Central Role of Moral Obligations in Determining Intentions to Engage in Digital Piracy

Abstract

Piracy is a significant source of concern facing software developers, music labels, and movie production companies, to name a few. Digital goods producers and government entities argue that there are victims of piracy, whereas pirates may perceive their actions to be victimless. Regarding implications of our research, we extend the theory of planned behavior (TPB) by theorizing that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control could influence perceptions of moral obligations as a consequence of the desire to rationalize unethical behavior. Unlike prior literature, we manipulate the rationalization of moral obligations due to the victimless view toward piracy and show how moral obligations become important determinants of piracy behavior. Accordingly, our demonstrated malleability of morals may be an important path through which individuals are able to continue past behaviors. We also conduct a second study to identify the effect of implementing an educational message from a fictitious software company to exogenously nudge the pirate and influence the impact of perceived moral obligations on intentions to pirate. Our results show that the introduction of an exogenous educational message is an effective piracy mitigation strategy.

Key words and phrases:

• Digital piracy
• software piracy
• information ethics
• morals
• norms
• victimless crime
• theory of planned behavior
• piracy mitigation

Supplemental Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Notes

^1. Please see the Online Appendix for details regarding our questionnaire.

^2. We implement a unique procedure using hypothetical scenarios in a questionnaire (see the Questionnaire Development Section for details) to manipulate consistency of behavior.

^3. We used SmartPLS 2.0.M3 [79] to conduct construct level corrections to assess the potential impact of common method variance.

^4. The literature suggests all PLS analyses should include clear reporting of the statistical analyses conducted, implement a proper use of indicators (i.e., formative vs. reflective), avoid “rule-of-thumb” small sample sizes, ensure and test for proper data quality (e.g., reliability and validity), and report predictive relevance, among others.

^5. Cross-loading of items with other constructs was never observed with N3 and/or B4 included.

^6. See the Online Appendix for details.

^7. There are potentially two types of effects that may occur: 1) inhibition of new pirated goods, and 2) conversion of existing pirated goods to non-pirated goods. We intentionally do not make a distinction between these two effects.

^8. We captured perceptions of cost (based upon Peace et al. [75]) and compared responses between the studies to assess financial impact. Participants reported that the music context was significantly lower in cost in comparison to the software context (two sample t-test with unequal variances for music vs. software; means of 4.99 vs. 5.64; t = -6.32; p < 0.001). Therefore, we are confident that the participants viewed the software context as having a higher financial impact, and thus higher piracy saliency.

^9. We note here that the interpretation of a “loaded” term such as piracy is individually interpreted. That is, some may view piracy as an acceptable activity, whereas others may associate it with an illegal activity.

^10. Cohen’s f² = [R² (interaction model) - R² (main effects model)] / [1 - R² (interaction model)]: f² = (0.36 - 0.32) / (1 - 0.36).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matthew J. Hashim

Matthew J. Hashim ([email protected]; corresponding author) is an Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems at the Eller College of Management, University of Arizona. He received his Ph.D. in Management with a specialization in management information systems (MIS) from the Krannert School of Management, Purdue University. His research primarily uses experimental and behavioral economics to understand information security problems such as information privacy, digital piracy, password security, social engineering, and other security-related topics. His work has been published in premier journals such as Journal of Management Information Systems and Information Systems Research, and has been presented at major conferences and workshops.

Karthik N. Kannan

Karthik N. Kannan ([email protected]) is the Thomas Howatt Chaired Professor of Management at the Krannert School of Management, Purdue University. He received his Ph.D. in information systems from the Heinz College of Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Kannan researches information technology (IT) aspects related to “Designing for Human Instincts.” Specifically, he is interested in understanding and designing systems—products, processes, or policies—that exploit human instincts and biases in order to nudge behavior. He is a Jefferson Science Fellow for 2017–2018, CERIAS Fellow, and Krannert Faculty Fellow. His research has been published in Journal of Management Information Systems, Management Science, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, and other premier business and economics journals. He serves or has served as an Associate Editor for Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Management Science, and MIS Quarterly.

Duane T. Wegener

Duane T. Wegener ([email protected]) is a Professor of Social Psychology and Decision Psychology at Ohio State University. He received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Ohio State University. His research focuses on attitudes and persuasion, especially influences on the amount and nature of information processing and the consequences of the resulting attitudes for later thinking and behavior. Dr. Wegener received the American Psychological Association (APA) Early Career Award for distinguished contributions to the science of social psychology. His research has been published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Psychological Methods, and other premier journals. He serves or has served as a Section Editor for the Social and Personality Psychology Compass, and Associate Editor for Basic and Applied Social Psychology and the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.