Examining help requests on social networking sites: Integrating privacy perception and privacy calculus perspectives

Abstract

Abstract Social networking sites (SNSs) are increasingly used for brand marketing via help-request campaigns that rely on influential users in networks. While help-request campaigns significantly foster interactions, they also threaten users’ information privacy. Drawing on perception transfer theory and the privacy calculus perspective, this study investigated the internal mechanism of users’ behavioral responses to help-request campaigns. Specifically, this study examined the effects of privacy assurance and relationship closeness with senders on recipients’ participation behaviors through recipients’ privacy assessments. The results of a lab-controlled experiment indicated that privacy assurance and relationship closeness jointly influenced recipients’ privacy concerns and social rewards, which influenced their participation behaviors. This study enriches information systems research by integrating theories of perception transfer and privacy calculus to examine users’ response behaviors to help-request campaigns in SNS marketing. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the paper.