Examining intention of digital piracy: an integration of social norms and ethical ideologies

Pages157-172
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-11-2016-0043
Published date14 May 2018
Date14 May 2018
AuthorNamkee Park,Naewon Kang,Hyun Sook Oh
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information & communications technology
Examining intention of digital
piracy: an integration of social
norms and ethical ideologies
Namkee Park
Department of Communication, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea (the Republic of)
Naewon Kang
School of Communications, Dankook University, Yongin, Gyeonggi-do,
Korea (the Republic of), and
Hyun Sook Oh
Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Pyeongtaek University,
Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do, Korea (the Republic of)
Abstract
Purpose This study aims to investigatethe applicability of ethical ideologies reectedby two dimensions
of moral idealismand relativism, together with social norms,to the context of digital piracy.
Design/methodology/approach This study used data from a survey of college students and
conducteda series of hierarchicalregression analyses.
Findings This study found that digital piracy intention was dissimilar among four different ethical
groups. Injunctivenorm was a critical factor that affected internet usersintention of digital piracy,yet it was
valid only for situationists and absolutists. For subjectivists and exceptionists, individual differences
represented by ego-involvementand past experience of digital piracy played a more criticalrole than social
norms in explainingdigital piracy intention.
Originality/value This study is the rst attempt to apply the dimensions of moral idealism and
relativism to the context of digital piracy.Thus, it suggests that more tailored approaches are recommended
to reduce digitalpiracy for internet usersvaried ethical ideologies.
Keywords Social norms, Ethical ideologies, Digital piracy, Ego-involvement, Past experience
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The development of internet technologies has changed the ways in which people enjoy
entertainment media, including listening to music and watching movies or television
programs, yet oftentimesin a problematic fashion. For instance, since late 1990s, le-sharing
peer-to-peer (P2P) programssuch as Napster, Kazza and numerous BitTorrent serviceshave
made the waves, rendering the established music and video industries to claim copyright
infringements and loss of their revenues. Although the number of people who illegally
download songs or video programs via le-sharing programs is decreasing (The NPD
Group, 2012), a recent study indicates that almost two-thirds of the study participants
regularly use searchengines to nd unauthorized media content (Hill, 2013). Further,despite
the decreasing trend of digital piracy in developed countries, the practice is still
commonplace in developing countries (The Economist, 2011), demonstrating that it is still
an ongoing issue to be addressed.
Digital piracy
157
Received14 November 2016
Revised16 December 2017
Accepted15 January 2018
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.16 No. 2, 2018
pp. 157-172
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-11-2016-0043
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
During the past decade, a signicant number of academic studies paid attention to
peoples digital piracy behavior, focusing particularly upon the socio/psychological factors
affecting the behavior (Cho et al.,2015;Lowry et al.,2017;Udo et al., 2016). For example,
Wang and McClung (2011) investigated psychological motivations and factors that affect
college studentsintentionto download digital content illegally, within the frameworkof the
theory of planned behavior (TPB). Similarly, Cronan and Al-Rafee (2008) used the TPB
framework adding moral obligation and past piracy behavior as an attempt to understand
digital piracy behavior. Peaceet al.(2003)alsodeveloped a TPB model that investigated the
factors of ethical intentions of pirating computer software. Al-Rafee and Cronan (2006)
examined the factors affecting an individuals attitude toward downloading digitalmaterial
illegally, including another set of determinants such as moral judgment and
Machiavellianism, while Wang and McClung (2012) added the factors of anticipated guilt
and general emotions. However, as Wang and McClung (2011) properly pointed out, the
argument in this line of research some key constructs of the TPB (attitude and perceived
behavioral control) would inuence intention or actual behavior of digital piracy is quite
obvious and circular. That is, it is clear that favorable attitudes toward digital piracy or
usersself-condenceto illegally download would have positiveimpacts on the downloading
intention or behavior.
Given that the behavior of digital piracyis, by denition, socially undesirable,it is highly
likely that an individualsdecision to illegally download is inuenced by other people. Thus,
the present study uses the framework of the social norms approach (SNA: Lapinski and
Rimal, 2005;Perkins, 2003;Rimal and Real 2003). Previous studies with the TPB have
demonstrated that subjective norm,which is similar to injunctive norm in the SNA, is not a
consistent determinant that affects digitalpiracy. For instance, Al-Rafee and Cronan (2006)
and Wang and McClung (2011,2012) found that subjective norm is a signicant factor
affecting downloading intention,whereas Cronan and Al-Rafee (2008) could not conrm the
signicance of subjective norm. These inconsistent ndings are possibly due to incomplete
explication of socialnorms, calling for closer attention to different functionsof social norms.
Another stream of research has highlighted the ethical aspect of software piracy
behavior. For instance, Gopal and Sanders (1998) posited that ethics has an impact on
individualslikelihood of using pirated software. Wagner and Sanders (2001) examined
peoples moral predispositionsand their relationships to likelihood of software piracy. Also,
Lysonski and Durvasula (2008) examined how ethical orientation such as ethical idealism
and ethical self-concept affects digital piracy behavior. In these studies, researchers
typically conducted theirresearch by giving participants ethical dilemmas or situationsand
evaluating their decisionswhen faced with those situations. Nevertheless,ethical orientation
in these studies is rather one-dimensional; they measured individualsethical orientation
with the degree of ethical idealism the degree to which individuals idealistically assume
that desirable consequencescan, with the rightaction, always be obtained(Forsyth, 1980,
p. 176). However, Forsyth (1980) suggested that in addition to the dimension of idealism,
another dimension of relativism be taken into consideration. According to Forsyth (1980),
relativism refers to the extent to which an individual rejects universal moral rules.
Following Forsyth (1980), the present study classies four different types of individuals
based upon the two dimensions of ethical orientations (i.e. idealism and relativism) and
examines how different ethical orientations or ideologies are related to their intention to
illegally downloadcontent from the internet.
Taken together, the present study aims to examine the role of social norms,represented
by injunctive and descriptive norms, in affecting individualsintention of digital piracy,
depending on their different ethical ideologies. This investigation will contribute to the
JICES
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