EAGER: Understanding the Strategic Values of Privacy Practices in Organizations

随着公司收集越来越多的消费者数据并更深入地挖掘数据，公司在信息隐私方面的做法出现了权衡。 公司可以选择增强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竞争的影响。 此外，这些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负担，并可能因数据丢失而遭受负面后果，例如收入减少，公众抗议和政府处罚。 这项研究旨在帮助企业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的分析框架，用于公司，组织，政府机构和个人在不确定性下做出有关信息隐私的决策。 特别是，该框架提供了第一个基于风险的分析公司的决策有关隐私的做法。 它也是最早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表现的公司之一。 研究结果将引发新的对话，并更好地了解（1）公司对隐私的做法和态度;（2）公司的竞争行为和结果;以及（3）新技术之间的相互作用。 该研究的更广泛影响在于为公司开发新的方法，以评估其隐私实践，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了解公司在提出隐私法规以平衡公司业绩和消费者福利时所面临的权衡。该框架建立在经济学中的风险理论基础上，为分析偏好、估值和风险选择提供了公式和一般工具。 该分析的不同之处在于其制定的隐私风险下的选择，其中的风险模型参数涵盖了一套后果，自然状态，一套行动，和概率。 它有助于研究与隐私有关的投资、政策和技术采用的影响，研究它们如何改变参数。 分析也增加了行为经济学的元素，但重点是公司的行为模式。 更重要的是，分析扩展了隐私风险下的选择，通过纳入竞争优势和竞争对手之间的相互作用的战略研究。 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绩效。

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.