Do Facts Speak Louder than Words? Understanding the Sources of Punishment Perceptions in Software Piracy Behavior

Software piracy has become a global problem that hinders the development of software industry. Therefore, it is important to understand the underlying mechanisms that drive users’ software piracy behavior. Previous literature on this issue heavily relied on the general deterrence theory (GDT) suggesting that two key punishment perceptions namely punishment severity and punishment certainty determined the software piracy behavior. However, how these punishment perceptions are formed has been rarely examined. To fill this research gap, from the social learning perspective, this study will investigate the three sources of punishment perceptions – policy awareness, personal experience and vicarious experience – and compare their relative strengths on punishment perceptions. Through a field survey with 253 subjects, we found that: (1) personal and vicarious experience have impacts on both punishment certainty and punishment severity; (2) policy awareness has influence only on punishment severity; and (3) personal and vicarious experience have greater impacts on punishment certainty than policy awareness. The implications for theory and practice are also discussed

Investigating Factors Influencing Game Piracy in the eSports Settings of South Korea

eSports, an abbreviation of electronic sports, is a virtual leisure activity (KeSPA, 2011). eSports has been developed through online networks and game software development (Jonasson & Thiborg, 2010), and has commanded national attention and popularity in South Korea. Within cyberspace linked over the Internet or Local Area Networks (LANs), many participants match electronic game skills against other participants with little spatiotemporal restraint. However, illegal downloading of game materials over the Internet has been prevalent and caused economic losses to game development companies (Korea Creative Content Agency, 2006b). The main purpose of this study was to propose a theoretical model describing determinants of game piracy among eSports game users in South Korea. The study specifically investigated the piracy behaviors of game users according to their demographic background, awareness of copyright laws, and intention to commit game piracy. Using the theory of reasoned action (TRA), the intention was also examined according to attitude towards game piracy and subjective norm. A convenience sample was made up of 354 eSports game users who attended an eSports arena to see the regular season games of a professional league. A binary logistic regression and multiple linear regression analysis were employed to answer the research questions of the study. The results showed that males were more likely to pirate game materials over the Internet than were females. The more intention individuals had, the more they were likely to commit game piracy. Attitude towards game piracy and subjective norm played significant roles in the behavioral intention. Most importantly, the behavioral intention was shaped more by their attitudes towards game piracy than by subjective norms. This study may initially offer people in eSports and game industries, related research communities, and Korean game content agencies an understanding of how and why eSports consumers pirate game materials. By doing so, the findings of the study may inspire further investigation of game-related piracy and policies aimed at reducing the piracy of game content.\u2

Technological impacts on market attitudes and behaviors

Technology has had a profound effect on twentieth century society and is increasingly changing the nature of the way we live our lives in the twenty first century, particularly, but not solely, through innovations in digital and social media marketing. As media and other technologies change, the question arising concerns how these changes impact on consumers’ attitudes and behaviors, and consequently on their lives. In this special edition, nine papers are presented, outlining cutting-edge research exploring how changing technologies affect consumer attitudes, emotions and behaviors in a variety of country settings and industries. In this introductory editorial, the papers are outlined in further detail, with a brief exposition of their contribution

Why Do People Share Music Files in the P2P Environment: An Ethical Decision Perspective

Digitalized information and the Internet have brought great impacts on the music and movies industries. This study tested the ethical decision model of Hunt-Vitell to understand why and how people share unauthorized music files with others in the P2P network. Four scenarios of using P2P system and four norms related to them were proposed in the study. The results indicate that the deontological norm of anti-piracy, whether is theft of intellectual property or not, is not the main factors affecting P2P users’ ethical consideration regarding sharing music with others. The results also suggest the music companies should care more about how to realize the benefits of the digital and network technology to increase the consumers’ welfare instead of just declare the intellectual property they owned and resist the innovations caused by the new technologies

Determinants of consumers’ intentions to share knowledge and intentions to purchase on s-commerce sites: incorporating attitudes toward persuasion attempts into a social exchange model

This research explores s-commerce users’ intentions to purchase and to share knowledge by incorporating ‘attitudes toward persuasion attempts,’ ‘ease of use,’ and ‘perceived usefulness’ into a social exchange theory model. A survey using an on-site purposive sampling technique was used to recruit the respondents, and an interception technique was used to approach the consumers. A total of 471 Korean consumers participated in this research. Based on 471 Korean social-commerce users, our results reveal that social exchange belief factors and a site’s usability affect user satisfaction, which subsequently affects users’ intentions to purchase and to share knowledge. In addition, attitudes toward persuasion attempts moderate the effect of satisfaction on users’ purchase intentions. Keywords: social exchange theory, attitudes toward persuasion attempts, intention to share knowledge, social exchange belief

Understanding the role of social situations on continuance participation intention in online communities: an empirical perspective

In recent years, the mushrooming development of Online Communities (OCs) has ushered a new paradigm of research for organizational sustainability in IS. In essence, the growth and survival of an online community relies predominantly on the continuous participation of its members. Given that the emergence of OCs may decay or even diminish due to the lack of consistent involvement of members, it is of paramount importance to fathom how to retain and entice members of OCs in terms of their continuous participation in the online platform. Extant studies have focused mostly on personal belief constructs and subjective norm constructs to study users' continuous behavior. However, the important role of social situations has not been sufficiently explored and investigated in IS, particularly in the emerging context of OCs. Drawing on the Triandis model, this study proposes a research model incorporating social situations as the moderator on the continuance participation intention in OCs. We collected data from two large OCs to examine whether congruence exists between situation perceptions and situation reactions. The empirical results show that social situations play an important role in determining the strength of the relationships between affect, social factors, and perceived consequences and the continuance intention in OCs

Measuring and Controlling Social Desirability Bias: Applications in Information Systems Research

Despite the potential risks that social desirability (SD) bias poses to the validity of information systems (IS) research, little is known about the extent of such bias. This study examines the extent of SD bias in the IS domain and compares alternative techniques for measuring it. Our findings suggest that despite the popularity of the Marlowe-Crowne scale in IS research, the impression management scale functions better in assessing the extent of SD bias. We also found that under certain circumstances, SD bias can threaten the validity of IS research. This study contributes to the IS literature by showing the difference in SD bias across IS contexts and suggesting an effective way to test for the presence of SD bias

Differential effects of social influence sources on self-reported music piracy

The paper examines the effects of five major socialization agents—namely parents, peers, traditional media, the Internet, and music industry—on emerging adults' attitudes and behavior toward music piracy in the form of unauthorized downloading. Based upon self-reported behavior, our study shows that these socialization agents exert differential effects on music piracy. Specifically, peers and the Internet exert direct impact on both attitudes and behavior. Parents and music industry, however, only have indirect impact on emerging adults' piracy behavior through shaping their attitudes. The research further shows that the effects of socialization agents differ across consumer segments. A factor mixture modeling technique is first applied to disentangle the behavioral heterogeneity, and more observable factors such as demographic, social, and psychological variables are then utilized to profile members in each segment. From a managerial perspective, this research provides new avenues for managers and policy makers to design targeted prevention programs to curtail music piracy