An Open Model for Researching the Role of Culture in Online Self-Disclosure
This addresses the need for more comprehensive cultural considerations in intelligent systems for data handling, though it is incremental as it builds on existing privacy calculus theory.
The paper tackles the problem of understanding how culture influences online self-disclosure by proposing an open research model based on privacy calculus theory, incorporating six cultural dimensions and 24 propositions to provide a systematic framework for analysis.
The analysis of consumers' personal information (PI) is a significant source to learn about consumers. In online settings, many consumers disclose PI abundantly -- this is particularly true for information provided on social network services. Still, people manage the privacy level they want to maintain by disclosing by disclosing PI accordingly. In addition, studies have shown that consumers' online self-disclosure (OSD) differs across cultures. Therefore, intelligent systems should consider cultural issues when collecting, processing, storing or protecting data from consumers. However, existing studies typically rely on a comparison of two cultures, providing valuable insights but not drawing a comprehensive picture. We introduce an open research model for cultural OSD research, based on the privacy calculus theory. Our open research model incorporates six cultural dimensions, six predictors, and 24 structured propositions. It represents a comprehensive approach that provides a basis to explain possible cultural OSD phenomena in a systematic way.