! 2005 Springer

Journal of Business Ethics (2005) 57: 161)174 DOI 10.1007/s10551-004-5263-6

The Antecedents of Music Piracy Attitudes and Intentions

ABSTRACT. Piracy is the greatest threat facing the music industry worldwide today. This study developed and empirically tested a model examining the antecedents of consumer attitude and behavioral intention toward music piracy behavior. Two types of music piracy behavior, unauthorized duplication/download and pirated music product purchasing, were examined. Based on a field survey in Taiwan, the results showed that attributive satisfaction, perceived prosecution risk, magnitude of consequence, and social consensus are very important in influencing customers’ attitude and behavioral intention toward two types of music piracy behavior. In addition, singer/band idolization can affect the attitude and behavioral intention in the case of pirated music product purchasing. Perceived proximity was found to affect the attitude and behavioral intention in the case of pirated music product purchasing. However, it only influenced behavioral intention in the case of unauthorized duplication/download. KEY WORDS: music piracy, idolization, attitude, unauthorized file download, moral intensity

Jyh-Shen Chiou (Ph.D. in Marketing, Michigan State), is professor of Marketing, Department of International Trade, College of Commerce, National Chengchi University, Taiwan. His research focuses on consumer behavior and strategic marketing. His work has been published in Information & Management, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Service Research, International Journal of Advertising, European Journal of Marketing, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Social Psychology, Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, etc. Chien-yi Huang, Associate Professor, Department of Infant and Child Care, National Taipei College of Nursing. Sin-hui Lee, Graduate student, Department of International Trade, National Chengchi University.

Jyh-Shen Chiou Chien-yi Huang Hsin-hui Lee

Introduction Piracy is the greatest threat facing the music industry worldwide today. World sales of recorded music fell by 7% in value and by 8% in units in 2002. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) attributes the decline to the mass download from unauthorized file-sharing on the Internet and the mass proliferation of CD burning. Millions of copyrighted works are available online, and the number is growing, as music downloading became one of the fastest growing activities on the Internet (Graziano and Rainie, 2001). It is estimated that almost 40% of all CDs and cassettes sold around the globe in 2001 were pirated copies. There is still no sign when the declining trend of copyrighted CD sales will stop. Many music CD buyers deny that they are doing anything wrong and blame the music industry for charging high prices (Kwong et al., 2003). Sometimes, double standards are employed such that prospective buyers of pirated CDs do not hold themselves accountable for their action but hold pirated CD sellers as responsible (Cordell et al., 1996). Some consumers even claim that the entertainers also do not seem worse off because of music product piracy as they still enjoy a high income and live in a bountiful way (Ang et al., 2001). Since music piracy is illegal, the decision to purchase or download pirated music presents stimuli that evoke certain ethical dilemmas that affect consumers’ ethical decision processes. Therefore, it is important to examine the effect of moral perceptions on these piracy behaviors. Furthermore, evidence suggests that celebrity idolization has become ubiquitous in recent decades (Giles, 2000; McCutcheon et al., 2002). Giles (2000) explains the prevalence of celebrity idolization in modern societies as direct products of

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mass media and communications. Adolescents often revere celebrities such as pop singers and sports figures (Greene and Adams-Price, 1990). Because of the prevalence of celebrity idolization behaviors, more and more music marketers try to organize fan clubs and use fandom’s loyalty to reduce the possibility of music piracy on the focal singers. This study intends to incorporate this important factor in the model to examine its effects on reducing music piracy behaviors. Two types of consumer music piracy behavior are distinguished in this study. One is called unauthorized duplication/download (mostly from a website); the other is called pirated music product purchasing. The Internet has become an important platform of data exchange because it facilitates nearly free distribution with little difficulty. Holders of music copyrights must therefore fight multiple infringers who are hard to identify and locate and who are personally engaging in relatively minor copyright infringement, creating a massive headache for the music industry (Langenderfer and Cook, 2001). Before the digital era, music piracy was typically characterized by the sales of inferior recordings through flea markets or other unconventional sales outlets. Profits were limited because large sales volume could attract law enforcement attention that resulted in substantial criminal penalties. Today, duplication is near-perfect. Second and subsequent generation copies only reduce a minor portion of the sound quality depending on the level of compression. The effect of unauthorized music downloading has a much higher impact on the music industry than before. What is worse is that many consumers have no idea that they are infringing others’ copyrights when they download one or a few songs from the Internet. On the other hand, purchasing a pirated CD will directly substitute their possible purchases of the original copyrighted CD and promote criminal activities of the counterfeiters. Consumers clearly understand that consequences of their purchasing behaviors will have strong and negative effects on the copyright holders. Therefore, it is very interesting to see whether the effects of antecedents on the music piracy attitudes and intentions will be different between these two types of music piracy behavior. Asia includes many of the most serious piracy markets in the world. Based on estimation of the

IFPI in 2001, the most serious market is China. It has a piracy rate over 90% (IFPI, 2002). Despite their high economic performances, other Asian Chinese societies such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan all have serious music piracy problems. The piracy issues in Hong Kong and Singapore have been explored in academic journals frequently in the past (e.g. Ang et al., 2001; Chan et al., 1998; Chia and Mee, 2000; Tan, 2002). The issue in Taiwan, however, has been less examined. This study can provide insights of music piracy issues in this Chinese society. Taiwan is estimated to have a 50% piracy level (IFPI, 2002). It has experienced a rapid economic growth in the post World War II era. Over the past 30 years, the Taiwanese economy has evolved through three stages: from underdeveloped, to developing, to being a leading producer of high technology goods. The availability of information technology in Taiwan lets consumers have easy access to CD burners, the Internet, and cheap blank CD-R disks. The price of a pirated music CD is only about 15% of a legal one. Because of the high piracy level, the government and music companies initiated many public awareness campaigns to discourage music piracy. The Taiwanese government also installed a stiffer copyright law to curb the misbehavior. Although this stiffer law may discourage music piracy, a deeper understanding of the reasons of piracy behavior can help develop more effective preventive measures to reduce the music piracy problems. In addition, with such strong financial implications, business practitioners inevitably face a range of strategic decisions in order to minimize the effect of such consumer behavior on business performance in the marketplace. Consequently, an understanding of how and why consumers engage in music piracy is crucial for such strategic decisionmaking.

Conceptual framework and hypotheses Figure 1 presents a model of a consumer’s music piracy intention formation: attributive satisfaction of current copyrighted CDs, social consensus, singer/ band idolization, prosecution risk, magnitude of consequences, and proximity are modeled as exogenous variables, while construct regarding general

Music Piracy Attitudes and Intentions Singer/band

163

H7

Idolization Attributive

H2

Satisfaction H1

Perceived Prosecution

H3

Risk Perceived

H4

Attitude of Music Piracy • •

Pirated CD Purchasing Unauthorized Duplication/Download

Magnitude of Consequence

H9

Behavioral intention toward music piracy of their idol singers/bands • Pirated CD Purchasing • Unauthorized Duplication/Download

H5

Perceived Social

H6

Consensus Perceived

H8

Proximity

Figure 1.

music piracy attitude is modeled as the mediator between exogenous variables and music piracy intention. The framework is based on Bagozzi’s (1992) appraisal ! emotional response ! coping framework. Research hypotheses Antecedents of piracy attitude Satisfaction of current copyrighted CD. Consumers predict future performances on the basis of current performance (Bolton and Lemon, 1999). Therefore, satisfied customers are more likely to purchase the same product/service repeatedly, to resist competitive offers from competitors, and to generate positive word of mouth (Bolton, 1998; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Zeithaml et al., 1996). Satisfaction is a temporal state for one-time or repeated experiences that reflects how the product or service has fulfilled its purpose. It is the seed for enduring preference (Oliver, 1999). Research in the American Customer Satisfaction Index provides additional empirical support for the positive customer loyalty responses as the major consequence of customer satisfaction (Fornell et al., 1996). Therefore, it is hypothesized that:

H1: Consumers’ satisfaction with current copyrighted CDs will negatively affect their general attitudes toward music piracy

Focal singer/band idolization. Celebrity idolization can be an important means for self-concept maintenance (Dimanche and Samdahl, 1994; Raviv et al., 1996). As mentioned by Alperstein (1991), the pseudo-interactions between fans and celebrities provide great meaning to a fan involved in an imaginary social relationship with celebrities. Research in sports marketing also suggests that fans become loyal to a particular team because of the sense of identity felt by associating themselves with a particular group (Wann and Branscombe, 1993). Because of the strong affiliation tendency of fans, more and more pop singers act in movies to promote joint sales of the movie and their records. Marketers hope a fan’s idolization behavior toward the singers or actors can jointly promote the sales of albums and movies. In fact, purchasing and using the merchandise produced by or named after a celebrity can enhance the identity of a fan toward the celebrity (Jenson, 1992). More importantly, to be a loyal fan, a consumer has to manifest worship behaviors such as purchasing the copyrighted album, collecting arti-

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facts, attending related events, and writing letters (Raviv et al., 1996). All these behaviors can show spirit among the members of a fan group. Since the fan group exerts significant influences on its members, music piracy behavior toward the music product of the idol singer/band won’t be tolerated among the fan group (Einerson, 1998; Raviv et al., 1996). This kind of fan spirit can also spill over to their general attitudes of music piracy. In other words, they may be more against any music piracy behavior because of their fandom behavior toward their idol singers/bands. They believe that the proliferation of music piracy behavior in a society may eventually hurt their idol singers/bands. H2: Consumers’ singer idolization will negatively affect their general attitudes toward music piracy Prosecution risk. Perceived risk has been found to influence consumer piracy decision. Fraedrich and Ferrell (1992) measured the impact of perceived risks and moral philosophy on ethical decision-making. They summarized six aspects of risks, i.e. financial, performance, physical, psychological, social, and overall risk, from the past literature. Tan (2002) applied the perceived risk concept in the study of software piracy attitude and behavior. He proposed that financial, performance, social, and prosecution are the most important aspects of risk applicable in the context of software piracy. This study, however, focuses on the effects of prosecution risk on music piracy attitude for the following reasons. First, since downloading a file from the Internet is almost free and the cost of purchasing a pirated music CD is not very expensive, the financial risk is very low. Second, as mentioned, with the advent of the digital era, the performance of a pirated CD or files on the Internet normally can have quality as good as the original one. Therefore, the performance risk is not very strong. Finally, the concept of social risk is very similar to the concept of social consensus in the literature of moral intensity. For simplicity, the concept of social influences risk will be incorporated in the next section regarding moral intensity. Similar to Tan (2002), this study proposes that prosecution risk is very important in influencing consumer piracy attitude. Both behaviors of purchasing a pirated CD or downloading unauthorized music files are infringement of copyright law.

Consumers run the risk of civil action by the copyright holders. It is a risk related to the probability that the acquisition of a pirated product would subject the consumer to legal prosecution. Therefore, it is hypothesized that: H3: Consumers’ perceived prosecution risk will negatively affect their general attitudes toward music piracy Moral issue. Since music piracy is illegal, the decision to purchase or download pirated music presents some stimuli that evoke certain ethical dilemmas, that affect consumers’ ethical decision processes. The higher one’s level of moral judgment, the less likely that one will approve of or engage in unauthorized piracy (Rest, 1979). Jones (1991) proposed an issuecontingent model which held that ethical decisions are primarily contingent on the characteristics of the issues at stake. For Jones, the obligation to act in a situation, or the moral imperative, was related to the seriousness of the ethical consequences that would flow from the situation. The concept of moral intensity is multidimensional. Its components include: (1) magnitude of consequences, which is defined as the aggregated harm done to victims of the moral act in question, (2) social consensus, described as the level of social agreement about the goodness or evil of a proposed act, (3) the probability of effect, defined as a joint function of the likelihood of occurrence of an act and the expected consequences of the act, (4) temporal immediacy, defined as the length of time between the act and its ethical consequences, (5) proximity, which taps the feeling of nearness (social, cultural , psychological, or physical) that the moral agent has for victims of the evil act in question, and (6) concentration of effect, the degree to which costs or benefits of the act apply to only a few people. According to Jones (1991), the six dimensions of moral intensity are characteristics of the issue under consideration, not characteristics of the individual decision-maker or the organizational or environmental context. Among the six components, perceived magnitude of consequences (Kwong et al., 2003; Morris and McDonald, 1995; Tan, 2002; Weber, 1993) and social consensus (Jones and Huber, 1992; Morris and McDonald, 1995; Tan, 2002; Weber, 1993) were constantly found to have signif-

Music Piracy Attitudes and Intentions icant effects on an individual’s moral judgment. In addition, although proximity was found to have effects only in some moral situations (Chia and Mee, 2000; Morris and McDonald, 1995), the dimension is highly related to the topic of this study. For most people, music is an important part of life. The boom or demise of the music industry will significantly affect an individual’s life. Therefore, the feeling of nearness that the moral agent has for the victim should be very strong for the objects of this study. H4: Consumers’ perceived magnitude of consequences will negatively affect their general attitudes toward music piracy H5: Consumers’ perceived social consensus will negatively affect their general attitudes toward music piracy H6: Consumers’ perceived proximity will negatively affect their general attitudes toward music piracy

Antecedents of piracy intention Idolization of pop singers is based mostly on two important components: worship and modeling (Raviv et al., 1996). Worship refers to an unusually intense admiration and reverence of an idol. Modeling refers to the desire to be like an idol, which may involve imitation of idolized figures by copying their dress, hairstyle, speech, activities, etc. Behavioral expressions of idolization can be seen as a series of rituals that involve activities such as listening to music in a group, collecting records, or joining fan clubs. Therefore, it is very possible that idolization to a singer not only will affect consumers’ overall attitude toward music piracy, but also directly affect their intention toward music piracy of their idol singers/bands. In addition, since the music and well being of their idol singers/bands are so important to fans, the feeling of proximity may also directly affect their intentions toward music piracy of their idol singers/bands. H7: Consumers’ idolization toward a singer/band will negatively affect their behavioral intentions toward music piracy of their idol singers/bands

165

H8: Consumers’ feeling of proximity will negatively affect their behavioral intentions toward music piracy of their idol singers/bands Finally, the attitude toward the act, the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of the behavior in question, is normally proposed to be the major determinant of behavioral intention (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). Based on Bagozzi’s (1992) appraisal ! emotional response ! coping framework, attitude toward the act is an emotional response, whereas behavior is a coping strategy. In this study, attitude toward the act is a general attitude toward music piracy, while the domain of behavioral intention is focused on the music piracy intention toward the focal consumer’s idol singer/band. It is believed that general music piracy attitude will affect this specific music piracy intention. Thus: H9: Consumers’ general attitude toward music piracy will positively affect their behavioral intentions toward music piracy of their idol singers/bands The difference between pirated CD purchase and internet file download As mentioned, the purchase of pirated music and the unauthorized duplication/download of music are distinguished in several aspects. It is not difficult to find free music files on the Internet. Sometimes the marketers do use free music files to induce the potential demand of consumers. These marketing activities may cause the consumer to think that downloading a music file won’t be very serious. Some surveys and focus groups revealed that consumers had no idea that they were infringing anyone’s copyright when they downloaded music from the Internet (Sherman, 2001). Just like a trial version of free software, consumers just download the music file for testing the flavor of the music. If they like it, they will purchase the copyrighted CD in the future. This kind of download behavior is different from purchasing a pirated CD. Consumers won’t have any difficulty to notice that purchasing pirated CDs is indeed helping the criminal behaviors of the counterfeiters. The purchasing behavior will directly sub-

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stitute their possible purchases of the copyrighted CD. Therefore, it is interesting to examine the difference of antecedent variables on these two types of music piracy behavior.

Methods Study object and sample The respondents chosen for this study are consumers ages 15!19. There were three major reasons for this decision. First, these consumers are found to be most likely to conduct music piracy because of budget constraints and their strong computer knowledge (Berman, 2002). Second, this group of consumers is more likely to have an idol singer/band. Idolization is the one of the major antecedents that we want to examine in this study. Third, based a previous industrial research in Taiwan, this group of consumers is one of the major targets of music products in the market. We sampled four high schools (two from the capital city in the North, Taipei, and two from the major city in the South, Kaohsiung) to conduct the field survey. With the cooperation of their teachers, questionnaires were distributed during their normal class sections. Students were asked to fill out the questionnaire voluntarily. They were free not to participate at all and were free to withdraw participation at any time without prejudice. Their responses would keep strictly confidential and the results of this study would be reported as aggregated data. No individual participant was identified. A contact telephone number was provided if they have any questions regarding the study. Overall, of the 400 that were distributed, 361 completed questionnaires were received. Among the completed questionnaires only 207 questionnaires mentioned that they have idol singers/bands (Mean age ¼ 16.6, SD ¼ 1.12; 48% female). Therefore, only 207 questionnaires were used for further analysis.

Measure development Self-administrated questionnaires were used for all measures. Where possible, established measures

were used to measure the latent constructs in this study. All measures used for the constructs in the model are shown in Table I; and 5-point scales were used throughout except for attitude, which was measured in a 7-point scale. A pre-test on 10 quality aspects of a CD was conducted to solicit the most important attributes of a music CD. The results showed that easy listening, long lasting listening, sound quality, and price are the most important attributes of a music CD. Attributive satisfaction was operationalized by asking ‘‘Please rate your overall satisfaction on the following attributes of the current copyrighted CDs,’’ and 5point scales anchored from ‘‘Very unsatisfied’’ to ‘‘Very satisfied’’ were used. Prosecution risk was measured by two item measures modified from Tan (2002). Singer/band idolization was measured by seven items modified from McCutcheon et al.’s (2002) celebrity fantasy scale. Magnitude of consequence, social consensus and proximity were measured modified from Tan’s (2002) (11 items). Attitude toward purchasing a pirated CD (unauthorized duplication/download) was assessed by responses to the statement ‘‘My purchasing pirated music product (unauthorized duplication/downloading) in the future would be—.’’ Responses were given on 7-point semantic differential scales reflecting favorable to unfavorable, bad to good, foolish to wise, useful to useless. Finally, behavioral intentions toward music piracy of their idol singers/bands were measured by asking the respondents whether they would actually purchase the counterfeit CD (duplicate or download unauthorized music) of their idol singer/band when it is available in the market (on the Internet). Responses were given on 5-point scales modified from Swinyard et al. (1990) and Swee et al. (2001).

Data analysis Following Anderson and Gerbing’s (1988) work, the models were tested using a two-stage structural equation model. First, we performed Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to evaluate construct validity regarding convergent and discriminant validity. In the second stage, we performed

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TABLE I Measurement model: exogenous variables Item-Construct loading

Constructs

Attributive Satisfaction Easy listening Long lasting listening Price Sound quality Singer/band idolization My friend and I like to discuss about activities of my favorite singer/band It is really a wonderful time to attend the concert of my favorite singer/band. I like to have a talk with those who also like my favorite singer/band. It is very interesting to know the daily life of my favorite singer/band. Staying with those who also like my favorite singer/band is very enjoyable. I like to watch or hear the news regarding my favorite singer/band in the crowd. Keep updating the news of my favorite singer/band is very interesting and pleasant. Perceived prosecution risk By law, music piracy is illegal and will be punished. Music piracy will be caught for infringement of copyright Perceived social consensus In Taiwan, most of people will agree that unauthorized download or purchase pirate music product is not a correct behavior. Your friends and family will not agree with your purchasing pirated music products or downloading unauthorized music files. Your friends and family will think that purchase pirated music products or download unauthorized music files is unethical. Perceived magnitude of consequences Unauthorized downloading/duplication or purchasing pirated music products will have a big and negative impact on the singer(s)/band(s). Unauthorized downloading/duplication or purchasing pirated music products will have a big and negative impact on the record companies Unauthorized downloading/duplication or purchasing pirated music products will have a big and negative impact on the whole Taiwanese society Unauthorized downloading/duplication or purchasing pirated music products will have a big and negative impact on those who purchase copyrighted music products. Perceived proximity The negative impact of the singer(s)/band(s) has nothing to do with me The negative impact of the record companies has nothing to do with me The negative impact of the Taiwanese society has nothing to do with me The negative impact of the purchasers of copyrighted music products has nothing to do with me.

structural equation analysis to test the research hypotheses empirically. The path-analytic procedure is becoming common in studies in which a small sample size restricts the use of the full structural equation model (c.f., Chaudhuri and Holbrook, 2001; Li and Calantone, 1998).

Standardized

t-valued

0.83 0.81 0.58 0.47

12.73 12.34 8.31 6.46

0.63 0.54 0.77 0.74 0.83 0.82 0.69

9.55 7.99 12.49 11.96 14.10 13.74 10.85

0.91 0.89

11.22 10.99

0.43

5.96

0.87

12.33

0.80

11.33

0.88

14.58

0.76

11.96

0.61

9.02

0.61

9.01

0.83 0.77 0.64 0.70

13.34 11.97 9.55 10.61

Results Measurement model CFAs were used to test the adequacy of the measurement model. We estimated the proposed

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measurement model using LISREL 8.20. The adequacy of the measurement models was evaluated on the criteria of overall fit with the data, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability. The exogenous variables and endogenous variables were run separately. Therefore, there are three models for the study ! one exogenous measurement model and two endogenous variable measurement models (the pirated music product purchasing and unauthorized music duplication/download). The results indicate reasonable overall fits between the model and the observed data for all three models. The overall fit of the exogenous measurement model were v2(237) ¼ 376.10, p ¼ 0:000, GFI ¼ 0.87, CFI ¼ 0.96, NNFI ¼ 0.95. Both NNFI and CFI exceeded the recommended 0.90 threshold levels (Bollen, 1989; Hoyle and Panter, 1995; Hu and Bentler, 1995). The overall fit of measurement model for endogenous variables of pirated music product purchasing were v2(19) ¼ 80.77, p ¼ 0.000, GFI ¼ 0.91, CFI ¼ 0.95, NNFI ¼ 0.92. GFI, NNFI, and CFI all exceeded the recommended 0.90 threshold levels. Finally, the overall fit of measurement model for endogenous variables of unauthorized music duplication/download were v2(26) ¼ 102.6, p ¼ 0.000, GFI ¼ 0.90, CFI ¼ 0.96, NNFI ¼ 0.95. GFI, NNFI, and CFI all exceeded the recommended 0.90 threshold levels. According to Anderson and Gerbing, convergent validity can be assessed by determining whether each indicator’s estimated pattern coefficient on its proposed underlying construct is significant (greater than twice its standard error). An examination of the indicator loadings indicated that all were significant for models. An inspection of the Cronbach’s a coefficients revealed that all constructs’ a coefficients were greater than 0.70, which indicated acceptable reliability (Nunnally, 1978). These results provided support for the unidimensionality of the scales. The tests of discriminant validity involved comparing the values of models that either free or constrain (to a value of 1) the /-value and testing whether the constraint caused a significant decrease in fit (Bagozzi et al., 1992). In all cases of the three models, the overall fits of the models were significantly diminished by constraining the correlation to 1. Therefore, it is concluded that discriminant validity is adequate for the measurement models Table II.

Having satisfied the requirement raising from the measurement issues, we subsequently tested the structural relationship using path analysis through structural equation procedure. The constructs in the path model were represented with summated scores using equally weighted scales developed from the results of confirmatory factor analysis.

The path model and hypothesis testing Tables III and IV present the assessment of overall model fit and the tests of research hypotheses. As shown, the results of path model indicated an adequate fit for both models: For pirated music product p ¼ 0.23, purchasing model, v2(4) ¼ 5.56, GFI ¼ 0.99, CFI ¼ 1.00, NNFI ¼ 0.97; For unauthorized music duplication/download model, v2(4) ¼ 7.15, p ¼ 0:13, GFI ¼ 0.99, CFI ¼ 0.99, NNFI ¼ 0.94. Hypothesis testing Pirated CD purchasing. The effect of attributive satisfaction on attitude of pirated music product purchasing was significant (c ¼ )0.10, p < 0.05). The effects of singer/band idolization on attitude of pirated music product purchasing was also significant (c ¼ )0.12, p < 0.03). Therefore, H1 & H2 were supported by the data. Perceived prosecution risk was found to influence attitude of pirated music product purchasing negatively (c ¼ )0.13, p < 0.02). Furthermore, all three components of moral intensity ! perceived magnitude of consequences, social consensus, and perceived proximity ! affected attitude of pirated music product purchasing negatively and significantly (c ¼ )0.29, )0.18 & )0.16, p < 0.001, 0.01, & 0.01). Therefore, H3, H4, H5, and H6 were supported. Finally, both singer/band idolization and perceived proximity had significant and negative effects on behavioral intention of pirated music product purchasing toward idol singers/ bands (c ¼ )0.13, )0.12, p < 0.03 & 0.04). Therefore, H7 and H8 were supported. Finally, the attitude of pirated music product purchasing was found to affect behavioral intention of pirated music product purchasing toward idol singers/bands (c ¼ 0.30, p < 0.001). Therefore, H9 was supported.

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TABLE II Measurement model: endogenous variables Item-Construct loading

Constructs

Standardized t-valued Attitude of purchasing pirated music product My purchasing pirated music products in the future would be _______. Bad/good Foolish/wise Useless/useful Unfavorable/favorable Attitude of unauthorized duplication/download My downloading or coping unauthorized music files in the future would be _______. Bad/good Foolish/wise Useless/useful Unfavorable/favorable Behavioral intention of purchasing idol singers’/bands’ pirated music product I will purchase the pirated music products of my idol singer/band without hesitation. If someone can provide me with the pirated musical product of my idol singer/band, I will accept without hesitation I will purchase the pirated music product of my idol singer/band for my friends and family I will recommend my friends and family to purchase pirated music product of my idol singer/band. Behavioral intention of unauthorized duplication/download of idol singers/bands I will duplicate copyrighted CDs or download unauthorized MP3 of my idol singer/band without hesitation. I will download unauthorized MP3 of my idol singer/band for my friends and family I will duplicate copyrighted CDs of my idol singer/band for my friends and family I will encourage my friends and family to duplicate copyrighted CDs of my idol singer/band. I will encourage my friends and family to download unauthorized mp3 of my idol singer/band from Internet

Unauthorized music duplication/download. The effect of attributive satisfaction on attitude of unauthorized music duplication/download was significant (c ¼ )0.21, p < 0.01). However, the effects of singer idolization on attitude of unauthorized music duplication/download was not significant (c ¼ )0.05, p < 0.22). Therefore, H1 was supported, while H2 was not supported by the data. Perceived prosecution risk was found to influence attitude of unauthorized music duplication/download negatively (c ¼ )0.31, p < 0.001). Therefore, H3 was supported by the data. Furthermore, perceived magnitude of consequences and social consensus were found to affect attitude of unauthorized music duplication/download negatively (c ¼ )0.12,

0.79 0.90 0.79 0.67

12.89 15.66 12.99 10.31

0.87 0.86 0.86 0.82

15.24 14.92 15.08 14.07

0.66 0.61

10.28 9.29

0.92 0.89

16.36 15.53

0.80

13.6

0.89 0.82 0.82

16.01 13.93 14.14

0.84

14.58

)0.11, p < 0.05 & 0.05), whereas perceived proximity did not significantly affect attitude of music duplication/download negatively (c ¼ )0.08, p < 0.10). Therefore, H4 and H5 were supported, whereas H6 was not supported by the data. Finally, singer idolization did not have a significant effect on behavioral intention of unauthorized music duplication/download toward idol singers/bands (c ¼ )0.05, p < 0.22), whereas perceived proximity had a significant and negative effect on behavioral intention of unauthorized music duplication/ download toward idol singers/bands (c ¼ )0.26, p < 0.001). Therefore, H7 was not supported by the data, whereas H8 was supported by the data. Finally, attitude of unauthorized music duplication/

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Jyh-Shen Chiou et al. TABLE III Results of the pirated CD purchasing model

Causal path

Hypothesis

Expected sign

Standardized structural coefficient

t-value

p-value

Attributive satisfaction ! Pirated CD purchasing attitude Singer/band Idolization ! Pirated CD purchasing attitude Perceived Prosecution Risk ! Pirated CD purchasing attitude Perceived magnitude of consequences !Pirated CD purchasing attitude Perceived Social Consensus ! Pirated CD purchasing attitude Perceived Proximity ! Pirated CD purchasing attitude Singer/band Idolization ! Pirated CD purchasing intention toward idol singers/bands Perceived Proximity ! Pirated CD purchasing intention toward idol singers/bands Pirated CD purchasing attitude ! Pirated CD purchasing intention toward idol singers/ bands

H1

)

)0.10

)1.63

0.05

H2

)

)0.12

)1.96

0.03

H3

)

)0.13

)2.09

0.02

H4

)

)0.29

)4.07

0.001

H5

)

)0.18

)2.80

0.01

H6

)

)0.16

)2.51

0.01

H7

)

)0.13

)1.96

0.03

H8

)

)0.12

)1.80

0.04

H9

+

0.30

4.19

0.001

download was found to affect behavioral intention of unauthorized music duplication/download toward idol singers/bands (c ¼ 0.41, p < 0.001). Therefore, H9 was supported.

Discussions and implications The results of this study confirm that satisfaction of current copyrighted music products is the basis for promoting consumers to refrain from unauthorized music duplication/download or purchasing pirated music products. Marketers should always try to market music products at reasonable prices and improve the quality of their music products continuously. They have to let their consumers think that they really get their money’s worth. Excessive publicity regarding the exorbitant income of pop singers can only direct consumers to think that the company and the musicians enjoy unreasonable profits and that minor infringement of copyright is acceptable to this wealthy group.

Similar to past studies, two components of moral intensity (magnitude of consequence and social consensus) were found to affect music piracy attitude in this study. These results again demonstrated that magnitude of consequence and social consensus are two important components of moral intensity in predicting moral judgments and decisions. It also showed the behaviors of music piracy possess a high level of seriousness of the ethical consequences. Marketers should focus more on letting consumers know about the serious consequences of music piracy to the future of the music industry and show how music piracy can affect the survival of the music industry. If consumers can understand the seriousness of the issue, they will reduce the possibility of music piracy behavior. The government and marketers should also promote group consensus within the society on the issues of music piracy behavior. Ethical awareness programs in the formal education system and public campaigns are very important to gradually build up the social consensus on opposing music piracy behaviors in the society.

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TABLE IV Results of the unauthorized duplication/download model Causal path

Hypothesis Expected sign

Attributive satisfaction ! Attitude toward Unauthorized duplication/ download Singer/band idolization ! Attitude toward Unauthorized duplication/ download Perceived prosecution Risk!Attitude toward Unauthorized duplication/ download Perceived magnitude of consequences! Attitude toward Unauthorized duplication/ download Perceived social consensus!Attitude toward Unauthorized duplication/ download Perceived proximity ! Attitude toward Unauthorized duplication/ download Singer/band idolization !Unauthorized duplication/ download intention toward idol singers/bands Perceived proximity! Unauthorized duplication/download intention toward idol singers/bands Attitude toward Unauthorized duplication/ download!Unauthorized duplication/download intention toward idol singers/bands

H1

)

)0.21

)3.18

0.01

H2 H3

) )

)0.05 )0.31

)0.78 )4.91

0.22 0.001

H4 H5

) )

)0.12 )0.11

)1.67 )1.63

0.05 0.05

H6 H7

) )

)0.08 )0.05

)1.30 )0.80

0.10 0.22

)

)0.26

)04.13

0.001

+

0.41

6.64

0.001

This study also found that perceived prosecution risk affects music piracy attitudes in both cases of music piracy. More aggressive publicity of possible prosecution for purchasing a pirated CD or unauthorized music duplication/download should be promoted to heighten awareness of the risks associated with such piracy behavior. Exemplify some important prosecution cases worldwide to alert the consumer on the risk of the music piracy behavior. In addition, copyright protection pressures from developed countries might also help local governments to install stiffer copyright protection (Gillespie et al., 2002). It is surprising to find that singer/band idolization can only affect the attitude and behavioral intention in the case of pirated music product purchasing. It did not affect the attitude and intention in the case of unauthorized duplication/ download. Many consumers don’t consider duplicating/downloading music from the Internet as a big deal for their idol singers/bands. In fact, they even believe that these behaviors might promote the publicity of the singer or band. Fandom transfer

H9

Standardized structural coefficient

t-value

p-value

music files constantly to share their feeling and view of the music. In most cases, they also purchase copyrighted copies. The transfer of the Internet music file is only for promoting the songs to others. Since Asians tend to base their moral decisions on the outcomes of the behavior instead of the nature of the decision itself (Swinyard et al., 1990), this group of consumers forms their attitudes and behavioral intentions more on the perceived positive effects of their file sharing behaviors than on the nature of the decision itself. The government and marketers should alert this group of consumers that the unauthorized file sharing may eventually hurt their idol singers/bands. Not everyone will purchase copyrighted music products. The proliferation of free music files on the Internet will eventually damage the sales volume of their idol singers/bands. The proliferation of free music via the Internet may create ethical ambiguity. Some musical acts have voiced strong opinions against music piracy while others have embraced the provision of free music via the Internet. Utilitarian might well

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Jyh-Shen Chiou et al.

approve of free music if they see it generating ‘‘the greatest good for the greatest number’’ (Frankena, 1973). Especially, for those in a collectivist society might think that sharing proprietary creative work with the society and the reproduction of others’ work are acceptable ways of promoting, learning, and admiring their talents (Green and Smith, 2002; Swinyard et al., 1990). Governments in a collectivist societies have to put more effort in clarifying the importance of copyright protection for the whole society. Without adequate copyright protection, the whole society will be hurt eventually. Proponents of free music can promote their claims, but should limit to their own services or products. They have the responsibility to educate consumers on what is free and what is not. Perceived proximity was found to affect the attitude and behavioral intention in the case of pirated music product purchasing. However, it only influenced behavioral intention of music piracy toward idol singers/bands in the case of unauthorized duplication/download. It demonstrated that perceived proximity can only induce consumers to avoid the possible negative effects on their idol singers/bands, but not on their general attitudes toward unauthorized music download. One can also use the rationale in the last section to explain this result. Since Asians tend to base their moral decisions on the outcomes of the behavior instead of the nature of the decision itself, consumers may refrain themselves from unauthorized duplicating or downloading their idol singers’ or bands’ music because they see the seriousness of the behavioral outcome on their idol singers/bands, rather than the nature of the act. To effectively reduce this unauthorized duplication/download behavior, marketers should promote the relationship between the singers/bands and their fans. The stronger the relationship is between the singers/bands and their fans, the stronger the perceived proximity. This strong proximity perception, in turn, reduces the chance of unauthorized music duplication/download toward their idol singers/bands. There are several limitations for this study. The first limitation is the cross-sectional design employed. To provide a stronger inference, the model developed and tested here could benefit from being tested in a longitudinal design. Second, although behavioral intention is among the most important

determinants of actual behavior, many actors may prevent intended behavior from being carried out. Future studies can explore the intention-behavior link. Finally, the model was empirically tested in a Taiwanese sample. Past research has found that culture plays a significant role in consumer behaviors (Husted, 2000; Swinyard et al., 1990; Tavassoli and Han, 2002). The strength and relative importance of the proposed constructs in this study may differ by culture. Therefore, more empirical tests of the proposed model in other societies are needed. Finally, around 40% of the participants mentioned that they don’t have any idols in the questionnaire. Although the ratio is similar to past studies in Taiwan (Tzen and Liu, 1995), we suspect that some of participants didn’t want to admit that they have idol singers/bands whether intentionally or unintentionally. Taiwan is a society meshed with traditional Confucian values (respect for seniority and power, strong family value, emphasis on education, concern for harmony, etc.) and western values (Chiou, 2001). While western values have been gaining more prominence in recent years, strong influences from the Confucian tradition are still evident. Overall, Taiwanese culture had been classified into collectivist and high power distance society (Chiou, 2001; Fernandez et al., 1997; Hofstede, 1980). In this society, the power of parents and teachers are still very significant. They are normally in opposition to the fandom behaviors of their children and students (Tzen and Liu, 1995). Therefore, some of the high school students attend fan club secretly. As mentioned that students were free not to participate in the study at all and were free to withdraw participation at any time without prejudice. We suspect that some of them just wanted to withdraw from the study to avoid answering the idolization question even though they were informed that their responses would keep strictly confidential. Future studies may try to conduct the survey in more private situations to lessen the possible demand effects.

Acknowledgement This study was funded by National Science Council, Taiwan.

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Jyh-Shen Chiou, Department of International Trade, National Chengchi University, College of Commerce, Mucha, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. E-mail: [email protected] Chien-yi Huang National Taipei College of Nursing Hsin-hui Lee National Chengchi University

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