Consumer file sharing of motion pictures: Consequences and Determinants

Abstract

Consumer file sharing of motion pictures is considered a major threat to the movie industry. While industry advocates postulate a cannibalistic effect on traditional forms of movie consumption such as movie theater visits and DVD purchases, some researchers have argued against such an effect. In this paper, we test a structural model of consumer file sharing consequences and determinants and are the first to provide sound empirical evidence of the impact that consumer downloading of motion pictures via peer-to-peer networks has on industry revenues. Using two samples of 450 and 547 online survey respondents, we apply partial least squares structural equation modeling and find no support for the cannibalization hypotheses. Moreover, our findings help to understand the phenomenon of downloading movies by identifying five significant drivers of downloading behavior.