The benefits of meeting buyer privacy expectations across information, time, and space dimensions

Abstract

Business-to-business (B2B) research has yet to address managerial concerns about privacy security. Privacy breaches are a growing global epidemic and cause substantial disruptions. Extending work from the consumer domain, this research introduces the notion that buyers have expectations regarding privacy security beyond information protection. They have expectations that include time and space protection as well. This research posits that suppliers often overstep these expectations by misusing buyers' personal information and intruding upon their private time and space. Building on the meeting privacy expectations (MPE) theoretical framework, this research investigates the benefits of suppliers meeting/exceeding privacy expectations. Results from 385 buyers indicate that MPE has a positive effect on privacy trust and satisfaction. MPE plays a critical role in reducing privacy emotional violation which affects outcomes including privacy satisfaction and intentions to do business. Trust in privacy activities helps increase privacy satisfaction and intentions to do business, and bolsters buyer-supplier relationship commitment. The positive impact of MPE persists when testing for only time and space dimensions suggesting the importance of time and space privacy. This research provides several theoretical and managerial contributions.