Central Role of Moral Obligations in Determining Intentions to Engage in Digital Piracy
Hashim, M.J., K.N. Kannan, and D.T. Wegener. "Central Role of Moral Obligations in Determining Intentions to Engage in Digital Piracy." Journal of Management Information Systems, 35 (3), pp. 934-963, 2018.
43 Pages Posted: 11 Feb 2018 Last revised: 20 Jun 2019
Date Written: January 29, 2018
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. We extend the theory of planned behavior 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 towards piracy, and show how moral obligations become important determinants of piracy behavior. 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.
Keywords: piracy, morals, victimless crime, theory of planned behavior
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