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218 Henderson, Snyder and Byrd<br />
and systems has been one of the most challenging issues in information systems (IS)<br />
research (Swanson, 1988). Previous IS research has used intention models from<br />
social psychology as the basis for research on the determinants of user behavior<br />
(Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989; Swanson, 1982).<br />
In the research model proposed for this study we did not use the behavioral<br />
intention, but we used the individuals’ perceptions of their actual e-commerce<br />
activity. The research model posits that privacy concerns (attitude) have a direct<br />
impact on a consumer’s actual e-commerce activities. Previous research indicates<br />
that individuals may take a variety of different actions based on their levels of<br />
concern, such as having no intention to provide personal information (Culnan, 1993;<br />
Stone & Stone, 1990). Therefore, we hypothesized:<br />
H1: Higher levels of privacy concerns will result in lower levels of actual ecommerce<br />
activity.<br />
The research model in Figure 1 also captures the effect of perceived usefulness<br />
(PERUSE) on actual e-commerce activity. The following was hypothesized:<br />
H2: Higher levels of perceived usefulness result in higher levels of actual ecommerce<br />
activity.<br />
Culnan (1993) included a variable to measure whether the respondents had<br />
shopped by mail or phone during the previous year. This study also used a variable<br />
that gauges a consumer’s proclivity to purchase merchandise (PH) sight unseen.<br />
Thus the following hypothesis was proposed:<br />
H3: The more likely a consumer is to purchase merchandise or services via mail,<br />
telephone or over the Inter<strong>net</strong> during the past year, the higher the level of actual<br />
e-commerce use.<br />
IMPORTANCE OF PRIVACY POLICY<br />
Several studies have looked at the privacy policies of Web sites (Culnan,<br />
1999a, 1999b; FTC, 1998, 1999). In addition, the FTC issued its report, “Privacy<br />
Online: Fair Information Practices in the Electronic Marketplace,” as a result of the<br />
previous studies (FTC, 2000). Neither study looked at how consumers feel about<br />
privacy policies. However, the IBM Multi-National Privacy Survey did examine the<br />
relationship between consumers and privacy policies (Louis et al., 1999). This study<br />
also examined the relationship between privacy concerns and the importance of<br />
privacy policies (IMPPP). Thus, the following hypothesis was proposed:<br />
H4: The higher the level of privacy concern, the higher the perceived importance<br />
of privacy policies.<br />
None of the previous studies have examined the impact of e-commerce usage<br />
on the perceived importance of privacy policies (IMPPP). The more PII consumers<br />
provide over the Inter<strong>net</strong>, the more vulnerable their data becomes. Thus, the<br />
following was hypothesized:<br />
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