The Role of Subjective knowledge and Perceived Consequences in Shaping Attitude and Intention Toward Digital Piracy

Abstract Digital piracy represents a significant threat, especially to music, film and software industry worldwide. In order to provide insights into consumer behavior related to digital piracy, this study aimed at developing and empirically testing the role of subjective knowledge and three types of expected consequences (i.e., perceived benefits, moral intensity, perceived risk) as antecedents of attitude toward digital piracy and intention to pirate digital content. In view of the existing literature, the purpose of this research was twofold: (a) to develop a conceptual model of consumer’s attitude and intention to pirate, and (b) to empirically test the role of subjective knowledge, perceived benefits, moral intensity and perceived risk as antecedents of consumers’ attitude toward pirating, as well as the role of subjective knowledge, perceived benefits, and attitude as antecedents of intention to pirate. The hypotheses were tested by collecting data via self-administered mail survey sent to an initial sample of 10,000 adult consumers in Slovenia, yielding a usable random sample of 843 consumers. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results of the study show that moral intensity and perceived risk do not play an important role in shaping one’s attitude toward piracy, while subjective knowledge and perceived benefits exhibit a statistically significant impact upon both, attitude toward digital piracy and intention to pirate. In addition, consistent with previous studies, attitude is a significant predictor of behavioral intention. Taking into consideration the specifics of the selected context, it is hoped that this study contributes to a better understanding of the demand side of digital piracy.