A Cross-Cultural Comparison
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RESEARCH REPOSITORY This is the author’s final version of the work, as accepted for publication following peer review but without the publisher’s layout or pagination. The definitive version is available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2018.05.006 Liu, Z. and Wang, X. (2018) How to regulate individuals’ privacy boundaries on social network sites: A Cross-Cultural comparison. Information & Management http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/40902/ Copyright: © 2018 Elsevier B.V. It is posted here for your personal use. No further distribution is permitted. Accepted Manuscript Title: How to Regulate Individuals’ Privacy Boundaries on Social Network Sites: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Authors: Zilong Liu, Xuequn Wang PII: S0378-7206(17)30277-X DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2018.05.006 Reference: INFMAN 3073 To appear in: INFMAN Received date: 31-3-2017 Revised date: 2-5-2018 Accepted date: 4-5-2018 Please cite this article as: Zilong Liu, Xuequn Wang, How to Regulate Individuals’ Privacy Boundaries on Social Network Sites: A Cross-Cultural Comparison, Information and Management https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2018.05.006 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. How to Regulate Individuals’ Privacy Boundaries on Social Network Sites: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Zilong Liu School of Management Science and Engineering, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian, Liaoning, China Email: [email protected] Xuequn Wang (Corresponding Author) School of Engineering and Information Technology Murdoch University, Perth, WA, Australia, 6150 Phone: +61 8 93602793 [email protected] Funding: This work is supported by the grant of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 71771040; 71301021) and internal grant from School of Engineering and Information Technology, Murdoch University. How Individuals Regulate Their Privacy Boundaries on Social Networking Sites: A Cross- Cultural Comparison Abstract Individuals presently interact with their diverse social circles on social networking sites and may find it challenging to maintain their privacy while deriving pleasure through self- disclosure. Drawing upon the communication privacy management theory, our study examines how boundary coordination and boundary turbulence can influence individuals’ self-disclosure decisions. Further, our study examines how the effects of boundary coordination and boundary turbulence differ across cultures. Our hypotheses are tested with survey data collected from the United States and China. The results strongly support our hypotheses and show interesting cultural differences. The implications for theory and practice are discussed. Keywords: social networking sites; privacy; communication privacy management; role conflict; self-disclosure; culture ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 1 Introduction Presently, individuals often interact with their diverse social circles (i.e., relatives, schoolmates, teachers, colleagues, friends, online friends, etc.) on social networking sites (SNSs). In such a context, they may find meeting the inconsistent expectations of their diverse social circles quite challenging, if not impossible (Besmer and Lipford, 2010). As a result, individuals’ privacy boundaries become blurred, and they are vulnerable to potential privacy threats (e.g., misuse of disclosed information) (Brandtzæg et al., 2010). For example, pictures may be taken when individuals have parties and drink alcohol with their friends. The friends may expect to see the pictures posted on Facebook to show their friendship. However, the individuals may be in sports teams and worry that their coaches can also view the pictures (Besmer and Lipford, 2010). Indeed, individuals presently are increasingly integrating the use of SNSs into their lives. A recent report shows that in 2016, Internet users spent 118 minutes on average per day using SNSs (Statista.com, 2016). On SNSs such as Facebook, Twitter, and WeChat (a Chinese mobile SNS), individuals maintain their existing social relationships and develop new relationships by disclosing their personal information (Boyd and Ellison, 2008; Wang and Li, 2015). They can update their status, upload their pictures, and comment on information disclosed by others. From the perspective of the SNSs, supporting individuals’ information disclosure is vital because their market values depend heavily on the social interactions among their users (Smith, 2013). However, while individuals enjoy the pleasure and gratification derived from interacting with their contacts on SNSs, their privacy is endangered (ZhangACCEPTED et al., 2011). In particular, Facebook usersMANUSCRIPT now have approximately 228 contacts on average (Mazin, 2014). On WeChat, the average number of contacts is around 128 per user (WeChat, 2015). As the number of contacts on SNSs increases, individuals realize that they need to interact with their diverse social circles. However, as illustrated above, individuals 2 may have inconsistent expectations and experience conflicts from these social circles. To avoid potential conflicts, individuals may refuse to upload pictures or even break certain social connections, which will ultimately hurt the value of the SNS. Therefore, it is important for SNSs to understand how to protect individuals’ privacy and support their self-disclosure in such scenarios. Previous literature has examined privacy in various contexts (Bélanger and Crossler, 2011; Liu et al., 2016; Smith et al., 2011), and recent literature has begun to pay more attention to privacy on SNSs. Our review of the previous literature (Table A.1 in Appendix A) shows that most studies focus on how individuals manage their privacy and make self-disclosure decisions themselves. However, on SNSs, once information is disclosed, it becomes accessible to both senders (i.e., those who disclose the information) and receivers (i.e., others on SNSs). Receivers here can come from individuals’ diverse social circles. Both sides are responsible for controlling the disclosed information, and the fact that these diverse social circles co-exist on SNSs has important implications for individuals’ self-disclosure. However, few studies have examined self-disclosure from a collective privacy management perceptive and assessed the influence of individuals’ various social circles. Such studies are highly needed because collective privacy management differs from individual privacy management and involves interpersonal interactions and perception regarding how disclosed information will be co-managed (Xu, 2012). Further, as discussed above, conflicts that individuals experience while interacting with diverse social circles can impede their social connections and hurt the value of SNSs. Therefore, examining self-disclosure from a collective privacy managementACCEPTED perspective is vital because it can MANUSCRIPT provide better understanding of how to support individuals’ social connections, and also, it can provide information about SNS providers’ operational strategies. One exception is De Wolf et al. (2014), who examined both individual and group privacy management. However, their study focuses on members of a 3 youth organization on Facebook where only one social circle (i.e., other members of the youth organization) is involved in social interaction1. Therefore, to better understand individuals’ information disclosure and support their social interactions on SNSs, our first objective is to examine how SNS users form their privacy boundaries collectively with others and make their information disclosure decisions while interacting with different social circles on SNSs. In other words, we focus on how individuals’ different social circles affect their self-disclosure on SNSs, which is not well examined in the previous literature. Our study draws upon Petronio’s (2002) communication privacy management (CPM) theory to understand how individuals form their privacy boundaries and make self-disclosure decisions. In other words, our study does not focus on individuals’ privacy boundaries per se but on how their privacy boundaries are formed while interacting with different social circles on SNSs. Previous literature has applied the CPM theory to understand how institutional privacy assurances can reduce individuals’ privacy concerns (Xu et al., 2011). Our study extends the previous literature by applying the CPM theory in the context of SNSs and proposing corresponding mechanisms for boundary coordination and turbulence. Further, SNS providers presently often operate in different countries and deal with users from diverse cultural backgrounds, and it is necessary to understand how users form their privacy boundaries across culture. Culture is thus an important factor influencing SNS users’ self-disclosure decisions (Cullen, 2009; Miltgen and Peyrat-Guillard, 2014). However, our review (Table A.2 in Appendix A) shows that culture has not been well examined in the previousACCEPTED cross-cultural privacy literature, even MANUSCRIPT though it is recognized in the CPM theory 1 In another qualitative study, Brandtzæg et al. (2010) argue that a mix of different social circles can