Information security and data breaches are perhaps the biggest challenges that global businesses face in the digital economy. Although data breaches can cause significant harm to users, businesses, and society, there is significant individual and national variation in people’s responses to data breaches across markets. This research investigates power distance as an antecedent of people’s divergent reactions to data breaches. Eight studies using archival, correlational, and experimental methods find that high power distance makes users more willing to continue patronizing a business after a data breach (Studies 1–3). This is because they are more likely to believe that the business, not they themselves, owns the compromised data (Studies 4–5A) and, hence, do not reduce their transactions with the business. Making people believe that they (not the business) own the shared data attenuates this effect (Study 5B). Study 6 provides additional evidence for the underlying mechanism. Finally, Study 7 shows that high uncertainty avoidance acts as a moderator that mitigates the effect of power distance on willingness to continue patronizing a business after a data breach. Theoretical contributions to the international business literature and practitioner and policy insights are discussed.

信息安全和数据泄露或许是全球企业在数字经济中面临的最大挑战。尽管数据泄露可能对用户、企业和社会造成重大损害，但不同市场中人们对数据泄露的反应存在显着的个人和国家差异。这项研究调查了权力距离作为人们对数据泄露不同反应的先决条件。使用档案、相关和实验方法进行的八项研究发现，高权力距离使用户在数据泄露后更愿意继续光顾企业（研究 1-3）。这是因为他们更有可能相信企业而不是他们自己拥有受损的数据（研究 4-5A），因此不会减少与企业的交易。让人们相信他们（而不是企业）拥有共享数据会减弱这种影响（研究 5B）。研究 6 为潜在机制提供了额外的证据。最后，研究 7 表明，高度不确定性规避可以起到调节作用，减轻权力距离对数据泄露后继续光顾企业意愿的影响。讨论了对国际商业文献的理论贡献以及实践者和政策见解。