چه چیزی باعث قصد خرید در زمینه خدمات محتوای آنلاین می شود؟ نقش تعدیل کننده خوداثربخشی اخلاقی برای دزدان دریایی آنلاین

With the proliferation of online content service industry, understanding the factors affecting consumer intention to purchase online content services has become an important issue for academics and practitioners. While previous research has suggested that consumers’ perceived value and moral judgment are two main factors influencing behavioral intention to purchase online content services, few studies have explored what drives perceived value and if customers’ ethical self-efficacy will moderate the effect of perceived value on purchase intention. Thus, based on the value-based adoption model and previous literature, this study explores the antecedents of perceived value and the moderating effect of ethical self-efficacy for online piracy (ESEOP) on the relationship between perceived value and purchase intention in the context of online content services. Data collected from 124 respondents in Taiwan are tested against the research model using the partial least squares (PLS) approach. The results indicate that perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, perceived fee, and ESEOP have a significant influence on perceived value and that ESEOP can enhance the positive effect of perceived value on purchase intention. The findings of this study provide several important theoretical and practical implications for consumer online content purchase behaviors. Highlights ► We explore the factors affecting purchase intention of online content services. ► Perceived value has a positive effect on purchase intention. ► Perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness positively affect perceived value. ► Perceived fee has a negative effect on perceived value. ► Ethical self-efficacy for online piracy moderates the effect of perceived value on purchase intention.

With the development of the Internet, online content service industries have recently grown rapidly in the form of online game, e-book, e-learning, e-music, Internet broadcasting, and video on demand (VOD) (Joo & Sohn, 2008). However, when compared with the rapid growth of the online content services markets, especially online music services in the USA and Western Europe, no such success has emerged in Asia (Chu & Lu, 2007). Previous studies have suggested that Asians are reluctant to pay for the download of online contents, particularly in Great China Region (i.e., Mainland China, and Hong Kong) (Chen et al., 2008, Chu and Lu, 2007, Joo and Sohn, 2008 and Lu and Hsiao, 2010). Thus, in order for the online content industry to succeed, it is essential to understand why consumers are willing to pay for online/digital content services or not. That is, investigating the factors affecting consumer intention to purchase online content services has been an important issue for academics and practitioners. Several previous studies have explored the factors affecting online consumers’ behavior (e.g., Doong et al., 2011, Hong and Cho, 2011, Kuo and Wu, 2012, Liu et al., 2011, Song et al., 2012 and Udo et al., 2010). Some studies have also suggested that customer-perceived value is a critical factor affecting behavioral intention to purchase or repurchase online services in the context of electronic/mobile commerce (Chen et al., 2008, Chu and Lu, 2007, Kim et al., 2007, Lin and Wang, 2006, Lu and Hsiao, 2010 and Wang, 2008). Perceived value is frequently conceptualized as involving a consumer's assessment of the ratio of perceived benefits to perceived costs (Monroe, 1990 and Zeithaml, 1988). However, few studies have investigated the antecedents of perceived value from the perspective of perceived benefits and perceived costs in the context of online content services (e.g., Chen et al., 2008, Chu and Lu, 2007 and Lu and Hsiao, 2010). Thus, there is a need for research to explore what factors drive consumers’ perceived value of online content services in the cost–benefit framework. In addition to perceived value, previous studies have also suggested that moral judgment or ethical self-efficacy is another influential factor of digital material piracy (Chen et al., 2008, Gopal et al., 2004, Kuo and Hsu, 2001 and Moores and Chang, 2006). Many researchers have found that more strongly held beliefs that piracy is wrong, unethical, or immoral lead to a lower likelihood of intended piracy behavior (Miyazaki, Rodriguez, & Langenderfer, 2009). While perceived value is a critical influential factor of consumer intention to purchase online contents, considering that illegal online music and video file download are still rampant in most of the Asian region, a question remains; that is, are consumers willing to purchase high perceived value online contents. Furthermore, although some researchers found a direct relationship between moral judgment and ethical behavior (Cronan and Al-Rafee, 2008, Pan and Sparks, 2012 and Yoon, 2011a), Chen et al. (2008) found that the degree of morality has not a significant influence on behavioral intention to download unauthorized music files, but that perceived value of downloading free music files influences behavioral intention to download unauthorized music files more strongly for the low morality group than for the high morality group. These results imply that consumers’ moral beliefs or self-efficacy toward online piracy may play a moderating role in the effect of perceived value on online content purchase intentions. Thus, the relationship between perceived value, purchase intention, and piracy ethics still needs to be further addressed in the context of online content services. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to (1) investigate the antecedents of perceived value from the cost–benefit framework, and (2) explore the moderating effect of consumers’ ethical self-efficacy for online piracy on the relationship between perceived value and purchase intention in the context of online content services. This paper is structured as follows. First, this study reviews the conceptualization and antecedents of perceived value and discusses the concept of online piracy ethics. Second, based on previous literature, a research model and a comprehensive set of hypotheses are proposed. Next, the methods, measures, and results of this study are then presented. Finally, the results are discussed in terms of their implications for research and managerial activity.

This study contributes to a more thorough understanding of the antecedents of perceived value and the moderator of the relationship between perceived value and purchase intention. The contributions of this study to research on consumer online content purchase behaviors are threefold. First, different from previous research on the value–intention framework, the current study not only explores the antecedents of perceived value, but it also investigates the moderator of the relationship between perceived value and purchase intention. As such, this study represents a new direction for online consumer purchase behavior research. Second, this study supports that perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, and perceived fee significantly influence purchase intention through the mediation of perceived value, confirming the nomological structure of the VAM (Kim et al., 2007 and Wang, 2008), which is quite different from that of the TAM (Davis, 1989, Davis et al., 1989 and van der Heijden, 2004). Third, this study provides empirical evidence to support that ethical self-efficacy for online piracy not only has a positive effect on purchase intention, but also enhances the positive influence of perceived value on purchase intention. This is a new finding of this study since the main and interaction effects of perceived value and ethical self-efficacy on purchase intention have rarely been explored in previous online purchase behavior research. Future studies are still required to address the determinants and moderators in the value-based adoption model.