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Electronic Commerce and Data Privacy 221
A total of 172 usable responses were submitted. Respondents were 63% men
and 37% women. Sixty-two percent of the respondents were in the 18-29 age group;
26% were in the 30-49 age group; 12% were in the 50 and over age group. The
respondents reported their education level as follows: 5% have a high school
education or less, 42% have some college, and 53% are college graduates.
Questionnaire Development
The questionnaire was developed from scales and techniques used in prior
research. Each section was coded in hypertext markup language (HTML), JavaScript,
and Active Server Pages (ASP). JavaScript was used to ensure that certain responses
were completed. ASP was used to select a random Web page for the respondent to
examine and to submit the responses from the completed questionnaire to the
database used to collect the data.
Once the questionnaire was completed, several colleagues reviewed it to check
for completeness and understandability. Several other individuals (outside academia)
were asked to test the questionnaire by completing the survey online and provide
comments concerning any problems. The responses confirmed that the questionnaire
was clear and understandable. Internal consistency of the appropriate scales
was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha. The alpha for PRIVCON was 0.72, 0.88 for
IMPPP, and 0.92 for TK. All the alphas were above the cutoff value suggested by
Nunally (1978) of 0.70 for hypothesized measures of a construct. The questionnaire
items can be found in the appendix.
Measures
Several measures were required to evaluate the hypotheses. The following
section describes each scale and the variable it measures.
Privacy Concern. Measurement of an individual’s privacy concern
(PRIVCON) was obtained by using items taken from existing scales (Culnan, 1993;
Louis et al., 1999; Smith et al., 1996). Respondents scored all items on a 5-point
Likert-type scale, with Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.
Actual E-Commerce Activity. The respondent’s actual e-commerce activity
(ACTUAL) was obtained by using a scale adapted from a previous study (Louis et
al., 1999). Respondents were asked questions concerning e-commerce activities
during the past year. For each item, the respondent chose between the following
responses: Never, 1-2 times, 3-5 times, 5-10 times, and Over 10 times.
Importance of Privacy Policy. The perceived importance of a Web Site’s
privacy policy (IMPPP) was measured using a scale adapted from a previous study
(Louis et al., 1999). The respondents rated the importance of components of an
organization’s privacy policy on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from Not At All
Important to Absolutely Essential.
Regulatory Preference. Regulatory preference (REGPREF) was assessed by
using a similar method to Milberg et al. (2000). Respondents were asked to indicate
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