| A Motivational Model for Resolving Social Dilemmas in Discretionary Databases |
| | Kalman, Michael E. | SPAWAR Systems Center, San Diego | kalman@spawar.navy.mil | (619)-553-2988 |
| | Fulk, Janet | U. of Southern California | fulk@usc.edu | (213)-740-0941 |
| | Monge, Peter R. | U. of Southern California | monge@usc.edu | (213)-740-0921 |
| | Organizations have increasingly become sites of collective action, where task performers rely upon shared databases as
flexible means to collect and distribute information widely. A database is discretionary if people supply the information to it
voluntarily; successfully providing a discretionary database itself calls for collective action. Like classic public goods,
discretionary databases tend to be under-supplied if potential contributors cannot expect to benefit individually when they
contribute, and so, choose instead to free ride. It is proposed that organizational participants' identification with the collective
(i.e., with the organization) will provide a mechanism to motivate contributions if, in addition, the participants hold several
necessary beliefs. These beliefs regard the instrumentality of sharing information to produce positive outcomes for the
organization, and participants' individual and collective abilities to share valued information via the database. The proposed
motivational model could be extended to predict information sharing by means of any communication medium. |
| | Keywords: motivation; identification; collective action |
| Software Piracy: Why Honest People Cheat |
| | Allen, Gove N. | U. of Minnesota | Gove.N.Allen-1@umn.edu | (651) 917-3737 |
| | The software industry looses billions of dollars every year to software piracy. One survey indicates that almost half of the respondents find stealing a chocolate bar worse than stealing software. Peoples attitudes toward honoring fair social exchange are strongly influenced by the evolutionary past. The notion of intellectual property is relatively new and has had little (if any) impact on our evolutionary development. The existence of large, anonymous groups (such as corporations and governments) is also a recent development that has had little evolutionary impact. Thus, people have evolved cognitive mechanisms that govern social exchange for services and tangible goods among individuals and small groups only. The evolved mechanisms that prevent people from cheating in some situations are not present for software companies because they are anonymous entities trying to control social exchange for intangible goods. The role of deception is explored as the trigger that invokes the cognitive mechanism for governing social exchange among individuals for tangible goods. Since deception is often absent when people pirate software, the cognitive mechanism is not invoked. The result is that purveyors of intellectual property face a fundamentally different problem in protecting their products than do other vendors. In fact, some popular attempts such as emphasizing the illegality of copying software may have the result of making the seller seem even more abstract and making it even easier for a potential buyer to copy instead of purchase the software. |
| | Keywords: Software; Piracy; Cheating |
| Internet Usage in the Work Environment: A Motivational Study |
| | Anandarajan, Murugan | Drexel U. | murugan.anandarajan@drexel.edu | (215)-895-6212 |
| | Simmers, Claire A. | St. Joseph's U. | simmers@sju.edu | (610)-660-1106 |
| | Igbaria, Magid | Claremont Graduate U. | Igbariam@cgs.edu | (909)-621-8000 |
| | We used structured equation modeling techniques to examine antecedent and motivating factors impacting Internet usage (time spent on the
Internet, accessing work-related web sites, and accessing personal web sites) in the work environment. In 1998 we collected data using a
questionnaire sent to alumni of a university in the northeastern United States. Consistent with the technology acceptance model, perceived
usefulness, perceived enjoyment, and social pressure were important motivators of time usage and work-related web site access. The effects
of the antecedent variables (organizational support, Internet experience, and formal training) on these two indicators of Internet usage were
mostly direct, rather than indirect through the motivating factors. As expected, perceived enjoyment was positively related to accessing
personal web pages at work. Finally, self-training was significantly related to personal web site access, both directly and indirectly through
perceived enjoyment. The findings of the study contribute to an expanding understanding of the factors promoting Internet usage and have
important implications for the management of information systems. |
| | Keywords: Internet usage; work environment; technology acceptance model |