Disclosing too much? Situational factors affecting information disclosure in social commerce environment

• We developed a research model to depict the intention to self-disclose personal information in social commerce environment.
• The research model relies on literature on information disclosure intention and Communication Privacy Management theory.
• Perceived enjoyment, perceived apathy and perceived usefulness positively affects intention to disclose personal information.
• Fairness of information exchange during social commerce plays an important role in information disclosure intention.
• Perceived privacy risk negatively affects intention to disclose personal information in social commerce transaction.

The buying and selling of goods and services are no longer limited to a general website or a physical store as social networks, such as Facebook or Pinterest, are heavily focusing on social commerce. Prior studies have analyzed impact of trust and culture on social commerce, design and interface aspects of it, and intention to use social commerce by general people. Our study is informed by the literature on information disclosure intention, and Communication Privacy Management theory and is motivated by the fundamental premise that intention to self-disclose in social commerce is affected by perceived ownership of information, privacy apathy, the risks and benefits of disclosure and fairness of information exchange. We analyzed data collected from 252 samples using the scenario method. The results show that shoppers’ information disclosure intention is driven by the fairness of information exchange, privacy benefits and privacy apathy.