Sokoll, Cynthia SabrinaCynthia SabrinaSokoll2023-04-132023-04-132021https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/111355When evaluating a product or service, consumers often use so-called signals—signs that indicate the quality of a good and that help making adoption decisions. Examples include brand logos, prices, or quality and certification seals. The latter are used in a variety of ways, for example, in the food sector or on websites. However, especially with regard to newer technologies, such as autonomous, smart, or connected products, little research exists on how certification influences consumer behavior and the underlying psychological processes. For this reason, this dissertation examines the role of certification in a digital world. This is done with three articles, which include a mix of mainly quantitative but also qualitative methods. Employing explorative interviews, Article I examines how suitable consumers find the certification of autonomous cars in Germany as a trust-creating measure and how far this influences their intention to adopt such a vehicle. The results show that certifying an autonomous vehicle makes consumers more willing to use such a car and also trust it more. However, their knowledge of autonomous vehicles in general, and in particular of the related issues of data usage and data privacy, is rather low. Based on these findings, Article II examines how consumers’ privacy concerns about smart products can be reduced and how, at the same time, their willingness to provide manufacturers with the data generated by the use of these devices can be increased. In this regard, a series of quantitative studies shows that introducing an independent third-party data certification authority strengthens consumers’ trust in the privacy of their smart product data. However, this approach does not make consumers more willing to share their device data, but might even significantly reduce their willingness to share those data under certain conditions. Finally, Article III pursues the lines of Article II and considers whether the existence of a third-party data certification authority increases consumers’ intention to buy a connected vehicle. While this only happens to a limited extent, it can be shown that data certification increases consumers’ trust in data privacy and enhances their perceived control over their data privacy. Overall, certification can only be recommended to a certain degree as a suitable measure for positively influencing consumer behavior in the digital age.enDatenschutzVertrauenKundendatenVerbraucherverhaltenZertifizierungEDIS-5075doctoral thesis