D EVELOPMENT OF THE R ESEARCH M ODEL

3.2. Development of the Research Model

The research model used for this study is based on the TPB. This theory is a very powerful and predictive tool for explaining human behaviour. It has been used successfully in a very large number of empirical studies addressing human behaviour in the past (Conner and Armitage, 1998; Sheeran et al., 2003). Furthermore, it is has been specifically tested in explaining illegal behaviour like de-shopping (King et al., 2008;

King and Dennis, 2006), software piracy (Peace et al., 2003) and music piracy (Kwong and Lee, 2001, 2002; d’Astous et al., 2005; Chiou et al., 2005b; Plowman and Goode, 2009) and it has been proved to be an appropriate theory for explaining illegal behaviour. Since two of the channels (illegal street vendors and illegal P2P platforms)

that will be incorporated in the empirical examination refer to illegal acquisition of music (physical piracy and digital piracy), TPB is considered to be the appropriate model to base this analysis.

There are two more intention-based theories that could have been used for this analysis. These are the DTPB and the MGDB presented in chapter 2. As it was mentioned in section 2 the DTPB decomposes both attitude and PBC. However, such decomposition was not deemed as necessary for this case. This is because, according to Ajzen (1991) PBC includes both self-efficacy and facilitating conditions, while attitude is decomposed based on the perceived characteristics of innovation. In the proposed model, attitude is decomposed using variables deriving from attributes related to the multi-channel theory and the issue of music acquisition. Similarly, the MGDB is not used either, for two main reasons. First, according to Ajzen (1991) past behaviour will not significantly improve the prediction of later behaviour. Only when habit is defined independently of past behaviour can then be added as an explanatory variable to the TPB, while music acquisition does not follow any habitual pattern. Second the MGDB is very complex by itself and with the addition of the attributes related to multi-channel and music acquisition will make the model very hard to be estimated through Structural Equation Modelling.

Also, since the aim is to examine music acquisition in a multi-channel framework ethical theories are excluded. Those theories have been extensively used in previous research that dealt with the illegal channels and piracy. Piracy is considered as an illegal activity and there have been cases before, where consumers have been accused (mostly in the USA) of committing illegal activity (Cassavoy, 2003; The Associated Press, 2009; Vijayan, 2010; The Rolling Stone, 2012; Clair, 2013).

However, in the current case even for the piracy-involved channels those theories are excluded because they assume that the individual, who engages in this behaviour, recognises it as unethical or illegal. Music piracy nowadays is so widespread and common and those who acquire music illegally (mostly downloading MP3 files from P2P platforms) do not acknowledge involvement in neither unethical nor illegal behaviour (Dilmperi et al., 2011). Jones (1991) suggests that if the individual does not recognize that she/he is involved in an unethical behaviour she/he will fail to follow the moral decision-making. Thus, in the current theoretical model no such constructs were included, since they are perceived not to be valid for either the legal or the illegal channels.

The TPB was first developed from the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), proposed by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975). The TRA suggests that if impulsive actions are excluded, a person’s behaviour derives from its intention. This intention is produced by its attitude over an action and by the subjective norms of the person’s social circle.

Ajzen (1991) extended the TRA model by adding the variable of “perceived behavioural control”, which involves the ease or difficulty a person is facing in order to perform an action. So, attitude is defined as an individual’s feelings regarding a specific behaviour (Ajzen, 2002) where the more positive the attitude, the greater the intention to perform an action. The subjective norms are the expectations that arise from the individual’s surroundings and can be viewed as social pressures (Ajzen, 2002). Last, perceived behavioural control refers to the person’s perception of how easily an action can be performed. In the current research setting, in order to proceed to piracy a person needs to have access to the appropriate technology. This construct includes implicitly

characteristics such as Internet connection speed and Internet experience, which have been used as explicit variables in previous studies.

Based on the above the starting point of the proposed model is the TPB model in its simple form, presented in Figure 3.1. In this model the factors explaining the

“Behavioural Intention” are “Attitude Toward the Behaviour”, “Subjective Norm” and

“Perceived Behavioural Control”.

Figure 3.1: A Simple Model of TPB

Since the main topic of this research is the music industry, and the behaviour under examination is that of music acquisition, this simple model is augmented through the introduction of multiple-channels from which music can be acquired. In general, there are four distinct channels for music acquisition:

(a) Traditional bricks-and-mortar stores that sell (mainly) CDs, Attitude

Subjective Norm

Perceived Behavioural

Control

Behavioural Intention

(b) Street vendors that sell counterfeit CDs,

(c) Internet music stores that sell MP3 files (either just a song or the whole CD as an album)

(d) Peer-to-peer Internet platforms that allow users to download MP3 files (either just songs or the whole CD album or even whole collections of one artist etc.) without a fee.

The first two of the above four channels deal with a physical product (the music CD) and hence from now on they are called as physical music consumption, while the last two deal with a digital product (the MP3 file) and they are called digital music consumption. Furthermore, channels (a) and (c) are those who are legal (the consumers pay a fee in a legal market in order to obtain the music product) while channels (b) and (c) are illegal (in the case of street vendors they pay in order to obtain a counterfeit – or pirated – CD in a “black market” and in the case of peer-to-peer sites they simply illegally download files without having to pay any fee – the digital music piracy phenomenon).

Since the aim of the research is to examine all four possible channels of music acquisition the TPB model is tested four times – once for each channel. Therefore,

“Attitude”, “Subjective Norm”, “Perceived Behavioural Control” and “Behavioural Intention” are different for every channel under examination.

Further to the three standard TPB factors that affect behavioural intention, it is necessary to include factors that specifically deal with music acquisition. These additional factors emerged from an extensive literature review on multi-channel attributes, technological, economic and legal aspects, issues that relate specifically to

piracy (either physical or digital) and the possible effects of singer/band idolisation in changing the music consumption patterns.

Based on the above, the final research model contains common TPB constructs, and the additional constructs described above. Also, the research proposes that there is a moderating relationship derived from the demographic factors. The model is presented in Figure 3.2. The model shows clearly that all five additional factors affect the attitude construct. An analytical discussion of the model and the hypotheses deriving from it will be presented in the following sections.

Figure 3.2: A TPB Model for Music Acquisition