Consumer-to-Consumer Ecommerce: Acceptance and Intended Behavior

Consumer-to-consumer ecommerce is used by individuals who come together to buy and sell products. With the widespread use of this commerce environment comes the need to explore potential influences on its acceptance or one’s intention to use it. Using the technology acceptance model, the theory of planned behavior, and ecommerce success theory, a research model is proposed. After collecting 94 survey responses, the model is examined using regression analysis. The findings indicate that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude, and satisfaction influence one’s acceptance of or intention to use consumer-to-consumer ecommerce. A discussion of the study findings is provided

What\u27s Yours is Mine: Trust in Collaborative Consumption

Consumers are expanding the types of goods they are exchanging in consumer-to-consumer e-commerce. There appears to be a subset called collaborative consumption. Collaborative consumption is a dynamic concept given that an individual must develop mechanisms to trust others with transporting, sharing, and consuming goods/services. This study develops a trust model for collaborative consumption with three expected influences -- natural propensity to trust (NPT), others’ trust of buyer/seller (OTBS), and objective trust (perceived website quality (PWSQ) and third party recognition (TPR)) -- on an individual’s trust in collaborative consumption. Regression analysis is utilized to assess the proposed model. The study finds support for NPT and partial support for OTBS influencing trust in collaborative consumption, but not for PWSQ and TPR. This is contrary to findings of consumer-to-consumer e-commerce trust studies. A discussion is provided regarding these differences

Applying the Multidimensional Ethics Scale to Examine Student Behavior when using Technology

This study contributes to the discussion on student perceptions of questionable academic behavior. Students evaluate behavioral scenarios to see whether they judge the behavior as ethical and to examine potential predictors of that judgment. The scenarios used isolate academic integrity decisions that involve the use of IT. The respondents were given items to examine the influence of moral equity, egoism, relativism, contractualism, and utilitarianism on three dependent variables: individual intention, peer intention, and ethical awareness of students in an academic-setting. This instrument incorporates dimensions from traditional ethical philosophies to determine which reasoning affects ethicality. This research aims to bridge the gap between faculty and student expectations by gaining a deeper understanding of the students’ decision making in a theoretical framework. The results suggest that students incorporate a number of philosophical frameworks in judging a specific behavior. Moral equity was the theory that was employed most frequently by the subjects

So Much Promise, So Little Use: What is Stopping Home End-Users from Using Password Manager Applications?

In this paper, we investigate the voluntary use of password management applications in order to address a decades-old and ubiquitous information security problem related to poor password management. In our exploratory analysis, we investigate two related issues: (1) why home end-users chose not to use password management applications and (2) why high behavioral intentions to use password management applications did not always lead to actual usage for certain users. We found that issues related to the technology such as lack of trust or memory limitations, individual issues such as perceived costs and benefits, and a lack of concern about the threat (threat apathy) were the primary inhibitors of lack of use. For those that had high intentions to use a password management application but failed to actually use the software, we found that a variety of individual issues such as lack of immediacy and having insufficient time were the primary inhibitors leading to this breakdown

Illegal, Inappropriate, And Unethical Behavior In An Information Technology Context: A Study To Explain Influences

A recent study by Banerjee, Cronan and Jones (1998) proposed and tested an information technology (IT) ethics model. They found that personal normative beliefs, organizational ethical climate, and organization-scenario were significant indicators of ethical behavioral intention. Moreover, they found that factors affecting ethical intention are situational and depend upon the ethical dilemma. Further research was suggested and recommended, among other things, replications with different samples. The present study furthers the development/validation of the IT ethical model by utilizing a large sample of students in the same organizational climate (a university). Moreover, based on previous studies, gender is introduced to the model. The present study, as in previous studies, found that personal normative beliefs and scenario (situation) are indicators of ethical behavior intention. However, this study found that attitude toward ethical behavior, ego strength, relative preference for principled reasoning over conventional and pre-conventional reasoning, and gender are additional significant indicators of ethical behavior intention

Evaluating the Core and Full Protection Motivation Theory Nomologies for the Voluntary Adoption of Password Manager Applications

The protection motivation theory (PMT) is widely used in behavioral information security research, with multiple instantiations of the theoretical model applied in the literature. The purpose of this study is to perform a theoretical (conceptual) replication of both the core and full (PMT) nomologies in the context of voluntary password manager application use for individual home end-users. In our study, the full PMT model explained more variance than the core PMT model, but the relationships between multiple behavioral antecedents differed between the core and full PMT models, possibly due to differences in model complexity. Our findings suggest that researchers should justify the version of the PMT that they choose to use based on their research objectives with the understanding that the same variables may be significant in one version of the PMT but not significant in another version of the PMT

The role of worker tenure and employment heterogeneity on software development work activities

Software development group effectiveness depends on many factors, and understanding those factors is vital to project success, especially when considering the time and money that is dedicated to said projects.  Therefore, this study examines the role of worker tenure and employment heterogeneity on exploration and exploitation work completed within an organization’s software development group.  Analysis of time tracking data within one financial services organization over a three years period demonstrates that worker tenure and employment heterogeneity do play an important role in shaping work activities.  Worker tenure exhibited a negative relationship with exploration and exploitation activities, suggesting a critical mechanism through which an organization can elicit innovative and incremental development efforts.  Further, the positive effect of employment heterogeneity on exploration and exploitation suggests that employment diversity can also provide a means to encourage innovative and incremental development activities.  Findings highlight the notion that group composition plays a meaningful role in shaping the focus of software development work within an organization

Effects of Radio-Transmitters on Body Condition, Harvest Rate, and Survival of Bobwhites

Numerous studies of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) population and habitat ecology employ use of radio-telemetry techniques to relocate and monitor individuals. Radio-telemetry enables estimation of reproductive success, survival, movements, and home range at levels of resolution not otherwise possible. Unbiased estimation of these parameters via radio-telemetry assumes that survival, reproduction, and behavior of radio-marked individuals are not affected by carrying the radio-transmitter. These assumptions have not been rigorously tested for bobwhites. In 1993, we initiated a study at Divide Section Wildlife Management Area in Mississippi and at Tall Timbers Research Station to test the effects of radio-transmitters on survival, harvest rate, and body condition of bobwhites. From 1993 to 1996 we banded 221 and radio-marked 259 bobwhites on Tall Timbers Research Station. Harvest rate for radio-marked bobwhites was 18.5% and banded birds 12.7%. In 2 of 3 years, radio-marked birds experienced greater mean weight loss between capture and harvest than banded birds. From 1994 to 1995 we radio marked 188 and banded 210 birds on Divide Section Wildlife Management Area. Harvest rate for radio-marked birds was 40% and banded birds 30%. In the 1995-1996 hunting season radiomarked birds had lower mean weight gain from capture to harvest than banded birds. Based on our sample of marked birds, 34% of the fall population on this area was harvested. We have established a captive breeding colony of wild bobwhites at the Blackjack Captive Animal Research Facility at Mississippi State University. During the summer of 1996, genetically wild progeny are being produced to be used in a pen study to evaluate the effects of radio-transmitters on bobwhite body weight and lipid levels under abundant and scarce food resources. This study will provide the first harvest rate estimates for bobwhites on a public hunting area in Mississippi. Additionally, this study will evaluate the effects of radio-transmitters on bobwhite body condition, survival, and harvest rate. It will either validate the assumption of no radio effects and aid interpretation of previous and future radio studies or elucidate critical violations of fundamental assumptions of this methodology. If radio effects are detected, this study will identify the specific mechanisms creating bias in estimation of population parameters. This information will enable researchers to target radio design problems and develop new radio technology with reduced effects. Preliminary results suggest that radio-marking may marginally increase bobwhite vulnerability to harvest and potentially predation