PhD defence D. (Daryna) Kolesnyk

The dissertation provides insights into consumer’s willingness to truthfully disclose their personal data on social media platforms based on a large-scale dataset that spans 25 countries and 5 continents. The data provide evidence that a significant proportion of consumers worldwide deliberately choose to present misleading information about themselves on social media platforms in order to enhance their online image, or in order to protect their privacy.

Dissertation chapters 2 and 4 provide tools to assess the proportions of deceptive disclosures on social media platforms. A self-report method to assess the truthfulness of consumers’ social media disclosures is applied to estimate self-enhancing deception in the domains of physical appearance, personal achievement, and consumption across 25 countries. Furthermore, the dissertation provides a novel econometric model for the analysis of cross-cultural data on sensitive topics.

Chapter 3 of the thesis discusses consumer’s willingness to disclose information on social media from yet another angle – the angle of consumers’ privacy perceptions. The global dataset revealed which consumer segments are likely to consider social media data monetization practices unfair, and who would be willing to pay for the use of social media platforms instead of having their data used for commercial purposes.

Taken together, the dissertation expands the theoretical body of knowledge on the prevalence and antecedents of deceptive consumer disclosures and offers tools that allow marketers to refine the way in which they deal with consumer disclosures on social media platforms.

Due to corona, the PhD defences do not take place publicly in the usual way in the Senate Hall or in the Professor Andries Querido Room. The candidates will defend their dissertation either in a small group or online.