scholarly journals Persuading end users to act cautiously online: a fear appeals study on phishing

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurjen Jansen ◽  
Paul van Schaik

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the protection motivation theory (PMT) in the context of fear appeal interventions to reduce the threat of phishing attacks. In addition, it was tested to what extent the model relations are equivalent across fear appeal conditions and across time. Design/methodology/approach A pre-test post-test design was used. In the pre-test, 1,201 internet users filled out an online survey and were presented with one of three fear appeal conditions: strong fear appeal, weak fear appeal and control condition. Arguments regarding vulnerability of phishing attacks and response efficacy of vigilant online information-sharing behaviour were manipulated in the fear appeals. In the post-test, data were collected from 786 internet users and analysed with partial least squares path modelling. Findings The study found that PMT model relations hold in the domain of phishing. Self-efficacy and fear were the most important predictors of protection motivation. In general, the model results were equivalent across conditions and across time. Practical Implications It is important to consider online information-sharing behaviour because it facilitates the occurrence and success of phishing attacks. The results give practitioners more insight into important factors to address in the design of preventative measures to reduce the success of phishing attacks. Future research is needed to test how fear appeals work in real-world settings and over longer periods. Originality/value This paper is a substantial adaptation of a previous conference paper (Jansen and Van Schaik, 2017a, b).

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (8) ◽  
pp. 865-879
Author(s):  
Megan C. Good ◽  
Michael R. Hyman

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to apply protection motivation theory (PMT) to brick-and-mortar salespeople's responses to customers' fear appeals.Design/methodology/approachThe approach is to develop a conceptual model for the effect of customers' fear appeals on brick-and-mortar salespeople.FindingsPMT relates to the influence of customers' fear appeals on brick-and-mortar salespeople's behaviours. The salesperson's decision whether to follow a retail manager's suggestion about ways to mitigate a customer's fear appeal depends on believed threat severity, believed threat susceptibility, response efficacy, self-efficacy and response costs.Research limitations/implicationsPMT is applied to a new domain: brick-and-mortar salespeople. Although a powerful yet universal emotion, only limited research has examined fear within this group.Practical implicationsUnderstanding salespeople's fears will help retail managers identify strategies for encouraging adaptive behaviours and deterring maladaptive behaviours by salespeople.Originality/valueA model relating customers' fear appeals to salespeople's behaviours is introduced.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivek Roy

PurposeSupply chain traceability and supply chain visibility have become a critical element for the effective management of contemporary complex supply chains. At their core is information sharing, which has been acknowledged as a key prerequisite for logistics and supply chain performance, but whose notional underpinnings have not been delineated fully, leading to interchangeable deployment of these terms. Addressing the shortcoming, this paper aims to establish a contrast between the two notions.Design/methodology/approachDrawing from systematic review protocols, a multi-disciplinary review scope is constructed wherein the synthesis is strategized to primarily channel implications for the scholarship of logistics and supply chain management. The review is aimed at addressing two research objectives: (1) how the notions of traceability and visibility in supply chain management develop contrast in terms of their thematic emphasis and (2) to attain an integrative understanding of the notional convergence and divergence between supply chain traceability and visibility for raising strategic recommendations.FindingsThe review outcomes help contrast both the convergence and the divergence between traceability and visibility in the supply chain environment, and the differentiated but fundamental role that information sharing plays within these notions to outline why they are not interchangeable.Originality/valueThe originality of the findings lies in the conceptual synthesis of the relevant literature from both technological and non-technological perspectives to ultimately draw logistics and supply chain management implications. The review also points out key strategic considerations to demarcate the notional boundaries of traceability and visibility in future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengzhi Sun ◽  
Fangfei Wang ◽  
Mengmeng Jiang

The lack of awareness regarding the risks of e-cigarettes and the misleading business propaganda caused an increase in the popularity of e-cigarettes among young people. The effective communication of the risks associated with e-cigarettes is an important part of current work to control their usage, and the use of fear appeals is an effective method to achieve good control. Based on the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) and Appraisal-Tendency Framework (ATF), this article presents a 2 × 2 control experiment to test the impact of fear appeals on the perception of risk, emotions, and behavioral motivation of young people aged 35 and less. A total of 333 valid samples of adolescents and young adults were included to investigate the different response paths to fear appeals among young people of different age, sex and smoking history. The results show that high-threat, high-efficacy fear appeals are able to: (1) significantly increase young people’s perception of the e-cigarette-associated threats, (2) trigger fear and anger amongst young people, and (3) stimulate their self-protection motivation. Fear appeals do not have an impact on young people’s perception of efficacy, regardless of their level of threat and efficacy. High fear appeals can also increase young people’s perception of threat, which in turn enhances their anger and protection motivation. Furthermore, while this type of fear appeal can enhance young women’s perception of efficacy, it cannot enhance the perception of e-cigarette risks in adolescents, young men and young smokers, regardless of their level of threat and efficacy. Young non-smokers have a higher perception of the risks involved in the use of e-cigarettes compared with young smokers.


2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 370-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Lötter ◽  
Lynn Futcher

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework to address the problem that email users are not well-informed or assisted by their email clients in identifying possible phishing attacks, thereby putting their personal information at risk. This paper therefore addresses the human weakness (i.e. the user’s lack of knowledge of phishing attacks which causes them to fall victim to such attacks) as well as the software related issue of email clients not visually assisting and guiding the users through the user interface. Design/methodology/approach – A literature study was conducted in the main field of information security with a specific focus on understanding phishing attacks and a modelling technique was used to represent the proposed framework. This paper argues that the framework can be suitably implemented for email clients to raise awareness about phishing attacks. To validate the framework as a plausible mechanism, it was reviewed by a focus group within the School of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). The focus group consisted of academics and research students in the field of information security. Findings – This paper argues that email clients should make use of feedback mechanisms to present security related aspects to their users, so as to make them aware of the characteristics pertaining to phishing attacks. To support this argument, it presents a framework to assist email users in the identification of phishing attacks. Research limitations/implications – Future research would yield interesting results if the proposed framework were implemented into an existing email client to determine the effect of the framework on the user’s level of awareness of phishing attacks. Furthermore, the list of characteristics could be expanded to include all phishing types (such as clone phishing, smishing, vishing and pharming). This would make the framework more dynamic in that it could then address all forms of phishing attacks. Practical implications – The proposed framework could enable email clients to provide assistance through the user interface. Visibly relaying the security level to the users of the email client, and providing short descriptions as to why a certain email is considered suspicious, could result in raising the awareness of the average email user with regard to phishing attacks. Originality/value – This research presents a framework that email clients can use to identify common forms of normal and spear phishing attacks. The proposed framework addresses the problem that the average Internet user lacks a baseline level of online security awareness. It argues that the email client is the ideal place to raise the awareness of users regarding phishing attacks.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 1018-1032 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monireh Ebrahimi ◽  
Amir Hossein Yazdavar ◽  
Naomie Salim ◽  
Safaa Eltyeb

Purpose Many opinion-mining systems and tools have been developed to provide users with the attitudes of people toward entities and their attributes or the overall polarities of documents. In addition, side effects are one of the critical measures used to evaluate a patient’s opinion for a particular drug. However, side effect recognition is a challenging task, since side effects coincide with disease symptoms lexically and syntactically. The purpose of this paper is to extract drug side effects from drug reviews as an integral implicit-opinion words. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a detection algorithm to a medical-opinion-mining system using rule-based and support vector machines (SVM) algorithms. A corpus from 225 drug reviews was manually annotated by a medical expert for training and testing. Findings The results show that SVM significantly outperforms a rule-based algorithm. However, the results of both algorithms are encouraging and a good foundation for future research. Obviating the limitations and exploiting combined approaches would improve the results. Practical implications An automatic extraction for adverse drug effects information from online text can help regulatory authorities in rapid information screening and extraction instead of manual inspection and contributes to the acceleration of medical decision support and safety alert generation. Originality/value The results of this study can help database curators in compiling adverse drug effects databases and researchers to digest the huge amount of textual online information which is growing rapidly.


2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (10) ◽  
pp. 2200-2217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Walther ◽  
Andrea Calabrò ◽  
Michèle Morner

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how information-processing mechanisms between nominating committees (NCs), incumbent executives, board chairs, and shareholders affect the comprehensiveness of executive succession processes. Design/methodology/approach The authors employ an explanatory multiple-case study that comprises eight CEO and CFO succession cases in large German publicly traded firms. Findings The findings reveal that comprehensiveness is determined by four key information-processing mechanisms: the effectiveness of NC’s information sharing, absorbing disagreement, and integrating heterogeneous opinions; board chair leadership (i.e. an apprentice board leadership structure in association with the board chair’s openness to ideas); the breadth and depth of information sharing between executives and NCs; and the extent and timing to which major shareholders influence succession processes. Research limitations/implications The authors summarize the findings in a conceptual framework and develop a set of propositions to guide future research on the topic. Such studies may want to test the suggestions in a quantitative way, preferably in a multinational context. Originality/value The authors’ emerging conceptual framework contributes a set of information-processing variables by which NCs engage in comprehensive executive successions with incumbent executives, board chairs, and major shareholders and offers a multiechelon approach to study executive successions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie Priscilla Goby ◽  
Hamad Mohammed Ahmad Ali ◽  
Mohammed Ahmad Abdulwahed Lanjawi ◽  
Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed Ahmad Al Haddad

Purpose The aim of this study is to conduct an initial investigation of information sharing between the vast number of expatriate employees and the small minority of local employees in Dubai’s private sector workforce. Research on the impact of the workforce localization policy has highlighted the frequent marginalization of locals within the expatriate-dominated private sector. One form of this is the reluctance of expatriates to share information with local recruits, and the authors conducted this study to assess the reality and extent of this phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach The authors designed a brief interview survey to probe how Emirati employees secure workplace information and whether they experience information withholding on the part of expatriate colleagues. The authors also explored whether any such experience impacts on their attitudes to working in the private sector since this is a key factor in the success of the localization policy. Complete responses were received from 0.9 per cent of the total local private sector workforce. Findings A notable lack of information sharing emerged with 58 per cent of respondents reporting their expatriate colleagues’ and superiors’ reluctance to share information with them, and 63 per cent describing experiences of discriminatory behavior. Research limitations/implications The authors identify key cultural and communication issues relating to localization within Dubai’s multicultural workforce. These include the broader cultural factors that determine how Emiratis conceptualize information sharing. Future research can pursue this issue to help inform the development of supportive information sharing practices. Such practices are an essential part of the creation of a diversity climate, which is necessary to sustain localization. Originality/value This study is a pioneering attempt to empirically investigate the information sharing practices that Emirati private sector employees experience. It suggests that the exclusion of citizens from the workplace through practices such as “ghost Emiratization” reverberates in the workplace through a lack of information sharing.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ai Na Seow ◽  
Chee Keong Choong ◽  
I-Chi Chen ◽  
Yuen Onn Choong

PurposeMedical tourism has grown to become a formidable multinational industry to generate revenue. This phenomenon has also increased impact on the healthcare sector as well as strategies development opportunities. The present study emphases on the international tourists' behavioural intention for medical tourism in Malaysia. A research framework is derived from the exceptional component of fear appeal in protection motivation theory (PMT).Design/methodology/approachData were collected with a sample of 501 respondents and analysed via structural equation modelling approach. Both measurement model and structural model were assessed to generate the result.FindingsThe outcomes have shown a good backing on the use of adapted PMT theoretical model. There is a higher predictive power on health coping than health threats. Coping alternatives can be served as the linkage between the PMT appraisals and behavioural intention.Research limitations/implicationsThe study confirmed the effectiveness of using a theoretical framework in predicting international tourists' behavioural intention for medical tourism. It is suggesting that risk adaptive behaviour does offer a valuable proposition in contributing to the reception of medical tourism.Practical implicationsThe present study argues the need for greater clarity in understanding the emergent implications for health policy and healthcare delivery for future medical tourism development.Originality/valueThe fundamental theories and current literature do not incorporate the component of fear appeal in explaining decision making. The study findings demonstrate that protection motivation theory has provide another promising theoretical model in explaining international tourists' behaviour intention for medical tourism.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhad Panahifar ◽  
P.J. Byrne ◽  
Mohammad Asif Salam ◽  
Cathal Heavey

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and assess the interrelationships between various characteristics of information sharing and trust and their criticality for effective information-centred supply chain collaboration initiatives and, in turn, its criticality to overall firm’s performance. Design/methodology/approach A survey of 189 executives from different firms was conducted and the resulting data were analysed to investigate how collaboration enablers affect effective collaboration and to determine its impacts on organisational performance. Structural equation modelling through partial least squares is used to study the relationships between four enablers (trust, information readiness, information accuracy and information security), perceived collaboration success, and two outcomes (sales growth and overall operational performance). Findings The empirical results indicate that three collaboration enablers including trust, information readiness and secure sharing of information improve supply chain collaboration. The present study finds that “secure sharing of information” was the most important factor in fostering information sharing-centred collaboration. The present study also demonstrates that effective collaboration positively and significantly influences on firm’s performance. Practical implications This study provides researchers and practitioners with a more comprehensive understanding about the information sharing-centred collaboration, its enablers and effects on firms’ performance in a supply chain context. Future research should focus on developing additional constructs that may capture other drivers of effective collaboration. Originality/value The present study makes an empirical contribution to the body of knowledge by investigating an integrated framework focussing on the enablers of collaboration through information sharing and its impact on firms’ performance.


Author(s):  
Joakim Kembro ◽  
Dag Näslund

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate what empirical evidence exists regarding benefits of information sharing in supply chains, and to identify potential gaps and opportunities in this research area. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted an in-depth, systematic literature review and multilevel analysis of 82 selected articles. In the analysis, the authors investigated: whether the articles applied the supply chain as the unit of analysis; the selected research method; whether the articles applied the supply chain as the unit of data collection (i.e. collected data from three or more different companies); and finally, aspects of information sharing – including benefits. Findings – Despite anecdotal descriptions of benefits from information sharing in supply chains, the authors could not find empirical evidence to support these claims. Rather, the main body of literature reports on a focal company's perspective on traditional buyer-supplier relationships. Research limitations/implications – Given the lack of evidence for the claimed benefits of information sharing on a supply chain level, more research is needed in this field. The authors therefore propose an agenda for future research building on four key points. Originality/value – Contrary to popular belief, empirical evidence for benefits of information sharing in supply chains does not seem to exist. This article highlights an issue previously not addressed with a systematic in-depth review and analysis of empirical articles.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document