Data analysis for digital transformation: The example of willingness to share personal information

The advancing digital transformation enables firms to access a global audience of consumers. However, addressing consumers’ heterogeneous needs and preferences constitutes a considerable challenge for firms. Therefore, firms need a better understanding of how consumers can be purposefully segmented. This chapter segments consumers based on their willingness to share (WTS) personal information with firms, investigates how the privacy calculus and consumers’ relationships with firms affect WTS, and explores how WTS varies both nationally and internationally. Using multilevel latent class analysis on data from 15,068 consumers across 24 countries, it identifies three managerially meaningful consumer segments-“privacy-concerned consumers,” “privacy pragmatists,” and “relationship- seekers”-that predict WTS and are dispersed across data-prone and data-reluctant country classes. The empirical results show that the consumer segments differ significantly from one another, enabling multinational firms to adapt their marketing strategies and segmentation efforts to appeal to each distinct consumer segment, both within and across countries.