An investigation of volitional control in information ethics

The main motivation of our research is how the issue of volitional control might affect the application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to research decisions related to information ethics. Specifically, a TPB-based model provides the best fit to the sample collected for the present study. In this model, the contribution of both the attitude and perceived behavioural control to the intention is shown to fluctuate depending upon the degree of volitional control concerning the targeted behaviour. As the behaviour's degree of volitional control lessens, the weighted influence of perceived behavioural control increases and that of the attitude decreases. Thus, it is confirmed that degree of volitional control concerning an ethical act indeed plays a central role in applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour to information ethics research.

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