Risks, Ethics, and Desires: The Antecedents of Digital Product Acquisition

As our lives have moved further into the digital realm, the opportunities for engaging in ethically questionable behaviour have increased. Capitalising on these changes, the piracy of digital goods has exploded; a phenomenon that has been accompanied by a corresponding research literature. Utilising theoretical frameworks from a variety of disciplines, investigators have largely focused their efforts on identifying the antecedents and consequences of the piracy of specific digital products (i.e., software, music, or film). While this research has lead to some fruitful insights about the characteristics of individuals that engage in digital piracy (e.g. young, male, risk adverse) and the factors that influence their behaviours (e.g. attitudes, norms, intentions), its narrow focus has largely decontextualised piracy by omitting alternatives to it. Taking a different perspective, digital piracy is conceptualised as just one of a range methods used to acquire digital goods. Drawing on behavioural economics, psychology and marketing, a new theoretical model is presented, where decisions about digital product acquisition are driven by desires, but conditional upon resources, ethics, risks, and external constraints. Building on the model, a plan for research is proposed and a methodology for evaluating its assumptions is presented.

Primary supervisor: Ioanna Constantiou (CBS/INF)

Discussant for the 1. Seminar: Ravi Vatrapu (CBS/Caict)

According to the new rules and regulations, PhD students at CBS have to hold a 1. seminar concerning their PhD project within the first six months of their studies. The purpose of the seminar is twofold: (1) it gives the student the opportunity to publically present the PhD work (2) it provides the student with feedback on the work beyond the primary supervisor. The ‘successful’ performance of the seminar will be approved by the student’s primary supervisor and the local PhD co-ordinator.

The format of the seminar is as follows:

The student’s supervisor acts as the facilitator for the meeting.

1 – The student will present her/his project based on a 20 to 25 pages document including the project plan, the research question, any research design, and preliminary results (e.g. results from a literature review which identified a research gap, a research model, etc.). This part takes up to max. 30 minutes!

2 – An assigned discussant who has had the opportunity to read the seminar document provides about 25 minutes of feedback based on the document and the student’s presentation.

3 – The public audience has afterwards the opportunity to provide feedback based on the student’s presentation for about 35 minutes.

Karl Kautz

PhD co-ordinator CBS/INF