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Consumers’ personal information often informs retailers’ marketing efforts in terms of creating value in the online marketplace. This study examines four factors related to consumers’ social media engagement and online privacy protection behaviors. Regulatory focus, social exchange, and marketing relationship theories explain the online consumer personal information share-and-protect model developed. Consumers aged 18–64 years across the United States participated in this survey research. The results suggest that while personal privacy violation experience and perceived secondary control of one's personal information are influential antecedents, privacy concerns and trust in social media websites mediate each of these respectively. The findings suggest that promotion- and prevention-related behaviors regarding personal information align with the orientation of the antecedents, indicating that regulatory focus theory shows promise for examining the privacy paradox. We conclude by developing a matrix that integrates regulatory focus and social exchange theories to guide future research.

Results of studies from various fields suggest gaps in knowledge and needed research to help understand the factors that explain degrees of vulnerability among the aged to marketing communications. Suggesting the employment of more global measures of consumer vulnerability in relation to consumer welfare, a blueprint that encompasses emergent theories and methods of studying behavior in social science is presented to guide future research on older consumers' vulnerability. Insights gained from new conceptualizations and methodologies relevant to the study of older consumers' vulnerability may better inform public policy initiatives.

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This research reveals three perceptual themes or "rules of engagement" used by consumers when personal information is requested in online exchanges. The themes-the criticality of the exchange, felt invasion, and fair play-underlie the choice of responses from compliance to blatant falsification of information to company requests. Identified from consumers' in-depth interviews, these themes, along with the range and variations of response behaviors, reveal that consumers' motivations vary from very simple rules to more customized rules. Our findings may help firms understand consumers' interpretation of online informational requests better and identify factors that influence how consumers respond.