OVERT VERSUS COVERT: THE EFFECTS OF PERSONALIZATION AND INFORMATION COLLECTION ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

摘要

The collection and analysis of large amounts of consumer data may be the next great frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity (McKinsey Global Institute 2011). Firms have notable opportunities to gather rich data by tracking customers' online behaviors (Verhoef et al. 2010), even across websites and without their consent or awareness (Turow et al. 2009). This phenomenon drives the $28 billion online advertising industry that uses custorner data to create personalized advertisements (Angwin and Singer-Vine 2012). Despite its widespread use, companies have failed to create an environment that mitigates customers' privacy concerns and vulnerability as such forms of personalization and data collection are increasingly viewed as a misuse of their private data (Turow et al. 2009). As such, companies need to better understand the relationship between how data is collected and used for personalized services, and how this relationship has an effect on both the customers' experiences of vulnerability and the overall effectiveness of the personalization strategy.