EAGER: Understanding the Strategic Values of Privacy Practices in Organizations

随着公司收集的消费者数据越来越多，挖掘数据也越来越深入，公司在信息隐私方面的做法也出现了折衷。公司可以选择增加目标广告或服务的做法。然而，与隐私实践相关的经济回报是高度不确定的，因为它们受到公司与竞争对手的竞争的影响。此外，这种做法使公司面临隐私风险，因为它承担着保护敏感数据免遭盗窃的责任，并可能遭受数据丢失的负面后果，如收入减少、公众抗议和政府处罚。这项研究旨在帮助公司在隐私实践方面做出具有战略价值和社会责任的决策。研究人员开发了一个广泛适用于公司、组织、政府机构和个人在不确定性下做出信息隐私决策的分析框架。特别是，该框架首次对公司在隐私实践方面的决策提供了基于风险的分析。它也是第一批分析隐私实践的战略价值，以及这些实践如何影响竞争公司的相对业绩的公司之一。研究的结果将引发新的对话，并提供一个更好的理解之间的相互作用：(1)公司的做法和态度对隐私；(2)企业竞争行为与结果；(3)新技术。这项研究更广泛的影响在于为企业开发新的方法来评估他们的隐私做法，并以对社会负责的方式在竞争环境中更好地定位自己。它还在于帮助政策制定者在提出隐私法规以平衡公司业绩和消费者福利时，了解公司面临的权衡。该框架建立在经济学风险理论的基础上，后者为分析偏好、估值和风险选择提供了公式和通用工具。该分析的独特之处在于其在隐私风险下的选择公式，其中风险模型参数涵盖了一系列后果、自然状态、一组行为和概率。通过研究与隐私相关的投资、政策和技术采用如何改变参数，这对研究它们的影响很有用。该分析还加入了行为经济学的元素，但侧重于公司的行为模式。更重要的是，该分析通过纳入竞争优势和竞争互动的战略研究，扩展了隐私风险下的选择。它询问隐私实践是否以及如何成为竞争优势的来源并影响公司业绩。

As companies collect consumer data in increasingly larger quantity and mine the data more deeply, trade-offs arise with respect to companies' practices about information privacy. A company may choose practices that augment targeted advertisements or services. However, the financial rewards associated with privacy practices are highly uncertain, since they are affected by a company's competition with rivals. Moreover, such practices expose the company to privacy risks, in that it is burdened with safeguarding sensitive data against theft, and may suffer negative consequences from data loss such as revenue decrease, public outcry and penalty by governments. This research aims to help companies make strategically valuable and socially responsible decisions about privacy practices. The researchers develop a broadly applicable analytical framework on making decisions about information privacy under uncertainty by companies, organizations, governmental agencies, and individuals. In particular, the framework provides the first risk-based analysis on a company's decision-making about privacy practices. It is also among the first to analyze the strategic values of privacy practices and how such practices affect the relative performance of competing companies. The results of the research will lead to new conversations and provide a better understanding about the interplay among (1) companies' practices and attitudes toward privacy; (2) companies' competitive behavior and outcome; and (3) new technologies. The broader impact of the research lies in the development of new methodologies for companies to evaluate their privacy practices and better position themselves in a competitive environment in a socially responsible way. It also lies in helping policy makers understand the trade-offs faced by companies when proposing privacy regulations to balance company performance and consumer welfare. The framework builds on the risk theories in economics, which provide formulations and general tools for analyzing preferences, valuations and choices among risky alternatives. The analysis is distinct by its formulation of choice under privacy risks, where the risk-model parameters cover the set of consequences, states of nature, set of actions, and the probabilities. It is useful for studying the effects of privacy-related investments, policies and technology adoptions by examining how they alter the parameters. The analysis is also augmented with elements from behavioral economics, but focuses on companies' behavioral patterns. More importantly, the analysis extends the choice under privacy risks by incorporating strategy research on competitive advantage and competitive interactions among rival companies. It asks whether and how privacy practices can be a source of competitive advantage and affect company performance.