Do managerial ethics and legal education influence online privacy policies in Greater China?

This study evaluated the online privacy policies of business-to-consumer e-commerce firms in five industries of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Based on the neo-institutional theory, we also tested whether the four institutional factors, (1) top management’s legal education, (2) managerial ethics, (3) rule of law in information privacy protection and (4) peer practices, had any effects on e-information and e-communication content. Results from a content analysis of 229 websites found that the privacy policy contents that complied with generally accepted privacy standards were lesser in mainland China firms than those of Taiwan and Hong Kong firms. There were also significant differences in the amount of contents among the five industries. The results of regression analyses showed the importance of all four factors on e-information content. They also showed the importance of coercive, mimetic, and normative isomorphisms on e-information content. The validation of normative isomorphism highlighted the importance of managerial ethics and legal education. Our findings supplemented extant literature which identified economic motive as the main factor in influencing privacy practice disclosures.