Determinants of Cybercrime Originating within a Nation: A Cross-country Study

ABSTRACT8

Cybercrimes have an adverse impact on the reputation and economy of a nation. This paper investigates the factors that affect the frequency of cybercrime originating within a country. These factors were grouped into three categories, namely, economic capital, technological capital, and cybersecurity preparedness. On analyzing the data from 124 countries, it emerges that the economic capital and technological capital of a country are the primary factors that influence the frequency of cybercrime originating within it. Technological capital also partially mediates the relationship between economic capital and the frequency of cybercrime originating within the nation. Furthermore, the cybersecurity preparedness of a nation negatively moderates the relationship between technological capital and frequency of cybercrime originating within it. The findings have significant implications for policymakers at the national level and managers at the organizational level concerning cybersecurity preparedness. They should focus on both hard (legal, technical, organizational) and soft (training and co-operational) aspects of cybersecurity preparation to minimize the incidence of cybercrime within a nation.

KEYWORDS:

• Cybercrime
• cybersecurity preparedness
• economic capital
• general deterrence theory
• rational choice theory
• technological capital

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are present in the following reports available at respective URLs. These data were derived from the following resources available in the public domain: [list resources and URLs]

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

Shashi Kant Srivastava

Shashi Kant Srivastava is a faculty in the area of IT & Systems at the Indian Institute of Management Sirmaur, India. He received his FPM (Ph.D.) from the Indian Institute of Management Indore, India. His current research interests include blockchain technology, multi-criteria decision making, artificial intelligence, business analytics, and information economics. His papers have appeared in Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application, International Journal of Business Intelligence Research, International Journal of Knowledge Management and Journal of International Technology and Information Management. He can be reached at [email protected]

Saini Das

Saini Das is a faculty in the area of IT & Systems of Vinod Gupta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. Her major research interests are in managing information security risks in networks, management information systems (MIS), e-commerce technology and applications, data privacy, digital piracy and data analytics. Her research articles have been published in several journals of repute including Decision Support Systems, Information System Frontiers, Behavior and Information Technology, Journal of Global Information Technology Management, etc.

Godwin J. Udo

Godwin J. Udo is a Professor of Information and Decision Sciences in the College of Business Administration at the University of Texas at El Paso. He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Management from Clemson University. He is the author of over 100 research articles in the areas of technology transfer, computer security, IT adoption and management, and decision support systems. His research articles have been published in EJIS, Information & Management, Computer & Industrial Engineering, Journal of Production Economics, IJIM, IJOPM, CAIS, etc.

Kallol Bagchi

Kallol Bagchi is a Professor of Information and Decision Sciences in the College of Business Administration at the University of Texas at El Paso. He received his Ph.D. in information systems from the Florida Atlantic University.  Prior to pursuing his IS doctorate, he had earned a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from India. He has published in journals such as CACM, CAIS, IJEC, IJEB, Information and Management, JGITM, etc. His current research interests include IT adoption and diffusion, Global IT, Software engineering.