Change of consumers’ attitudes in response to an online privacy violation incident

This research examines consumers’ attitudes towards the Internet and consumer behavior after they had experienced an online privacy violation incident. This issue is assessed by applying the concept of resilience and coping strategies in reaction to stress. The focus of this empirical research is change in consumers’ attitudes and behavior online. Our analysis is performed on a survey data collected from Croatian Internet users who had experienced online privacy violation. The model was estimated by OLS and order probit method. Results show that highly resilient consumers are more likely to continue to use the Internet as frequently as before an online privacy violation incident or even more frequently. Additionally, consumers with higher resilience are also more likely not to increase their level of cautiousness after an online privacy violation incident and are more likely not to change their attitude towards the Internet. Consumers with higher online privacy awareness and online privacy concern are more likely to increase their cautiousness on the Internet after the online privacy violation incident.