Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation highlights two important issues with regard to online privacy concerns in e-commerce: (1) why can't privacy concerns explain online behavior? and (2) what are the essential sources of privacy concerns in e-commerce? In Chapter 2, we explain the discrepancy between people's privacy concerns and their willingness to personal information to an online vender, which is called the online privacy paradox. Drawing on construal level theory (CLT), we suggest that people form privacy concerns in a general situation by construing benefits of information disclosure and privacy risk. Due to high psychological distance, the evaluations of benefits and privacy risk become abstract and superficial (i.e., high-level construal). However, as people traverse to a particular situation, the evaluations of those factors become more specific, due to decreased psychological distance (i.e., low-level construal). When high- and low-level construals are consistent, privacy concerns significantly affect information disclosure in a particular situation. In contrast, when the construals are inconsistent, privacy concerns can't explain information disclosure in a particular situation (i.e., privacy paradox). In Chapter 3, we attempt to identify essential antecedents of privacy concerns in ecommerce. Drawing on protection motivation theory, we select privacy risk, self-efficacy, and response efficacy as generic determinants of privacy concerns. We also identify notice and consent of information practice as privacy concerns' determinants specific to ecommerce. According to our results, while privacy risk and consent had direct effects on privacy concerns, self-efficacy and notice indirectly impact privacy concerns through privacy risk. In Chapter 4, we seek to explain the inconsistent direct and indirect effect of privacy concerns by examining attitudinal ambivalence. We develop two alternative models: direct ambivalence and indirect ambivalence model. The direct ambivalence model conceptualizes privacy concerns as attitude and assumes the direct effect of privacy concerns. The effect of privacy concerns is moderated by the ambivalence of privacy selfefficacy and privacy risk. On the other hand, indirect ambivalence model conceptualizes privacy concerns as individual characteristics and assumes indirect effect of privacy concerns via favorability of information disclosure. The relation between favorability and information disclosure is moderated by the ambivalence of benefits and privacy risk

The Indirect Effect of Culture on Privacy Concerns in E-commerce: A Cross-Country Study

In this study, we attempt to examine the indirect and moderating effects of culture on privacy concerns at the national level by comparing key determinants of privacy concerns and their effects between the culturally different two countries. We select the U.S. and South Korea (hereafter S. Korea) as a test bed because these two countries are significantly different in Hofstede’s cultural scores. We designate the United States as Type I culture with “small power distance–strong individualistic–strong masculinity–weak uncertainty avoidance” characteristics to contrast with Type II culture countries (S. Korea) with “large power distance–weak individualistic (collectivistic)–weak masculinity (feminine)–strong uncertainty avoidance” characteristics, consistent with previous studies

Socializing Online in Various Cultural Contexts: A Cross Nation Study of Social Network Service Development

The boom of WWW-based social network service (SNS) warrants more studies and better understandings in many aspects, especially when such hedonic application has evolved differently in different countries. The development of SNS in the US, China and South Korea have been particularly interesting. Whereas U.S. SNS websites enjoy the first mover advantage, their followers in different cultural settings are trying to re-create the prosperity in their own domains. An analysis of the challenges and potentials of SNS in these countries is presented, along with a discussion of SNS research across different cultural settings. It is believed that in addition to marketing factors, socio-economic structure and cultural influences also play a critical role in promoting SNS website

Adoption of RFID for Enhanced Food Safety Management: A Qualitative and Explorative Approach

In many countries, food safety crisis can negatively impact public welfare as well as political stability. In over the past tow years, three government agencies and major food companies in South Korea have implemented a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) project intended to explore and investigate the opportunities and challenges of RFID technology in the areas of instant food manufacture and supply management. This article reports on the successful practices and lessons learned of such project and antecedents of both enablers and inhibitors of acceptance and usage of the system through structured group interview. Among the findings are that item level tagging requires detailed and customized guidelines; standardized system development procedures among stakeholders is critical to the success of RFID implementation; information quality and information related system quality are more important than technical system quality in adopting the systems; factors that have been treated as enablers are identified as inhibitors in this context

Moving to Digital-Healthy Society: Empathy, Sympathy, and Wellbeing in Social Media

Background: This research aims to explore the impact of individuals’ demographics and their social media use on empathy, sympathy, and wellbeing in Saudi Arabia. This paper can fill an untapped gap in a developing country (i.e., the Arab context) by shedding light on sympathetic and empathetic behavior and its effect on wellbeing in social media. Method: We manage to obtain a sample of 431 responses across all Saudi regions. Data were analyzed to evaluate reliability and validity of the study’s constructs while the hypotheses were tested using a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Results: SEM regression results suggest that there is a significant relationship between both age and income and social media use. In addition, social media use has an indirect relationship to individuals’ wellbeing. This indirect relationship is better manifested through sympathy rather than empathy. Conclusion: Theoretically, this study furthers our understanding of the role of empathy and sympathy on wellbeing in social media among Saudis, whereas practically provides insights to industry experts about what matters to social media users to increase their wellbeing

Usage Behavior of M-Banking: An Analytical Perspective

Understanding usage of behavior of emerging technologies in banking industry is of great value and importance to both academicians and professionals. M-banking, which is overtaking online banking as per industry reports, appears to be a good example and hence, worthy to investigate. The purpose of this paper is to explore three stages of usage behavior of m-banking, namely, intention to use, system actual use, and continuance intention by employing IT acceptance models. Behavioral intention is examined to find non-linearity relationships in UTAUT using universal equation modeling. While system actual use is explored to disclose not only importance but also performance of IS success model’s factors using important-performance map analysis and continuance intention is studied to reveal the impact of privacy and personalization in a m-banking context. Using an analytical approach to examine usage behavior of m-banking can reveal a strategic value to practice as well as can address a knowledge gap in theory

An Attitudinal Ambivalence Approach to Examine Inconsistent Effects of Privacy Concerns

This study attempts to explain the mixed results regarding the direct and indirect effects of privacy concerns on individuals™ information disclosures through the lens of attitudinal ambivalence. Attitudinal ambivalence denotes a state in which a person

The Effects of Moxifloxacin on QTc Interval in Healthy Korean Male Subjects

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Moxifloxacin 400 mg is a widely used positive control in thorough QT (TQT) studies, but its QT-prolonging effects in Korean subjects have not been studied. The present study was conducted to collect pilot data in Korean subjects after moxifloxacin administration to evaluate the adequacy of moxifloxacin as a positive control. METHODS: Thirty-eight, healthy, Korean, male subjects were recruited for pharmacokinetic (PK) blood sampling and electrocardiography (ECG) recordings at three different study sites. On day 1, a baseline 12-lead ECG was recorded, and on day 2, ECG recordings were conducted after placebo, or moxifloxacin 400- or 800-mg administration. Baseline-corrected, placebo-adjusted, corrected QT (ΔΔQTc) values were calculated. Blood samples were collected after moxifloxacin administration and PK parameters were assessed. RESULTS: A total of 33 subjects completed the study. The largest time-matched ΔΔQTc occurred approximately 4 h after dosing, with ΔΔQTcI (QT interval corrected by individual QT-RR regression model) values of 11.66 ms (moxifloxacin 400 mg) and 20.96 ms (800 mg). The mean and 90 % confidence intervals of ΔΔQTcI did not include zero at any of the measurement time points. There was a positive correlation between plasma moxifloxacin concentration and ΔΔQTcI (r = 0.422). Dose-proportional PK profiles were observed. CONCLUSION: Moxifloxacin 400 mg is an adequate positive control in Korean TQT studies. Our results indicate that moxifloxacin 400 mg can be used to evaluate the cardiac safety of a drug in Korean subjects