Evaluating digital piracy intentions on behaviors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess how well digital piracy self‐report intentions predict actual digital piracy behaviors in service marketing research. Design/methodology/approach – Study 1 collects 321 surveys to investigate potential measurement issues related to digital piracy intention formation. Study 2 replicates Study 1 based on a separate sample of 267 respondents, and additionally links digital piracy intentions to directly observed digital piracy behaviors across a peer‐to‐peer network. Findings – The results first validate a strong predictive relationship between self‐report intentions and observed digital piracy behaviors ( R 2 =0.36). Second, common method bias and measurement error do not appear to threaten the veracity of reported results. Third, a social psychological model of how digital piracy behaviors emerge is validated based upon the folk theory of the mind. Finally, a two‐dimensional conceptualization of frequency of past behaviors is identified based upon exploratory factor analysis using structural equation modeling. Research limitations/implications – The research reported here relies on experimental methods of measuring peer‐to‐peer network activity. Future research might consider the motivational and attitudinal antecedents to digital piracy intention formation. Practical implications – The results afford service marketers assurance that self‐report measures of digital piracy behavioral intentions can serve as predictive measures of future behaviors. This helps make the collection of data in this context both achievable and practical. Also, a methodological framework is identified to strengthen measurement models associated with this type of research. Originality/value – The research provides a first effort to empirically relate behavioral intention data to unobtrusively observed digital piracy behaviors across peer‐to‐peer networks.