How Espoused Culture Influences Misuse Intention: A Micro-Institutional Theory Perspective

Following Willson and Warkentin’s [42] call for understanding the interaction between employees and the organization in the context of computer abuse, this paper investigates the effect of espoused institutional pressure on misuse intention in South Korea. In addition, we hypothesize the effect of culture in the form of self-construal, power distance and Confucian dynamism on users’ perceptions of organizational coercive, normative and mimetic pressures. We collected 232 usable surveys. Since the sample was mostly a convenience sample, the response rate was close to a 100%. Our analysis found that coercive pressure has no effect on misuse intention, while normative pressures has significant deterring effect and mimetic has significant motivating effect on misuse intention. As to culture, self-construal had the strongest effect on institutional pressure and subsequently on misuse intention.