Examination of cyber aggression by adult consumers: ethical framework and drivers

Published date23 November 2019
Pages305-319
Date23 November 2019
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-09-2019-0106
AuthorMei Han,Arturo Z. Vasquez
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information & communications technology
Examination of cyber aggression
by adult consumers: ethical
framework and drivers
Mei Han
Department of Marketing, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley,
Edinburg, Texas, USA, and
Arturo Z. Vasquez
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, Texas, USA
Abstract
Purpose The widespreaduse of information and communicationtechnologiesenables consumers to obtain
and shareinformation whenever theyfeel the urge. With the adventof review websites and forums,companies
and business ownersmay nd themselves victims of consumercyber aggression, which can hurta company
badly. This studyaims to explore why consumers wouldengage in cyber aggression against companies, and
to that end,it examines consumersethicalorientation and other possibledrivers of cyber aggression.
Design/methodology/approach To examine how ethical orientationaffects consumersintention to
engage in cyber aggression,a scenario-based 2 2 (deontological: moral/immoralteleological: good result/
bad result) between-subjectexperimental design is used. Moreover,26 possible drivers in related literature are
identiedand included in a questionnaire administeredto 226 college students.
Findings The results show that adultconsumersdeontological and teleological evaluations signicantly
affect their ethical judgment about engaging in cyber aggression, which further impacts their intention to
perpetrate an act of cyber aggression. Moreover, the study identies six factors contributing to cyber
aggression engagement as follows: personal aggressiveness, ease of perpetration, internet negativity,
personalgains, helping the company and recreation.
Originality/value Cyber aggression is generally viewed as interpersonal violence among adolescents.
This study viewscyber aggression from a different perspective and it isone of the few studies to look at adult
consumersmotivationsto engage in cyber aggression against companies.The ndings of this study can help
rms understand why theircustomers attack them online, and understanding that willenable businesses to
formulatemore effective responses to attacks.
Keywords Company cyber aggression, Ethical framework, Drivers of cyber aggression,
American consumers, Deontological, Teleological evaluations
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The explosive growth of the internet has changed many facets of peoples lives, and as a
consequence, they have become accustomed to seeking and sharing information online
(Belous, 2014;Sangwanand Agarwal, 2019). Research has shown that more than 80 per cent
of US consumers conduct online searches before buying a product or hiring a service, and
over half of these consumers read online reviews (Aerts et al.,2017). With the advent of
review websites and forums such as yelp, google reviews, pissed consumer and so on, the
internet has empoweredconsumers to raise their voices louder than ever (Rosarioet al., 2016;
Hussain et al.,2018), a development that has also increased the vulnerability of some
businesses to online attacks.
Examination
of cyber
aggression
305
Received26 September 2019
Revised22 October 2019
Accepted31 October 2019
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.18 No. 2, 2020
pp. 305-319
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-09-2019-0106
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1477-996X.htm

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