Privacy as a Part of the Preference Structure of Users App Buying Decision

Information privacy and personal data in information systems are referred to as the ‘new oil’ of the 21st century. The mass adoption of smart mobile devices, sensor-enabled smart IoT-devices, and mobile applications provide virtually endless possibilities of gathering users’ personal information. Previous research suggests that users attribute very little monetary value to their information privacy. The current paper assumes that users are not able to monetize their value of privacy due to its abstract nature and non-transparent context. By defining privacy as a crucial product attribute of mobile applications the authors provide an approach to measure the importance of privacy as part of users’ preference structure. The results of the conducted choice-based conjoint Analysis emphasize the high relevance of privacy in users’ preference structure when downloading an app and provide an interesting contribution for theory and