IT users often make security-related decisions in complex and multidimensional environments. Over-reliance on current behavioral security theories (e.g. Protection Motivation Theory) that do not account for such circumstances can seriously limit researchers’ ability to comprehend such decision making. In this regard, herd behavior theory explains that when individuals make decisions in uncertain circumstances, they may observe what other people are doing, discount their own limited information and imitate others (also known as social learning). Explaining protection motivation behavior from a different theoretical perspective (i.e. herd behavior) is one of the primary contributions of this study. Investigating whether protection motivation behaviors influenced by herd mentality can impact continuous secure behavior, as a very important and understudied information security phenomenon, is the other contribution of this study. In other words, examining whether security behaviors can be influenced by herd-related factors in uncertain circumstances, as well as whether such behaviors persist over time, is central to this study. The findings of this research show that in uncertain circumstances and when there is awareness about the widespread use of a certain security technology, users develop a significantly higher protection motivation. Furthermore, the results show that at the postoption stage, users tend to heavily rely on their own information and disregard the herd-related factors.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MSSTATE/oai:scholarsjunction.msstate.edu:td-3815 |
| Date | 10 August 2018 |
| Creators | Vedadi, Ali |
| Publisher | Scholars Junction |
| Source Sets | Mississippi State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
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