Purpose: This study aims to investigate the antecedents of mobile Internet users’ perception of information sensitivity (PIS) and willingness to provide personal information (WTP). It provides insights about how these antecedents influence users’ perceived information sensitivity and willingness to provide.Design/methodology/approach: An online survey of mobile Internet users was conducted in China, generating a total of 1,000 qualified responses for analysis.Findings: Results reveal the differential effects of some major antecedents of mobile Internet users’ perceived information sensitivity and willingness to provide (individual disposition to value privacy, age, gender, app type and privacy concerns) and such impact vary across low-, medium- and high-privacy segments.Originality/value: This study provides insights into the antecedents of mobile Internet users’ attitudes towards personal information privacy. It also extends the understanding of users’ perceived information sensitivity and willingness to provide such information comparatively among four countries.

This research explores how the partitioned pricing strategy of premium subscriptions affects user willingness to purchase with two studies. Study 1 finds that all-inclusive pricing is more effective than traditional partitioned pricing (i.e., partitioned pricing in Single) and the two new formats of partitioned pricing (i.e., partitioned pricing in Combination and partitioned pricing in Blind Box) in terms of increasing user willingness to purchase due to the induced higher perceived value and perceived price fairness. Study 2 further finds that partitioned pricing in Combination or partitioned pricing in Blind Box (vs. partitioned pricing in Single) can affect perceived value positively via perceived playfulness and negatively via user-perceived price complexity simultaneously. These indirect effects hold across hedonic and utilitarian digital content products. These findings contribute to the literature on the pricing strategies of subscription-based digital content platforms. This research also provides suggestions for digital content platforms to adopt that will help them design their partitioned pricing strategies effectively.

While data-driven digital technologies (e.g., mobile applications) have brought convenience to users, they have also raised data privacy concerns. Regulators have taken various actions that ensure user data privacy to balance the protection and exploitation of personal data. However, the effect of privacy regulatory protection in preparing mobile users for data sharing remains unclear. This research develops and empirically tests an integrative model of how mobile users adjust their intention to share personal data in response to privacy regulatory protection. The results indicate that privacy regulatory protection can increase users’ intention to share personal data through enhancing psychological ownership of data (i.e., entitlement effect) and decreasing privacy concerns (i.e., reassurance effect). Moreover, the entitlement effect can be attenuated as app control over data increases, while the reassurance effect can be accentuated as users’ privacy efficacy increases. This research provides new insights into the role of privacy regulatory protection in promoting user data sharing by highlighting the psychological mechanisms underlying users’ responses to such regulations. It provides implications for digital platforms seeking to balance the challenges of user data protection with the benefits of data-driven marketing.