CULTURAL VALUES INFLUENCE ON THE ADOPTION OF

PRIVACY THREATENING SOCIAL NETWORKS FEATURES

Francesc Miralles, Rosa Rudo and Ferran Giones

La Salle, Ramon Llull University, C/ Llucanes, 41, Barcelona, Spain

Keywords: Social Networks, IT Adoption, IT User Acceptance, Cultural Values, Privacy Concerns.

Abstract: The effect of cultural values in IT adoption has attracted growing interest in the last years. Researchers posit

that cultural values can shed some additional light on the factors that determine IT user acceptance and use.

In this research in progress work, the authors propose a model based on previous user acceptance theories to

develop a research study to inquire the role that individual cultural values play on the adoption of those

social networks features that threat user's privacy the most. What the authors posit is that adoption of those

features that are more critical from the point of view of users' privacy can be explained from the perspective

of individual's cultural values. In this preliminary work, the authors have developed the model and have

drawn a set of hypotheses. In the following steps of the research the authors are going to develop a survey to

start the quantitative research.

1 INTRODUCTION

The emergence of social networking sites is

producing a massive impact in the Internet usage

(Fraser & Dutta, 2008). Despite the fast-growing

levels of social networks user adoption, it remains to

be seen, how individual privacy expectations are

adjusted. The aim of this research in progress is to

investigate the following research question: Do

individual’s cultural values explain the adoption of

privacy threatening features in social networks?

The paper, therefore, builds on both, the

theoretical contribution of IT adoption literature and

on the role of cultural values in IT adoption. The

model integrates the UTAUT model (Venkatesh et

al., 2003), and the Open Cultural Orientation

construct (Hwang, 2004). Additionally, ad-hoc

variables relevant in social networks research such

as attitude (Venkatesh et al., 2003) and trust (Mayer,

Davis & Schoorman, 1995) have been incorporated

in the model.

In order to study the research question, the

authors expect to issue a quantitative research based

on a structural equation model (SEM). In this paper,

the authors propose the model to be validated in the

quantitative research.

This paper is structured as follows. First, section

2 presents the literature review on social networks,

IT adoption and cultural values frameworks. Next,

section 3 describes the research model. Finally,

section 4 provides the further steps in this research

project.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Social Networks

A social network is a concept which can be defined

as a group of nodes tied with social relationships. If

this concept is focused on Web 2.0, social networks

are a technology which allows people to connect,

interact, work and share opinions, videos,... (Fraser

& Dutta, 2008).

Social networks users disclose all kind of

personal information, involuntarily allowing third

parties to track and study their behavior (Gross &

Acquisti, 2005), lack of controls on private

information exposure has severely threatened users

privacy.

2.2 Acceptance Theories

Based on previous models of user acceptance of

information technology, Venkatesh et al. (2003)

proposed a unified model for user acceptance of IT.

379

Miralles F., Rudo R. and Giones F.

CULTURAL VALUES INFLUENCE ON THE ADOPTION OF PRIVACY THREATENING SOCIAL NETWORKS FEATURES.

DOI: 10.5220/0002785703790382

In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technology (WEBIST 2010), page

ISBN: 978-989-674-025-2

Figure 1: Research Model.

The model was called the Unified Theory of

Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and

included most of the items that were proposed by the

previous models.

The model for this research-in-progress work is

based on the UTAUT with some additional items to

include the effect of individual cultural values.

Based on Dorfman & Howell (1988), and Hwang

(2004) an Open Cultural Orientation construct is

used to reflect these individual cultural values in the

UTAUT model.

2.3 Culture Values and IT Uses

Culture values have been a persistent worry to

management researchers (Tsui & Nifadkar, 2007).

IT adoption and diffusion is one of the areas

where cultural values have been used the most

(Leidner & Kayworth, 2006). A majority of these

studies were based on cultural values at a national

level (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005). In this research

in progress work the authors focus on the individual

cultural values and their goal is to shed some light

on the effects of culture on the usage of social

networks.

3 RESEARCH MODEL

The research model is depicted in Figure 1. The

model proposes to combine UTAUT (Venkatesh et

al., 2003), the Open Cultural Orientation construct

(Dorfman & Howell, 1988), and the social network

characteristic use (Fraser & Dutta, 2008) to study

individual privacy concern levels from the

perspective of IT adoption and cultural values.

The presented conceptual model has been

enriched with the data obtained via semi-structured

personal interviews with social network users. The

participants are last year students in

Telecommunications and IT Management programs.

The interviews provided qualitative data to

enrich our model variables and to support the

hypothesis formulation based on proposed causal

relationships.

As in most of the IT acceptance models the

dependent variable is based on use behavior. In this

model, Use Behavior depicts the different levels of

use based on users' privacy concerns. Two levels

have been identified: ‘high privacy concern usage’

and ‘low privacy concern usage’. ‘High privacy

concern usage’ includes those users that take into

account the impact of the shared information in their

personal privacy. In contrast, ‘low privacy concern

usage’ would contain profiles whose participation in

social networks is not affected by a certain degree of

self control on private information sharing.

In the following sections of this chapter, there is

a detailed description of the variables that build up

the model and the hypotheses that have been

formulated from the model.

Individualism

Power

Distance

Uncertainty

Avoidance

Open

Cultural

Orientation

Attitude

Performance

Expectancy

Social

Influence

Behavioral

Intention

Facilitating

Conditions

Use

Behavior

Trust

Effort

Expectancy

(

)

(+)

(

)

(

)

H10

(+)

H11

(-)

H12

(+)

H13

(+)

H14

(+)

H15

(

)

H16

(+)

(

)

(-)

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380

3.1 User Acceptance Constructs

3.1.1 Social Networks Use Behavior

As presented in the model, Use Behavior is

determined by Behavioral Intention of use. In the

interviews conducted, Behavioral Intention was

observed in both the ‘high privacy concern usage’

and ‘low privacy concern usage’ profiles; as ‘low

privacy concern usage’ profiles foresee to do a more

intensive use while ‘high privacy concern usage’

profiles expect to get more involved in the network

activity. Hence, the authors propose that:

H1: Intention to use social networks is positively

related to ‘low privacy concern usage’.

When asked about the devices being used to

access the social networks most of the respondents

mentioned that they would connect using their home

PC, also being interested in using other new access

devices such as cell phones. Giving support to the

idea that as device connectivity improves, lower

levels of privacy concern could be expected.

Therefore the authors propose that:

H2: Facilitating Conditions are positively related

to ‘low privacy concern usage’.

3.1.2 Social Networks Intention of Use

Performance Expectancy. Social networks

Performance Expectancy is based on the perception

of the influence that the usage of social networks can

have to improve social relationships. Participants

expressed their perception that social networks use

would derivate in better social relations, quoting one

of the respondents "...they help to sustain, improve

and make new relationships with different type of

people...". In general consistent social relationship

improvement expectancy was observed; accordingly,

the authors introduce the following hypothesis:

H3: Social Relationship Improvement

Expectancy is positively related to social network

Behavioral Intention.

Effort Expectancy. Effort Expectancy introduced in

TAM (Davis, 1989) as Perceived Ease of Use,

directly relates to the individual's intention to use.

Higher intention of Use Behavior would be expected

if there is a lower perceived effort in using the

technology, therefore, this leads to the following

hypothesis:

H4: Perceived Ease of Use is positively related to

social network Behavioral Intention.

Social Influence. Social influence on IT user

acceptance models is related to user's perception

about others’ opinion on using this technology.

Social networks play a relevant role in fostering

social relationships (Fraser & Dutta, 2008). Social

networks, by definition, have an inherent relation to

social influence, it seems coherent that if others

perceive that being in a social network can be

positive, the individual would have higher use

behavior intention. As some of the respondents

contextualize: "...as everyone has it, and to be in

touch with my friends I created a profile...".

Consequently, the authors propose the following

hypotheses:

H5: Other's Favourable Opinion on using Social

Networks is positively related to social network

Behavioral Intention.

H6: Other's Favourable Opinion on using social

networks is positively related to Social Relationship

Improvement Expectancy.

3.2 Open Cultural Orientation

Individual Open Cultural Orientation is defined by

high individualism, low power distance and low

uncertainty avoidance (Hwang, 2004).

Participants in the interviews have reported

different values in their attitudes towards the

variables that define the Open Cultural Orientation

construct. Observed outcomes related to the

individualism variable would include participants’

expressions such as: "...I prefer to work with other

people, as better ideas come out..." or "...I rather

prefer to work alone...".

It is expected a positive correlation of Open

Cultural Orientation with Social Relationship

Improvement Expectancy, Ease of Use and Attitude,

but negative correlation with Others’ Favourable

Opinion as it is expected less influence of

Bandwagon effect in high Open Cultural Orientation

individuals. Therefore, the authors propose:

H7: High Individual Open Cultural Orientation is

positively related to social network Behavioral

Intention.

H8: High Individual Open Cultural Orientation is

positively related to Attitude.

H9: High Individual Open Cultural Orientation is

positively related to Social Relationship

Improvement Expectancy.

H10: High Individual Open Cultural Orientation

is positively related to Perceived Ease of Use

H11: High Individual Open Cultural Orientation

is negatively related to influence of Others'

Favourable Opinion on using social networks.

CULTURAL VALUES INFLUENCE ON THE ADOPTION OF PRIVACY THREATENING SOCIAL NETWORKS

FEATURES

381

3.3 Ad-hoc Variables

3.3.1 Attitude Construct in Social Networks

Social networks have combined their basic

applications, with other functionalities that reinforce

the attitude of their usage (Venkatesh et al., 2003).

As one of the participants described: "...the time

spent in social networks is enjoyable and fun...".

Therefore, it is expected that Attitude influences

directly the Social Relationship Improvement

Expectancy, but it is also expected Others’

Favourable Opinion to directly drive use Attitude.

Hence, the authors hypothesize:

H12: Others' Favourable Opinion on using social

networks is positively related to Attitude.

H13: Attitude on social networks is positively

related to Social Relationship Improvement

Expectancy.

3.3.2 Trust Construct in Social Networks

Trust is defined as “the willingness of a party to be

vulnerable to the actions of another party based on

the expectation that the other will perform a

particular action important to the trustor, irrespective

of the ability to monitor or control that other party”

(Mayer, Davis & Schoorman, 1995).

Based on respondents answers it is expected that

Trust will be related to Behavioral Intention, thus

high levels of Trust could encourage high

Behavioral Intention. Furthermore, Trust could

improve Perceived Ease of Use. It also expected that

trust will be influenced by individual Open Cultural

Orientation. Hence, the authors propose the

following hypotheses:

H14: High Individual Open Cultural Orientation

is positively related to Trust.

H15: Trust is negatively related to Perceived

Ease of Use.

H16: Trust is positively related to social

networks Behavioral Intention.

4 SUMMARY AND NEXT STEPS

This research studies the influence of individual

cultural values in the use behavior of social

networks. In this position paper, the authors propose

a model that hypothesizes a causal relationship

between individual cultural values and the use of

social networks privacy threatening features. The

model is built up from previous theories and has

been completed using information from social

networks users' interviews.

In the following steps of this research project, the

authors aim to design and build a questionnaire to

validate the model hypotheses. A structural equation

model (SEM) is going to be issued to assess the

support for the causal relationship between the

model variables.

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Dorfman, P.W. & Howell, J.P. 1988, “Dimensions of

national culture and effective leadership patterns:

Hofstede revisited”, Advances in international

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Fraser, M. & Dutta, S. 2008, Throwing sheep in the

Boardroom. How Online Social Networking Will

Transform Your Life, Work and World, 1st Ed, Wiley,

Chichester, England.

Gross, R. & Acquisti, A. 2005, “Information revelation

and privacy in online social networks”, Proc. of the

2005 ACM Workshop on Privacy in the electronic

society, Alexandria, VA, USA, Nov., 2005.

Hofstede, G. & Hofstede, G.J. 2005, Cultures and

Organizations: Software of the Mind, 2nd Ed,

McGraw-Hill, New York, USA.

Hwang, Y. 2004, “The Influence of Individual-level

Cultural Orientation on ERP System Adoption”,

AMCIS 2004 Proc., New York, August, 5-8 2004.

Leidner, D.E. & Kayworth, T. 2006, “A review of culture

in information systems research: Toward a theory of

information technology culture conflict”, Management

Information Systems Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 9.

Mayer, R.C., Davis, J.H. & Schoorman, F.D. 1995, “An

integrative model of organization trust”, The Academy

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Tsui, A. S. & Nifadkar, S.S. 2007, “Cross-national, cross-

cultural organizational behavior research: Advances,

gaps, and recommendations”, Journal of management,

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Venkatesh, V., Morris, M.G., Davis, G.B. & Davis, F.D.

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pp. 425-478.

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