A Critical Literate Review Concerning Consumer Perception of Privacy Literature

A Critical Literate Concerning Consumer Perception of Privacy and Security Risks for Online Shopping - Literature review Example The information provided by the New Media Age (2006) indicates that the total number of internet users worldwide had long surpassed the 1 billion mark by the year 2005; a number that was only 45 million a decade earlier. Accordingly, dozens of internet-based ventures have surfaced in record numbers, forcing the hitherto conventionally operated enterprises to turn digital in order to remain relevant (Yang, 2005). By definition, electronic commerce [often called e-commerce or e-shopping] refers to buying and paying for commodities (goods and services) from the comfort of a computer connection to the worldwide web. A number of recent studies points to a largely stagnating market share of transactions over the internet with scholars questioning whether the predicted enduring ubiquity will ever become a reality (Grewal et al. 2004). The brave five-year forecasts of consulting agencies in the mid 90’s came to pass with comparatively negligible enthusiasm over the internet than earli er envisaged. Similarly, many visions of total transformation of the world to a digital village, from Being Digital to The Third Wave, all became somewhat more remote than originally planned. Nonetheless, there still exists the momentum of integrating new information and communication technology as a modern way of life across the globe, either in private life or into the business practices. Laroche, Zhilin, McDougall, and Jasmin, (2005) mentions in their piece that consumers’ adoption of online shopping would be shaped by an inevitable future demand; a transformative process that has kicked-off, but yet to pick up substantially. In as much as e-shopping offers people the convenience of real-time completion of transaction from mobile locations, internet security is no longer guaranteed (Zhou, Dai and Zhang, 2007). Scholars in the computing sphere are fully aware of the ever-emerging challenges that they need to address by offering dynamic solutions. Central to the current conc erns is the ever growing creativity among the technology savvy criminals skillfully breaking the privacy codes to access clients’ information deemed confidential. Issues of privacy and security risks emanating from unsolicited e-mails to security threats of point- transactions continue to generate contentious debates in the realms of academia as well as policy conferences (Meinert et al. 2006). As the literature on online shopping experience expands, there is need to identify with the underpinnings of the shopping phenomenon and why then new experience seems sluggish in picking up in an era of pervasive technology. This paper endeavors to analyze decisively the current literature on online shopping with regard to consumer perception of privacy and security risks associated with the new trend. 2.0 Insights from the Current literature A large body of researchers has emerged communicating the criteria that consumers adopt when choosing to either to shop online or not. Lee and Ta n (2003) hypothesized that consumers do choose to shop online or physically in a store depending on their perception of utility afforded from the purchases while minimizing their exposure to risks. Alba, et al. (1997) argues that consumers’ attraction to the alternative retail arrangements is largely determined by the number of existing alternatives, their [consumers’] capacity to scrutinize the alternatives, the availability and authenticity of information availed for a convincing comparison, credentials of the organizations involved and the external [the extra]