Balancing User Privacy Concerns in the Adoption of Location-Based Services: An Empirical Analysis across Pull-Based and Push-Based Applications

Location-Based Services (LBS) bring unprecedented mobility andpersonalization value to nomadic individuals and hence carrygreat commercial potential. However, the commercial potential ofLBS is obscured by the user’s concerns for privacy whereby theLBS provider can misuse the confidential personal information ofusers and in extreme circumstances place an individual in dangeror seriously jeopardize his or her social life or finances.Therefore, we study the adoption of LBS through a privacycalculus lens. Privacy calculus argues that individuals, whenrequested to provide personal information to corporations,perform a cost-benefit analysis to assess the outcomes they wouldface in return for the information, and respond accordingly. Westudy both pull-based and push-based LBS to have acomprehensive view of LBS adoption. The results of the studyreveal that individual’s privacy concerns influence their intentionto adopt directly in case of push-based LBS and indirectly in caseof pull-based services. The implications for theory and practiceare discussed.