What should firms do when customers express data vulnerability?
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As data breaches become increasingly common, customers are expressing heightened concerns about how firms handle their personal information. These events are high-stakes for firms--not only because data incidents have already occurred, but also because they offer opportunities to respond directly to affected customers. This research conceptualizes these articulated customer concerns as customer-expressed data vulnerability and examines which frontline employee (FLE) response actions effectively restore customer relationships. By extending the firm data responsibility beyond privacy policies and breach disclosures to individual customer interactions, I advance customer-delegated control, and firm's role in reestablishing data protection. I show that in identity theft contexts, FLE relating behaviors (fostering connection) increase attrition and reduce cash flow, whereas educating behaviors (providing factual explanations, progress updates, and data protection guidance) and compensation decreases attrition, although the latter effect of compensation diminishes over time. In data threat vulnerability contexts, FLE assuring behaviors (emphasizing improvement measures and firm data responsibility) reduces attrition and increases cash flow, while educating remains ineffective. A preregistered experiment further demonstrates that proactive firm notification transforms retrospective relating from detrimental to beneficial by strengthening customers' perceptions of data protection.
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Ph. D.