Search results

In the online environment, consumers increasingly feel vulnerable due to firms’ expanding capabilities of collecting and using their data in an unsanctioned manner. Drawing from gossip theory, this research focuses on two key suppressors of consumer vulnerability: transparency and control. Previous studies conceptualize transparency and control from rationalistic approaches that overlook individual experiences and present a unidimensional conceptualization. This research aims to understand how individuals interpret transparency and control concerning privacy vulnerability in the online environment. Additionally, it explores strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.

An interpretivism paradigm and phenomenology were adopted in the research design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 41 participants, including consumers and experts, and analyzed through thematic analysis.

The findings identify key conceptual dimensions of transparency and control by adapting justice theory. They also reveal that firms can communicate assurance, functional, technical and social values of transparency and control to address consumer vulnerability.

This research makes the following contributions to the data privacy literature. The findings exhibit multidimensional and comprehensive conceptualizations of transparency and control, including user, firm and information perspectives. Additionally, the conceptual framework combines empirical insights from both experiencers and observers to offer an understanding of how transparency and control serve as justice mechanisms to effectively tackle the issue of unsanctioned transmission of personal information and subsequently address vulnerability. Lastly, the findings provide strategic approaches to communicating the value of transparency and control.

The purpose of this paper is addressing the negative environment and social impacts of the fashion industry that has emerged as a major societal challenge in the last century; however, people continue to over-consume and over-waste textile products in the form of fashion garments. More research is required to understand how fashion consumption connects with perceptions of sustainability and sustainable action by individual consumers.

This paper surveys 501 Australian and New Zealand consumers, on their fashion purchasing habits, and the role of sustainability in their fashion consumption behaviour.

The study found a relationship between higher levels of garment consumption and increased focus on sustainability in fashion choices. This finding is significant, as it suggests that fashion over-consumers are still mindful of the sustainable impacts of their consumption, and are motivated towards reducing that impact, despite not reducing their volume of consumption.

The study indicates the importance of a continued focus on transparency and traceability of fashion products in Australasia, as some over-consumers use this information to make better choices in the purchase situation, as opposed to acting on a general call to reduce consumption.