How digital natives make their self-disclosure decisions: a cross-cultural comparison

Abstract

Purpose

Digital natives have become significant users of social network sites (SNSs); therefore, their disclosed personal information can be misused by SNS providers and/or other users. The purpose of this paper is to understand how digital natives make their self-disclosure decisions on SNSs, as well as whether the concept of culture can still be relevant to digital natives.

Design/methodology/approach

The hypotheses were tested with survey data collected from the USA and China.

Findings

The results show that trust in SNSs and trust in SNS users are positively related to social rewards. Social rewards are positively related to intention to self-disclose, while privacy risk is positively related to privacy concerns. Further, culture significantly moderates the relationship between trust and social rewards.

Research limitations/implications

The study clarifies the effects of different types of trust on privacy in the context of SNSs. Further, the study shows the effects of culture when digital natives make self-disclosure decisions.

Practical implications

SNS providers also need to focus on different types of trust when operating in different cultural contexts. Further, SNS providers expanding their markets should emphasize social rewards to increase the likelihood of self-disclosure.

Originality/value

The results show that while culture can still be helpful to explain digital natives’ trust beliefs, digital natives have started to converge regarding their perceptions about privacy concerns and self-disclosure.

Citation

Liu, Z., Wang, X. and Liu, J. (2019), "How digital natives make their self-disclosure decisions: a cross-cultural comparison", Information Technology & People, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 538-558. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-10-2017-0339