology,” Information, Communication & Society, 14 (4), 550–67.
33.
FoxmanE.R.KilcoyneP. (1993), “Information Technology, Marketing Practice, and Consumer Privacy: Ethical Issues,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 12 (1), 106–19.
34.
GerbingD.W.AndersonJ.C. (1988), “An Updated Paradigm for Scale Development Incorporating Unidimensionality and Its Assessment,” Journal of Marketing Research, 25 (2), 186–92.
35.
GoodwinC. (1991), “Privacy: Recognition of a Consumer Right,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 10 (1), 149–66.
36.
GrégoireY.FisherR.J. (2008), “Customer Betrayal and Retaliation: When Your Best Customers Become Your Worst Enemies,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 36 (2), 247–61.
37.
GrewalD.HullandJ.KopalleP.K.KarahannaE. (2020), “The Future of Technology and Marketing: A Multidisciplinary Perspective,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48, 1–8.
38.
HairJ.F.Jr.BlackW.C.BabinB.J.AndersonR.E. (2010), Multivariate Data Analysis: A Global Perspective, 7th ed. New York: Pearson Education.
39.
HayesA.F. (2009), “Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical Mediation Analysis in the New Millennium,” Communication Monographs, 76 (4), 408–20.
40.
HelbergerN.HuhJ.MilneG.StrycharzJ.SundaramH. (2020), “Macro and Exogenous Factors in Computational Advertising: Key Issues and New Research Directions,” Journal of Advertising, 49 (4), 377–93.
HoffmanD.L.NovakT.P.PeraltaM. (1999), “Building Consumer Trust Online,” Communications of the ACM, 42 (4), 80–85.
43.
HullandJ.BaumgartnerH.SmithK.M. (2018), “Marketing Survey Research Best Practices: Evidence and Recommendations from a Review of JAMS Articles,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 46 (1), 92–108.
44.
HultG.T.M.Hair Jr.J.F.ProkschD.SarstedtM.PinkwartA.RingleC.M. (2018), “Addressing Endogeneity in International Marketing Applications of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling,” Journal of International Marketing, 26 (3), 1–21.
KimY.PetersonR.A. (2017), “A Meta-Analysis of Online Trust Relationships in e-Commerce,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 38, 44–54.
47.
LabrecqueL.I.MarkosE.SwaniK.PeñaP. (2021), “When Data Security Goes Wrong: Examining the Impact of Stress, Social Contract Violation, and Data Type on Consumer Coping Responses Following a Data Breach,” Journal of Business Research, 135, 559–71.
48.
LicataJ.W.MowenJ.C.HarrisE.G.BrownT.J. (2003), “On the Trait Antecedents and Outcomes of Service Worker Job Resourcefulness: A Hierarchical Model Approach,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 31 (3), 256–71.
49.
LindellM.K.WhitneyD.J. (2001), “Accounting for Common Method Variance in Cross-Sectional Research Designs,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 86 (1), 114–21.
50.
MalhotraN.K.KimS.S.AgarwalJ. (2004), “Internet Users’ Information Privacy Concerns (IUIPC): The Construct, the Scale, and a Causal Model,” Information Systems Research, 15 (4), 336–55.
51.
MargulisS.T. (1974), “Privacy as a Behavioral Phenomena: Coming of age,” in Man-Environment Interactions: Evaluations and Applications Part II, CarsonD.H., ed. Stroudsburg, PA: Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, 101–23.
52.
MarkosE.MilneG.R.PeltierJ.W. (2017), “Information Sensitivity and Willingness to Provide Continua: A Comparative Privacy Study of the United States and Brazil,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 36 (1), 79–96.
53.
MartinK. (2015), “Privacy Notices as Tabula Rasa: An Empirical Investigation into How Complying with a Privacy Notice Is Related to Meeting Privacy Expectations Online,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 34 (2), 210–27.
54.
MartinK.D.BorahA.PalmatierR.W. (2017), “Data Privacy: Effects on Customer and Firm Performance,” Journal of Marketing, 81 (1), 36–58.
55.
MartinK.D.MurphyP.E. (2017), “The Role of Data Privacy in Marketing,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45 (2), 135–55.
56.
MartinK.NissenbaumH. (2016), “Measuring Privacy: An Empirical Test Using Context to Expose Confounding Variables,” Columbia Science and Technology Law Review, 18, 176.
57.
MartinK.NissenbaumH. (2020), “What Is It About Location?” Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 35, 251.
58.
MartinK.ShiltonK. (2016a), “Putting Mobile Application Privacy in Context: An Empirical Study of User Privacy Expectations for Mobile Devices,” The Information Society, 32 (3), 200–216.
59.
MartinK.ShiltonK. (2016b), “Why Experience Matters to Privacy: How Context-Based Experience Moderates Consumer Privacy Expectations for Mobile Applications,” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67 (8), 1871–82. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23500.
60.
McArthurR.L. (2001), “Reasonable Expectations of Privacy,” Ethics and Information Technology, 3 (2), 123–28.
61.
MilneG.R.BahlS. (2010), “Are There Differences Between Consumers’ and Marketers’ Privacy Expectations? A Segment-and Technology-Level Analysis,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 29 (1), 138–49.
62.
MilneG.R.BozaM.E. (1999), “Trust and Concern in Consumers’ Perceptions of Marketing Information Management Practices,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 13 (1), 5–24.
63.
MilneG.R.RohmA.J. (2003), “The 411 on Mobile Privacy,” Marketing Management, 12 (4), 41–45.
64.
NaeiniP.E.BhagavatulaS.HabibH.DegelingM.BauerL.CranorL.F., et al. (2017), “Privacy Expectations and Preferences in an IoT World,” in Thirteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security. Santa Clara, CA: USENIX, 399–412.
65.
NguyenH.CalantoneR.KrishnanR. (2020), “Influence of Social Media Emotional Word of Mouth on Institutional Investors’ Decisions and Firm Value,” Management Science, 66 (2), 887–910.
66.
OliverR.L. (2010), Satisfaction: A Behavioral Perspective on the Consumer, 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
67.
PalenL.DourishP. (2003), “Unpacking ‘Privacy’ for a Networked World,” in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 129–36.
68.
PalmatierR.W. (2008), “Interfirm Relational Drivers of Customer Value,” Journal of Marketing, 72 (4), 76–89.
69.
ParkS.GuptaS. (2012), “Handling Endogenous Regressors by Joint Estimation Using Copulas,” Marketing Science, 31 (4), 567–86.
70.
PedersenD.M. (1997), “Psychological Functions of Privacy,” Journal of Environmental Psychology, 17 (2), 147–56.
71.
PeltierJ.W.MilneG.R.PhelpsJ.E. (2009), “Information Privacy Research: Framework for Integrating Multiple Publics, Information Channels, and Responses,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23 (2), 191–205.
72.
PlanggerK.MontecchiM. (2020), “Thinking Beyond Privacy Calculus: Investigating Reactions to Customer Surveillance,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 50, 32–44.
73.
PodsakoffP.M.MacKenzieS.B.LeeJ.Y.PodsakoffN.P. (2003), “Common Method Biases in Behavioral Research: A Critical Review of the Literature and Recommended Remedies,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 88 (5), 879–903.
74.
RaabC.D. (2006), “The Governance of Global Issues: Protecting Privacy in Personal Information,” in New Modes of Governance in the Global System. International Political Economy Series, Koenig-ArchibugiM.ZürnM., eds. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 125–53.
75.
RangaswamyA.MochN.FeltenC.van BruggenG.WieringaJ.E.WirtzJ. (2020), “The Role of Marketing in Digital Business Platforms,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 51, 72–90.
76.
RaoA.PfefferJ. (2020), “Types of Privacy Expectations,” Frontiers in Big Data, 3 (7), 1–14.
77.
ReynoldsW.M. (1982), “Development of Reliable and Valid Short Forms of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale,” Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38 (1), 119–25.
78.
RossM. (2013), “Why Are You Calling Me: The Importance of the Do-Not-Call Registry in Protecting the Elderly from Financial Abuse,” Albany Government Law Review, 6, 663.
79.
RychalskiA.HudsonS. (2017), “Asymmetric Effects of Customer Emotions on Satisfaction and Loyalty in a Utilitarian Service Context,” Journal of Business Research, 71, 84–91.
80.
SandeJ.B.GhoshM. (2018), “Endogeneity in Survey Research,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 35 (2), 185–204.
81.
ScharfS. (2007), “Report Casts Doubt on the Impact of Data Breaches on Identity Theft,” Internal Auditor, 64 (4), 23.
82.
SchlosserA.E.WhiteT.B.LloydS.M. (2006), “Converting Web Site Visitors into Buyers: How Web Site Investment Increases Consumer Trusting Beliefs and Online Purchase Intentions,” Journal of Marketing, 70 (2), 133–48.
83.
SchneiderM.J.JagpalS.GuptaS.LiS.YuY. (2017), “Protecting Customer Privacy When Marketing with Second-Party Data,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34 (3), 593–603.
84.
SheltonA. (2014), “A Reasonable Expectation of Privacy Online: Do Not Track Legislation,” University of Baltimore Law Forum, 45 (1), 35–56.
85.
SmithH.J.MilbergS.J.BurkeS.J. (1996), “Information Privacy: Measuring Individuals’ Concerns About Organizational Practices,” MIS Quarterly, 20 (2), 167–96.
86.
SteenkampJ.B.E.Maydeu-OlivaresA. (2021), “An Updated Paradigm for Evaluating Measurement Invariance Incorporating Common Method Variance and Its Assessment,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 49 (1), 5–29.
87.
StewartK.A.SegarsA.H. (2002), “An Empirical Examination of the Concern for Information Privacy Instrument,” Information Systems Research, 13 (1), 36–49.
88.
SwaniK.MilneG.R.SlepchukA.N. (2021), “Revisiting Trust and Privacy Concern in Consumers’ Perceptions of Marketing Information Management Practices: Replication and Extension,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 56, 137–58.
89.
TeneO.PolonetskyJ. (2013), “A Theory of Creepy: Technology, Privacy and Shifting Social Norms,” Yale Journal of Law & Tech, 16, 59.
90.
TowersI.DuxburyL.HigginsC.ThomasJ. (2006), “Time Thieves and Space Invaders: Technology, Work and the Organization,” Journal of Organizational Change Management, 19 (5), 593–618.
91.
TrepteS.ReineckeL.EllisonN.B.QuiringO.YaoM.Z.ZiegeleM. (2017), “A Cross-Cultural Perspective on the Privacy Calculus,” Social Media + Society, 3 (1), https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116688035.
92.
TuckerC.E. (2014), “Social Networks, Personalized Advertising, and Privacy Controls,” Journal of Marketing Research, 51 (5), 546–62.
VermaV.SharmaD.ShethJ. (2016), “Does Relationship Marketing Matter in Online Retailing? A Meta-Analytic Approach,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 44 (2), 206–17.
95.
WalkerK.L.MilneG.R.WeinbergB.D. (2019), “Optimizing the Future of Innovative Technologies and Infinite Data,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 38 (4), 403–13.
96.
WarrenS.D.BrandeisL.D. (1890), “The Right to Privacy,” Harvard Law Review, 4 (5), 193–220.
97.
WeinbergB.D.MilneG.R.AndonovaY.G.HajjatF.M. (2015), “Internet of Things: Convenience vs. Privacy and Secrecy,” Business Horizons, 58 (6), 615–24.
98.
WestinAlan (1967), Privacy and Freedom. New York: Atheneum.
99.
WrightS.A.XieG.X. (2019), “Perceived Privacy Violation: Exploring the Malleability of Privacy Expectations,” Journal of Business Ethics, 156 (1), 123–40.
100.
YooB.DonthuN.LenartowiczT. (2011), “Measuring Hofstede's Five Dimensions of Cultural Values at the Individual Level: Development and Validation of CVSCALE,” Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 23 (3/4), 193–210.
101.
ZhangR.ChenJ.Q.LeeC.J. (2013), “Mobile Commerce and Consumer Privacy Concerns,” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 53 (4), 31–38.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
