Identity Sharing and Adaptive Personalization Influencing Online Repurchases

ABSTRACT

Adaptive personalization systems are becoming common in online retail. These systems use dynamically generated data and advanced data analytic techniques to infer customer preferences and recommend products or services best suited to a customer’s tastes. However, the adaptive personalization system’s ability to continue delivering valuable personalized content relies heavily on return customers’ willingness to continue sharing their identity information. By applying identity theory and the action-cognitive processing-decision model, cognitive and behavioral processes are theorized whereby customers who willingly share identity information favorably assess the value of product or service recommendations provided by adaptive personalization systems relative to their self-identity needs. The effects of willingness to share identity information and perceived personalization value on repurchase intention are examined. The results empirically demonstrate that a willingness to share identity information increases repurchase intention; further, this relationship is partially mediated by the perceived value of adaptive personalization.

KEYWORDS:

• Adaptive personalization systems
• sharing identity information
• repurchase intention
• identity control theory
• recommendation systems