<![CDATA[Consumer trust is critical in e-commerce, particularly when personal information is compromised through a data breach. This study examined whether apology specificity and the inclusion of corrective action independently and in combination affect consumer trust following a simulated e-commerce data breach. Drawing on Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), Image Repair Theory (IRT), and organizational trust frameworks, we conducted a 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial experiment with 200 adult e-commerce users recruited purposively from Coblong District, Bandung, Indonesia, and randomly assigned to four conditions varying in apology type (general vs. specific) and corrective action (absent vs. present). Consumer trust was assessed using a six-item Likert scale (α = .93). A two-way analysis of variance revealed significant main effects for both apology specificity, F(1, 196) = 7.11, p = .008, partial η² = .035, and corrective action, F(1, 196) = 36.23, p < .001, partial η² = .156. A significant interaction also emerged, F(1, 196) = 7.68, p = .006, partial η² = .038: the trust advantage of a specific apology was pronounced only when corrective action was simultaneously present (Δ = 0.69, 95% CI [0.33, 1.04], p < .001) and negligible when corrective action was absent (Δ = −0.01, 95% CI [−0.37, 0.34], p = .941). These findings extend crisis communication theory by isolating two independently actionable message components and demonstrate that their combination produces trust effects exceeding their individual contributions, with corrective action emerging as the dominant factor.]]>
Copyrights © 2026
