IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/mktlet/v34y2023i3d10.1007_s11002-022-09649-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Meaningless procedures can be meaningful for information security: consumer use of single and multiple cues in information security inferences

Author

Listed:
  • Yong-Wan Park

    (Gyeongsang National University)

  • Paul M. Herr

    (Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech)

  • Byung Cho Kim

    (Korea University)

Abstract

Exchanging and transferring digital information is an essential process in marketing. While digital information security has become a critical success factor, little empirical work has addressed underlying psychological processes of how consumers perceive and infer information security. We confirm that consumers hold a belief that security is positively correlated with usage complexity. We demonstrate that consumers’ security evaluations can be enhanced by simply increasing usage complexity, irrespective of its relevance to actual security level. Moreover, neither consumer knowledge nor multiple cues associated with objective information security appeared to eliminate this complexity-security inference. Based on this trade-off relationship, we propose strategic implications for corporate reputation, product development, web authentication service, and global market expansion.

Suggested Citation

  • Yong-Wan Park & Paul M. Herr & Byung Cho Kim, 2023. "Meaningless procedures can be meaningful for information security: consumer use of single and multiple cues in information security inferences," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 449-461, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:34:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s11002-022-09649-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11002-022-09649-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11002-022-09649-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11002-022-09649-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alba, Joseph W & Hutchinson, J Wesley, 2000. "Knowledge Calibration: What Consumers Know and What They Think They Know," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 27(2), pages 123-156, September.
    2. Fred D. Davis & Richard P. Bagozzi & Paul R. Warshaw, 1989. "User Acceptance of Computer Technology: A Comparison of Two Theoretical Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(8), pages 982-1003, August.
    3. Wood, Stacy L & Lynch, John G, Jr, 2002. "Prior Knowledge and Complacency in New Product Learning," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 29(3), pages 416-426, December.
    4. Alba, Joseph W & Hutchinson, J Wesley, 1987. "Dimensions of Consumer Expertise," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(4), pages 411-454, March.
    5. Moreau, C Page & Markman, Arthur B & Lehmann, Donald R, 2001. ""What Is It?" Categorization Flexibility and Consumers' Responses to Really New Products," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 27(4), pages 489-498, March.
    6. Hélène Deval & Susan P. Mantel & Frank R. Kardes & Steven S. Posavac, 2013. "How Naive Theories Drive Opposing Inferences from the Same Information," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(6), pages 1185-1201.
    7. Sujan, Mita & Dekleva, Christine, 1987. "Product Categorization and Inference Making: Some Implications for Comparative Advertising," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(3), pages 372-378, December.
    8. Broniarczyk, Susan M & Alba, Joseph W, 1994. "The Role of Consumers' Intuitions in Inference Making," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(3), pages 393-407, December.
    9. Muthukrishnan, A V & Kardes, Frank R, 2001. "Persistent Preferences for Product Attributes: The Effects of the Initial Choice Context and Uninformative Experience," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 28(1), pages 89-104, June.
    10. Jay P. Carlson & Leslie H. Vincent & David M. Hardesty & William O. Bearden, 2009. "Objective and Subjective Knowledge Relationships: A Quantitative Analysis of Consumer Research Findings," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(5), pages 864-876, October.
    11. Manfred Schwaiger, 2004. "Components And Parameters Of Corporate Reputation – An Empirical Study," Schmalenbach Business Review (sbr), LMU Munich School of Management, vol. 56(1), pages 46-71, January.
    12. Sascha Raithel & Manfred Schwaiger, 2015. "The effects of corporate reputation perceptions of the general public on shareholder value," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(6), pages 945-956, June.
    13. Noah Vanbergen & Caglar Irmak & Julio Sevilla & Darren W Dahl & J Jeffrey Inman & Leonard Lee, 2020. "Product Entitativity: How the Presence of Product Replicates Increases Perceived and Actual Product Efficacy [Perceptions of the Collective Other]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 47(2), pages 192-214.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hochstein, Bryan & Bolander, Willy & Christenson, Brett & Pratt, Alexander B. & Reynolds, Kristy, 2021. "An Investigation of Consumer Subjective Knowledge in Frontline Interactions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 336-346.
    2. Erjon Nexhipi, 2022. "The difference in consumer attitudes of locally grown apples with imported apples. the case of Korca Region, Albania:," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 37(1), pages 250-264, November.
    3. Naderi, Iman & Paswan, Audhesh K. & Guzman, Francisco, 2018. "Beyond the shadow of a doubt: The effect of consumer knowledge on restaurant evaluation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 221-229.
    4. Andrews, J. Craig & Netemeyer, Richard & Burton, Scot & Kees, Jeremy, 2021. "What consumers actually know: The role of objective nutrition knowledge in processing stop sign and traffic light front-of-pack nutrition labels," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 140-155.
    5. Koll, Oliver & von Wallpach, Sylvia, 2014. "Intended brand associations: Do they really drive consumer response?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(7), pages 1501-1507.
    6. Meerza, Syed Imran Ali & Brooks, Kathleen R. & Gustafson, Christopher R. & Yiannaka, Amalia, 2021. "Information avoidance behavior: Does ignorance keep us uninformed about antimicrobial resistance?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    7. Ivan Guitart & Manfred Schwaiger & Johanna Eberhardt, 2024. "How and Why Does Corporate Reputation Moderate Mass Media News’ Impact On Market Value?," Post-Print hal-04346339, HAL.
    8. Qian, Lixian & Soopramanien, Didier & Daryanto, Ahmad, 2017. "First-time buyers' subjective knowledge and the attribute preferences of Chinese car buyers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 189-196.
    9. Angshuman Ghosh & Sanjeev Varshney & Pingali Venugopal, 2014. "Social Media WOM: Definition, Consequences and Inter-relationships," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 39(3), pages 293-308, August.
    10. Arkesteijn, Karlijn & Oerlemans, Leon, 2005. "The early adoption of green power by Dutch households: An empirical exploration of factors influencing the early adoption of green electricity for domestic purposes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 183-196, January.
    11. Bong-Goon Seo & Do-Hyung Park, 2020. "The Effective Type of Information Categorization in Online Curation Service Depending on Psychological Ownership," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-13, April.
    12. Nenycz-Thiel, Magda & Romaniuk, Jenni, 2016. "Understanding premium private labels: A consumer categorisation approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 22-30.
    13. Sharifah Faridah Syed Alwi & T. C. Melewar & Maria Teresa Cuomo & Manfred Schwaiger, 2020. "Digital Society and Corporate Reputation: Towards the Next Generation of Insights," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(3), pages 129-132, August.
    14. Kwon, Kyoung-Nan & Lee, Jinkook, 2009. "The effects of reference point, knowledge, and risk propensity on the evaluation of financial products," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(7), pages 719-725, July.
    15. Hamilton, Rebecca W. & Puntoni, Stefano & Tavassoli, Nader T., 2010. "Categorization by groups and individuals," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 70-81, May.
    16. Steils, Nadia & Crié, Dominique & Decrop, Alain, 2019. "Online consumer learning as a tool for improving product appropriation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 51-57.
    17. Wijnberg, Nachoem M., 2011. "Classification systems and selection systems: The risks of radical innovation and category spanning," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 297-306, September.
    18. Hu, Han-fen & Krishen, Anjala S. & Barnes, Jesse, 2023. "Through narratives we learn: Exploring knowledge-building as a marketing strategy for prosocial water reuse," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    19. Tran Thu & Moritaka Masahiro & Liu Ran & Fukuda Susumu, 2018. "Information effect on consumer adoption for a new beef brand in the Vietnamese market: prior knowledge, appealing the brand distinction, differentiation and similarity," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 13(3), pages 1014-1034, September.
    20. Lifang Peng & Qinyu Liao & Xiaorong Wang & Xuanfang He, 2016. "Factors affecting female user information adoption: an empirical investigation on fashion shopping guide websites," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 145-169, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:34:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s11002-022-09649-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.