When bubbles burst: Mimetic insights into minimising confidentiality breaches

•Breaches of sensitive information can be a major issue for individuals and organisations.•An innovative theoretical model for managing confidential information is proposed.•Attributes of a soap bubble are metaphorically mapped to confidentiality.•Key attributes include: embedded value, criticality, pressure, volume and trust.•Research propositions are provided to enable confidential situations to be managed more effectively.

This paper presents a theoretical model to help managers visualise and manage confidential situations more effectively. The model metaphorically likens a confidential setting to the properties of a soap bubble, e.g. elastic expansion or contraction, minimal surface area to contain a given volume, fragility, surface tension, pressure, stress, strain and the potential for bursting thereby releasing the contents to the external environment. We explore the conceptual developments in two phases. Firstly, looking at how a bubble and confidential scenario form and grow. Secondly, we consider how a bubble may burst and map these forces to ways in which confidentiality may be breached. Many attributes are mapped, the key ones being: the embedded value within the system, the criticality of maintaining confidentiality, increasing pressure, the corresponding stress/strain dynamics and the levels of trust between stakeholders. Key research propositions are derived from the model which aims to minimise the risk of a confidentiality breach.