The effect of TV drama piracy: An analysis of digital piracy users,internet buzz,and TV drama viewership

Notwithstanding the biggest victim of digital piracy, we have a limited understanding of how TV drama piracy affects its legal consumption. Unlike movies or music, TV dramas are typically a series of episodes, where pirated past episodes may not necessarily carry a negative impact on the legal consumption of current episodes. The consumption boosted by piracy can promote Internet buzz, which may draw the attention of potential consumers and may result in broader legal consumption afterward. Based on an empirical analysis regarding the relationships among the viewership of 20 TV dramas broadcast in the US, social media activities on Twitter, Google and YouTube search trends, and the number of BitTorrent users who pirated these TV dramas, we show that although the direct effect of media consumption through BitTorrent to TV viewership is negative, the indirect effect that mediates Internet buzz is positive, which dilutes the negative effect of digital piracy. Such positive effects of digital piracy are more substantial for the second half of dramas, less popular dramas, and serial dramas. We discuss the theoretical contributions and managerial implications of our study.     

Integrated importance measures of multi-state systems under uncertainty

Importance analysis in reliability engineering is used to find the weakest components in a system. Traditional importance measures for multi-state systems analysis mainly pay attention to the reliability or structure characteristics of components, but seldom consider the causalities between components in the system under uncertainty. In order to solve the above problems, the multi-state system Bayesian network is proposed to represent the multi-state system under uncertainty and facilitate the component importance calculation. Then, this paper puts forward a separate subset algorithm based on the Bayesian information criterion and K2 algorithm to build the multi-state system Bayesian network of practical systems automatically. By considering the reliability, structure and causality characteristics of components comprehensively, the integrated importance measure is also presented to describe the effects of component failures on the state distribution of the multi-state system under uncertainty. Finally, the application of the multi-state system Bayesian network, the separate subset algorithm and the integrated importance measure in a simple head-up display system is implemented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods in components importance analysis.     

On the valuation of alternatives for decision‐making under uncertainty

We focus on the problem of decision‐making in the face of uncertainty. The issue of the representation of uncertain information is considered and a number of different frameworks are described: possibilistic, probabilistic, belief structures, and graded possibilistic. We suggest methodologies for decision‐making in these different environments. The importance of decision attitude in the construction of decision functions is strongly emphasized. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The impacts of piracy and supply chain contracts on digital music channel performance

We explore the impact of piracy on digital music supply chain profitability under different contract arrangements. Consumers' piracy risk cost is divided into two cases: 1) linear piracy cost and 2) fixed piracy cost. We also analyze two contract types: 1) fixed fee contract and 2) per song contract. Our findings indicate that the magnitude of profit loss depends on the type of consumers' piracy risk cost and the type of contract. In addition, changes in consumers' piracy risk cost change the distribution of the profit between the record label and the retailer. As the investment in piracy controls increases, the retailer keeps a larger share of the profit surplus leaving the record label with a smaller share. We demonstrate that a fixed fee full transfer contract will always coordinate the supply chain, and the profitability further increases as 1) market size increases, 2) piracy risk cost increases, and 3) marginal cost decreases.     

The application of ergonomics to consumer product evaluation

Consumer products may be evaluated by technical tests or by ergonomics assessments. If an ergonomics assessment is required, then three types of test are available to the researcher. These are the user trial, the expert appraisal and the performance test. These three methods are described briefly and some advantages, disadvantages and issues arising from each are discussed. It is concluded that although the user trial will always assume an important role for the evaluation of many products, expert appraisals and performance tests can prove to be cost effective methods in certain circumstances. Some controversial areas requiring further research are highlighted.     

The study of perceived adverse effects of digital piracy and involvement: insights from adult computer users

In this study, we focus on two sets of expected negative consequences of engaging in digital piracy among the seldom studied adult computer users rather than student population. We delve into the role of perceived risk and moral intensity as drivers of consumers’ attitudes and behavioural intentions, and explore the rarely examined moderating effect of issue involvement on the relationship between the attitude and intention to pirate. The dominant attitude–behaviour theory is extended with an ethical decision-making theoretical perspective. The hypotheses are tested via mail survey data from a random sample of adult consumers using structural equations modelling. The results of this cross-sectional study show unfailing support for the relationships proposed in our model. Our findings suggest that, in addition to perceived risk, moral intensity (i.e. the expected consequences for others), has a particularly strong total effect on the intention to pirate, and that consumer involvement in illegally downloading files is a salient factor moderating the relationship between attitudes and behavioural intentions. Based on this pattern of results, we offer theoretical and practical implications.     

Antecedents and consequences of explicit and implicit attitudes toward digital piracy

This study demonstrates the salience of explicit and implicit attitudes in the context of digital piracy and identifies their antecedents and consequences. Data were obtained by means of the Implicit Association Test and a survey. Explicit attitude has a positive effect on behavioral intentions which influence digital piracy engagement, whereas implicit attitude has a positive direct impact on digital piracy engagement. Idealism has a negative effect on explicit attitude but a positive impact on implicit attitude. Relativism has a positive effect on explicit and implicit attitudes. People's selfish characteristics manifest themselves in delinquent digital piracy actions through implicit cognitive processes.     

Risk evaluation of customer integration in new product development under uncertainty

This study mainly focuses on the risk evaluation of customer integration in new product development. Customer integration in product innovation projects has been widely recognized a best practice to enhance innovation success rate and reduces the development cycle time, but it also has many potential risks including loss of know-how, much dependence on customer, and limitation to incremental innovations, etc. Unfortunately, there are few researches about risk evaluation for customer integration which is important to the risk management of the co-innovation process. Further, evaluating customer integration risk involves much subjectivity and vagueness. To manipulate this problem, a novel evaluation approach for assessing customer integration risk under uncertainty is proposed. The novel approach integrates the merit of rough set theory in handling vagueness and the strength of group analytic hierarchy process (GAHP) in modeling hierarchy evaluation. Finally, an application in a project of mobile phone development is provided to demonstrate the application and potential of the methodology.     

The role of non-visual aesthetics in consumer product evaluation

The present article addresses the impact of non-visual aesthetics of consumer products on the outcomes of usability tests such as perceived usability, user performance and user affect. Building on the research surrounding the impact of visual aesthetics in usability testing, the present work aimed to determine whether the same pattern of effects repeatedly found for visual aesthetics will also be found for non-visual aesthetics. A series of three experiments was carried out, all examining sound and touch as two prominent dimensions of non-visual aesthetics. To increase the robustness of the results, the experiments were conducted with three different consumer products, which were a smartphone (N=60), vacuum cleaner (N=60), and video racing game (N=60). Although manipulation checks confirmed that users generally experienced both sound and tactile product properties as intended by the experimental manipulation, in none of the studies the results showed an effect on perceived usability. Other outcome variables such as affect and performance showed a few selected effects. Overall, this suggests that findings from the field of visual aesthetics cannot be easily transferred to the domain of non-visual aesthetics. The findings of the present studies are discussed within the framework of Schifferstein’s work on sensory dominance.     

The effects of product photographs and reputation systems on consumer behavior and product cost on eBay

For years, computer-mediated communication (CMC) research has explored and theorized about the effects of technology on the process of interpersonal impression formation. However, as the Internet has evolved to allow users to accomplish more and more day-to-day tasks (e. g., the buying and selling of goods and services) little research and theory development has explored how non-interpersonal impressions form on the internet. This work seeks to extend theoretical perspectives on online signaling (the warranting effect; Walther & Parks, 2002) to predict consumer behavior on the popular online auction website, eBay.com. A content analysis of 217 completed eBay auctions revealed that auctions that featured higher seller reputation scores and actual product photographs (vs. stock photographs) generated more bidding interest and resulted in higher final sales prices. These findings as well as future theoretical development in this area are discussed.     

How perceived cognitive needs fulfillment affect consumer attitudes toward the customized product: The moderating role of consumer knowledge

Voluntary participation in adaptive customization (AC) entails consumers’ own mental engagement that evokes perceptions of cognitive needs fulfillment (CNF). This study examined the effect of CNF perceived during the process of AC services on felt emotions and consumer attitudes toward the customized product, and the moderation role of consumer knowledge. A total of 327 Americans participated in an online survey after experiencing AC services at 3 actual retail websites. The results revealed the following: (a) Perceived CNF (competence and autonomy) increased positive felt emotions (pleasure and arousal); (b) out of the two emotions, felt pleasure (not arousal) significantly contributed to positive consumer attitudes toward the customized product; (c) subjective levels of consumer knowledge showed a partial moderating effect in the relationships between CNF and felt emotions, (d) but did not do so in the relationships between felt emotions and consumer attitudes toward the customized product.     

Positional uncertainty of isocontours: condition analysis and probabilistic measures

Uncertainty is ubiquitous in science, engineering and medicine. Drawing conclusions from uncertain data is the normal case, not an exception. While the field of statistical graphics is well established, only a few 2D and 3D visualization and feature extraction methods have been devised that consider uncertainty. We present mathematical formulations for uncertain equivalents of isocontours based on standard probability theory and statistics and employ them in interactive visualization methods. As input data, we consider discretized uncertain scalar fields and model these as random fields. To create a continuous representation suitable for visualization we introduce interpolated probability density functions. Furthermore, we introduce numerical condition as a general means in feature-based visualization. The condition number-which potentially diverges in the isocontour problem-describes how errors in the input data are amplified in feature computation. We show how the average numerical condition of isocontours aids the selection of thresholds that correspond to robust isocontours. Additionally, we introduce the isocontour density and the level crossing probability field; these two measures for the spatial distribution of uncertain isocontours are directly based on the probabilistic model of the input data. Finally, we adapt interactive visualization methods to evaluate and display these measures and apply them to 2D and 3D data sets.     

Addicted to pillaging in cyberspace: Investigating the role of internet addiction in digital piracy

The present exploratory study sought to address a gap in the current literature on problematic Internet use by investigating the relationship between Internet addiction and digital piracy. The main research question guiding this study was whether IA was correlated with digital piracy. The expectation was that IA would indeed be correlated with digital piracy and increase odds of perpetration. Secondly, taking into account that previous literature on both IA and digital piracy emphasizes the importance of online relationships (Acier and Kern, 2011, Fitzpatrick, 2008, Marcum et al., 2011), it was expected that deviant peer association would increase the odds of pirating. Finally, taking into account that previous research on both IA and digital piracy has largely shown that these problems affect a greater proportion of males (Andreou and Svoli, 2013, Gunter et al., 2010, Hinduja, 2012, Lam et al., 2009, Shaw and Black, 2008), it was expected that being male would increase the odds of pirating.     

Measuring consumer perception of product creativity: Impact on satisfaction and purchasability

In the current value‐based economy, product creativity is a potential resource for organizations to compete, thus emphasizing the need for product creativity measurement. Two studies were performed to refine and validate a previously tested model and measurement of consumer perception of product creativity: one with web‐based evaluations (N = 208) of chairs and lamps and one with paper‐based evaluations (N = 105) of individually selected products. Results of exploratory factor analyses indicated three main product creativity factors: Affect, Importance, and Novelty, which explained 72% of the common variance. Results of stepwise regressions indicated that the Affect factor significantly predicts (65% of the explained variance) willingness to purchase creative consumer products. One major contribution of this research is the finding that affect is as equally (R² = .28) important as novelty (R² = .25) in consumer perception of product creativity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for the Affect, Importance, and Novelty product creativity factors, and general creativity guidelines are provided for consumer product design. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Low self-control and cybercrime: Exploring the utility of the general theory of crime beyond digital piracy

While technological innovations over the last thirty years have markedly improved the ways in which people communicate and gather information, these advances have also led to computer crimes and related deviance becoming permanent fixtures in our society. In an effort to curtail internet offending, it is important for academics and practitioners alike to better understand why some individuals engage in cybercriminality. Criminologists have utilized several theories to investigate this type of deviance, including low self-control theory. However, the vast majority of this prior research has focused on a narrow scope of offending, namely digital piracy. The current study utilizes a sample of 488 undergraduate students to evaluate the theory’s generality hypothesis by examining the extent to which low self-control predicts online deviance in general and beyond digital piracy more specifically. Study results support the generality hypothesis in that low self-control is related to non-digital piracy online deviance. Specific findings, policy implications, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Examining the effects of utilities and involvement on intentions to engage in digital piracy

Reflecting scholars' growing interest in the utilitarian aspects of consumer digital piracy, this research examines two types of utilities associated with obtaining digital files (i.e. the utility of downloading pirated files and of purchasing copyrighted files) as factors driving consumer intentions to download pirated files. Moreover, we extend the findings of previous studies by including film/music involvement as a moderator between those utilities and intentions. The conceptual model was tested on a sample of 943 adult consumers. The results of our study confirm that the utility of purchasing copyrighted files has a negative influence on the intention to download pirated files, while the influence of the utility of downloading copyrighted files is positive. The moderating effect of film/music involvement was only found to be significant for the relationship between the utility of downloading pirated files and intentions. Based on these findings, implications for the affected industries are discussed, as well as future research opportunities.     

Reverse logistics network design for product reuse,remanufacturing, recycling and refurbishing under uncertainty

With the improvement of the quality of life in human society, the need to use more natural resources is felt more than ever. In this regard, much research has been done on restoring depreciated and consumed products to the supply chain; many factors, including the quality of returned products, can significantly impact how the reverse logistics network will be used. The two-stage stochastic mixed-integer programming model proposed in this paper considers various processes of recovering recyclable products, including reuse, refurbishing, remanufacturing, recycling, and selling spare parts. Also, considering uncertainty on quality and quantity of returned products, product variety, and bill of material are model features. Due to the computational complexity of large-scale problems, such problems require considerable time to solve. To tackle this issue, a hybrid algorithm constructed by a genetic algorithm and branch and cut algorithm (with CPLEX solver) has been introduced, which can significantly reduce the solution time. Finally, the algorithm is applied to a real-world problem to design a reverse logistics network for a small-size laboratory equipment manufacturer.