An Analysis of eBay’s Communication Response to The Hacking Crisis and the Impact on Users’ Trust and Behavioural Intentions

The hacking of eBay put its users’ private information at risk and the communication strategy that eBay used to contact these users afterwards has been highly criticized. This research explores four main topics in relation to the hacking incident: the consequences for eBay’s users; better post-crisis communication strategies that eBay could have used; how eBay can re-build the trust of its users; and how eBay can avoid incidents like this in the future. More generally, this research seeks to demonstrate the importance of trust, transparency, security and privacy in online sites, to identify how online consumer behavior changes because of breach incidents and to outline better communication strategies to use after a hacking crisis. Quantitative methodology was developed to understand the consequences of eBay’s hacking crisis and identify better communication strategies the company could have used. The findings of this study were based on data obtained from online and offline (hardcopy) surveys filled out by eBay users that were University of Queensland (UQ) students aged between 18 and 25. The study suggests better communication strategies that eBay could have followed once its users’ personal information was breached. Transparency in eBay’s communication and operations was the main concern for all participants; however, most of them will continue shopping on eBay despite its lack of transparency. Only a small number of the participants stopped shopping on eBay after the hacking crisis; most of the participants’ online behaviour towards eBay remains the same. This research identifies unexpected results: most of the participants will keep shopping on eBay. The participants reported that they were dependent on eBay because there were few alternatives. Most of the participants who filled out the online survey skipped a number of questions. The researcher had to depend on offline surveying to compensate. Limiting the study to a specific age group and to UQ students made the data collection process harder. These limitations also made it difficult to generalize about all eBay shoppers. Future research could address this by representing a broader demographic of eBay users. This present study will help eBay to identify its communication weaknesses and consider strategies for improvement