The influence of cybersecurity threat appraisal, coping appraisal and secondary threat appraisal on employee’s cybersecurity behaviors: A case of LTH Food Industries Incorporated

The study investigated the effects of primary threat appraisal, secondary threat appraisal, and coping appraisal on the cybersecurity behaviors of employees. It addressed the gap of not only applying the Protection Motivation Theory in a cybersecurity context, but it also introduced secondary risk as a variable in understanding cybersecurity behaviors. To conduct the study, a quantitative, descriptive, explanatory case study research design was applied. Upon gathering and analyzing data from 103 employees from LTH Food Industries through survey and interviews with their top management, the results showed that coping appraisal has a significant positive effect onto cybersecurity behaviors. Further statistical analysis showed that only response efficacy had a significant effect onto cybersecurity behaviors. This indicates that the company’s employees are well-trained in managing cyber-attacks. Multiple regression analysis also showed that when the three independent variables were put together, secondary threat appraisal became significant in discouraging cybersecurity behaviors. This is likely because of the high level of trust put in place on the cybersecurity software installed. Based on these findings, the study recommends that management should invest more into the cybersecurity programs of their company to empower their employees to take stronger action against more deadly cybersecurity attacks in future periods