The growth of mobile devices coupled with advances in mobile technologies has resulted in the development and widespread use of a variety of mobile applications (apps). Mobile apps have been developed for social networking, banking, receiving daily news, maintaining fitness, and job-related tasks. The security of apps is an important concern. However, in some cases, app developers may be less interested in investing in the security of apps, if users are unwilling to pay for the added security. In this paper, we empirically examine whether consumers are less willing to pay for security features than for usability features. In addition, we examine whether a third-party certification of security features makes customers more willing to pay for security. Furthermore, we investigate the impact of risk perceptions on the willingness to pay for security. To explore these issues, we conducted a scenario-based experiment on mobile app users. Results from our analyses show that consumers are indeed less likely to pay for security features than usability features. However, the likelihood of paying for security features can be significantly increased by third-party certification of the features. Based on our analysis, we offer insights to producers of mobile apps to monetize the enhanced security features of their apps.

中文翻译：

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移动应用安全经济学的实证检验

移动设备的增长以及移动技术的进步导致了各种移动应用程序（应用程序）的开发和广泛使用。移动应用程序已被开发用于社交网络、银行业务、接收每日新闻、保持健康和与工作相关的任务。应用程序的安全性是一个重要问题。但是，在某些情况下，如果用户不愿意为增加的安全性付费，应用程序开发人员可能对投资应用程序的安全性不太感兴趣。在本文中，我们实证检验了消费者是否愿意为安全功能付费而不是为可用性功能付费。此外，我们还会研究第三方安全功能认证是否会让客户更愿意为安全付费。此外，我们调查了风险认知对安全支付意愿的影响。为了探索这些问题，我们对移动应用用户进行了基于场景的实验。我们的分析结果表明，与可用性功能相比，消费者确实不太可能为安全功能付费。但是，通过第三方认证功能可以显着增加为安全功能付费的可能性。根据我们的分析，我们为移动应用程序的生产者提供见解，以利用其应用程序的增强安全功能获利。