Search results

The purpose of the current research is to present an explanatory framework for how people selectively attend to privacy-related news information about LBA depending on the extent to which they know about LBA already as well as their appraisals of privacy threats and efficacy.

The proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling based on a total of 522 useable responses obtained from an online survey.

The results revealed two different approaches to information exposure: (1) people choose to seek out privacy-related news articles when their persuasion knowledge and perceived threat level are high, whereas (2) they tend to avoid such information when perceived threats accompany fear as well as psychological discomfort, or when they believe that they are knowledgeable about LBA practices and highly capable of protecting their privacy.

With the development of real-time location-tracking technologies, the practice of LBA is becoming increasingly popular. As such, however, concerns about data collection and privacy are also on the rise, garnering a great deal of media attention. Despite the importance and constant stream of news reports on the subject, a comprehensive understanding of consumers' privacy assessments and information consumption remains underexamined. By incorporating the persuasion knowledge model and extended parallel process model, the current research presents an explanatory framework for consumers' privacy perceptions and information choice.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of level of graphic threat (weak and strong) and the amount of information (low and high) on message effectiveness for an unfamiliar (a muscle disorder due to lack of physical exercise) vs a familiar (injuries as a result of traffic accidents due to drunk driving) issue.

The method employed was experimental 2 (issue familiarity: unfamiliar, familiar issue)×2 (amount of information: low, high)×2 (graphic threat level: weak, strong) full factorial between‐subjects design. Data are collected from a sample of 206 Belgians.

It was found that a strong graphic threat message has a greater effect for an unfamiliar than for a familiar issue. For a familiar issue, adding information to a weak threat appeal increases perceived severity. For an unfamiliar issue, adding information to a strong graphic threat appeal has a similar effect. Perceived severity of threat, perceived probability of occurrence, evoked fear and perceived coping efficacy have a significant effect on the intention to adopt the recommended behavior. For an unfamiliar issue, perceived efficacy and perceived probability of occurrence primarily have the greatest impact on coping intention. For a familiar issue, perceived severity, evoked fear and perceived efficacy determine coping intention.

The results substantially support the use of different message tactics for health threats that are either new or familiar for the target group.

Most studies have limited themselves to studying the impact of threat strength on perceived threat and response efficacy, on evoked fear and on message acceptance. The present study adds the contextual and message elements, namely issue familiarity and amount of information provided, the link of which with threat appeal has – as far to the authors' knowledge never been studied before in one integrated analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors influencing people’s health knowledge adoption in social media, with an eye toward promoting health information literacy and healthy behavior.

Based on the integration of sense-making theory, social influence theory, information richness theory, fear appeal theory, and ELM (elaboration likelihood method), a health knowledge adoption model is constructed. Taking spondylopathy as an example, high health threat and low health threat experiments and questionnaires are designed to complete the empirical study. In all, 355 effective survey samples are collected and analyzed, leveraging a partial least squares method.

Research results indicate that perceived knowledge quality, perceived knowledge consensus, and perceived source credibility have positive effects on health knowledge adoption via the mediator – trust; knowledge richness contributes to the perception of knowledge quality, source credibility, and knowledge consensus, especially under high health threat; health threat has significant positive moderating effects on the relationship between trust and health knowledge adoption, and the relationship between perceived knowledge quality and trust, with negative moderating effects on the relationships between perceived knowledge consensus, perceived source credibility, and trust.

This paper examines the mediating effecting of trust in the process of health knowledge adoption. Based on the integration of fear appeal theory, social influence theory, sense-making theory, information richness theory and elaboration likelihood model, this study investigates the factors influencing health knowledge adoption in social media from the perspective of a user, and explores the moderating effect of health threat on health knowledge adoption.

This study aims to analyse how people's perceived employability was affected during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study explores individuals' perceived financial threat, age and work situation as factors that shape perceived employability.

Data were collected via a survey at three different times between October 2020 and May 2021, which were chosen to reflect the evolution of the pandemic. The participants (n = 124) reported participants' perceived employability and financial threat during the pandemic in Portugal. Perceived employability is a multidimensional concept, as this includes the following scales: employment protective behaviour, employment risk, job-seeking behaviour, self-control and self-learning.

Participants' overall perceived employability failed to record significant variance over the period under analysis. Nevertheless, perceived employment protective behaviour decreased the most, especially in the case of young adults (aged 18 to 24). Individuals' perceived financial threat varied according to the external context, being lower during the last moment of data collection, which corresponded to the less-socially and economically restrictive period. Employees with the most stable work condition, i.e. with a permanent employment contract, were those who felt less financially threatened when compared to other respondents. A negative relationship between perceived employability and perceived financial threat was identified during the third moment of data collection.

The research informs about how individuals perceive themselves in a highly unpredictable and unstable context. The longitudinal approach shows how the external context affected people's perceived employability and financial threat throughout the pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of perceived control on product preferences of consumers under self-threat.

By conducting four experiments, this paper manipulated the participants’ self-threat and three sources of perceived control – namely, the controllability of the threat itself, the internal and external locus of control of the individual and priming the existing positive or negative experience of the individuals. After the manipulations, the participants’ product preferences for self-growth goods or hedonic goods were measured.

The findings of this research indicated that when consumers have a higher perceived control of the threats they are facing, they are more likely to adopt problem-focused coping strategies and show a preference for self-growth goods, which can help them resolve their threats. However, when consumers have a lower perceived control on the threats they are facing, they are more likely to adopt emotion-focused coping strategies and show a preference for hedonic goods, which can help them adjust their emotions.

This paper systematically confirms the interactive effect of perceived control and self-threat on consumers’ product preferences, as well as the meditation role of problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. It also provides insights for marketers to know what factors may affect consumers’ preferences for products in self-threat situations, thus contributing to marketing practices.

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications pose a potential threat to users' data security and privacy due to their high data-dependence nature. This paper aims to investigate an understudied issue in the literature, namely, how users perceive the threat of and decide to use a threatening AI application. In particular, it examines the influencing factors and the mechanisms that affect an individual’s behavioral intention to use facial recognition, a threatening AI.

The authors develop a research model with trust as the key mediating variable by integrating technology threat avoidance theory, the theory of planned behavior and contextual factors related to facial recognition. Then, it is tested through a sequential mixed-methods investigation, including a qualitative study (for model development) of online comments from various platforms and a quantitative study (for model validation) using field survey data.

Perceived threat (triggered by perceived susceptibility and severity) and perceived avoidability (promoted by perceived effectiveness, perceived cost and self-efficacy) have negative and positive relationships, respectively, with an individual’s attitude toward facial recognition applications; these relationships are partially mediated by trust. In addition, perceived avoidability is positively related to perceived behavioral control, which along with attitude and subjective norm is positively related to individuals' intentions to use facial recognition applications.

This paper is among the first to examine the factors that affect the acceptance of threatening AI applications and how. The research findings extend the current literature by providing rich and novel insights into the important roles of perceived threat, perceived avoidability, and trust in affecting an individual’s attitude and intention regarding using threatening AI applications.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the mechanism of humble leadership inducing abusive supervision from the low-status compensation perspective, examining the mediation role of leader perceived thread to status. Besides, the moderation effect of regulatory focus on the mediation path is discussed.

This study conducted a three-wave longitudinal survey. The data was collected from 438 leaders and their employees in five Chinese enterprises. This study used Mplus 7.4 and adopted a bootstrapping technique for data analysis.

Humble leadership has a positive effect on leader perceived threat to status. Leader perceived threat to status plays a mediation role between humble leadership and leader abusive supervision. Leader regulatory focus is the “gate valve” that humble leadership fosters leader abusive supervision. That is, when the leader promotion focus is high, leader perceived threat to status bred by humble leadership is low, resulting in less abusive supervision. When the leader prevention focus is high, humble leadership brings relatively more abusive supervision through perceived threat to status.

This study explores why humble leadership breeds abusive supervision behaviors and reveals the mechanism behind the negative effect of humble leadership based on low-status compensation theory. This study not only promotes the continuous development of the field of humble leadership research through empirical research but also provides guidance for effectively suppressing the negative effects of humble leadership, promoting strengths and avoiding weaknesses and suppressing inappropriate management behaviors in management practice.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of perceived threat, brand congruence, and social support on consumer coping strategies for a preventative health service.

An online survey of 570 women aged over 50 in one Australian state was conducted (users and non-users of the service). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

A competing models approach reveals that threat on its own is associated with avoidance coping; however, when brand congruence is high, there is an association with active coping. Social support appears to have a buffering effect on threat and is associated positively with active coping and negatively with avoidance coping.

The study findings suggest that threat appeals should be used with caution in increasing participation in transformative preventative health services due to its double-edged sword effect (increasing both avoidance and active coping). When consumers have social support, this results in active coping and buffers avoidance coping. This research offers useful insights for social marketing and transformative service research.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is experiencing growth and prosperity worldwide because of its convenience and other benefits. However, AI faces challenges related to consumer resistance. Thus, drawing on the user resistance theory, this study explores factors that influence consumers’ resistance to AI and suggests ways to mitigate this negative influence.

This study tested four hypotheses across four studies by conducting lab experiments. Study 1 used a questionnaire to verify the hypothesis that AI’s “substitute” image leads to consumer resistance to AI; Study 2 focused on the role of perceived threat as an underlying driver of resistance to AI. Studies 3–4 provided process evidence by the way of a measured moderator, testing whether AI with servant communication style and literal language style is resisted less.

This study showed that AI’s “substitute” image increased users' resistance to AI. This occurs because the substitute image increases consumers’ perceived threat. The study also found that using servant communication and literal language styles in the interaction between AI and consumers can mitigate the negative effects of AI-substituted images.

This study reveals the mechanism of action between AI image and consumers’ resistance and sheds light on how to choose appropriate image and expression styles for AI products, which is important for lowering consumer resistance to AI.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate practicing auditors' beliefs regarding the effect of prior involvement on the occurrence of quality threatening behaviour (QTB) during an audit. The authors examine the extent to which auditors' beliefs about QTB are consistent with the theoretical framework of Kanodia et al., according to which prior involvement in audit work would increase the likelihood of auditors suppressing evidence inconsistent with earlier audit decisions.

The authors conduct an experiment in which auditors assess the likelihood of perceived reputation threats associated with encountering disconfirming evidence late in the audit, and the likelihood that such evidence will be suppressed.

Auditors participating in the study believe that prior involvement will induce a perception of personal reputation threats in an auditor encountering evidence inconsistent with the conclusions of earlier audit work. Participants perceive an auditor with prior involvement in the audit work to be more likely to suppress audit evidence than an auditor with no prior involvement; this effect is largely explained by the personal reputation threats believed to be induced by prior involvement.

The findings provide important information, from the perspective of practicing auditors, about a situational antecedent of QTB that is present on most audit engagements. Prior involvement is perceived by auditors to induce a conflict of interest in reporting troublesome evidence uncovered late in the audit. These perceptions suggest it is important to raise reviewers' awareness of the possibility of undesirable behavior in such situations. Potential limitations of the study relate to generalizability of the results under different levels of misstatement risk and under different environments in audit practice. Also, the authors do not measure auditors' actual behaviour, but their assessment of hypothetical situations and beliefs about others' actions. Future research can examine actual auditor behaviour in the presence of prior involvement.

The paper provides evidence on auditors' beliefs about the effects on QTB of prior involvement, a factor that has not been previously studied in this line of research. The authors show that auditors' beliefs about QTB are consistent with Kanodia et al.'s theoretical framework. The study is the first to measure auditors' assessments of perceived reputation threats and to show their mediating effect on the predicted behavior of audit professionals.