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Fear of Online Consumer Identity Theft: Cross-Country Application and Short Scale Development

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Abstract

The growing internationalization of electronic commerce demands the establishment of the cross-national validity of theoretical concepts. An important concept in e-commerce is consumers’ fear of online identity theft (FOIT), which impedes consumers’ willingness to engage in online transactions and can negatively affect e-commerce revenues. The present study validates the consumer FOIT scale developed in Germany by Hille et al. (2015) in a cross-cultural setting and proposes an abbreviated version of the scale, which is approximately 35% shorter than the original. Established validation procedures with samples of online consumers from Germany, the United States, and Japan demonstrate the reliability, validity, and cross-national applicability of the short FOIT scale. In particular, this study extends Hille et al. (2015) research by examining and revealing the impact of FOIT on consumers’ prevention-focused responses. This research offers implications for both research and e-commerce managers.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partly funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft); WA 1568/9-1 - AOBJ: 568047.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Management & Marketing, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Carl-Zeiss-Strasse 3, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Gianfranco Walsh & Patrick Hille

  2. Bangor Business School, Bangor University, College Road, Bangor, Wales, LL57 2DG, UK

    Edward Shiu & Louise Hassan

  3. Faculty of Business and Commerce, Keio University, 2-15-45 Mita, Minat-ku, Tokyo, 108-8345, Japan

    Ikuo Takahashi

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  1. Gianfranco Walsh
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  3. Louise Hassan
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Correspondence to Gianfranco Walsh.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 6 Readability assessment (means), item-to-subscale correlations, and item-to-total correlation
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Appendix 2

Table 7 Discriminant validity between FFL and FRD (HTMT ratios)
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Appendix 3

Table 8 Average factor loadings
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Appendix 4

Table 9 Standardized CFA factor loadings and summary psychometric data for outcome constructs
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Walsh, G., Shiu, E., Hassan, L. et al. Fear of Online Consumer Identity Theft: Cross-Country Application and Short Scale Development. Inf Syst Front 21, 1251–1264 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-019-09958-2

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