Understanding consumer motivation for taking action against spyware

Spyware exacerbates the privacy concerns of consumers due to their surreptitious characteristics. The threats related to spyware are more severe in the sense that their existence is not obvious as the existence of virus or worm. Yet many consumers are unaware that their machines have been infected by spyware. While such theories as TAM, TPB and TRA are not sufficient to gauge consumers' attitude and behavioral change toward the adoption of anti-spyware tools, the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) was introduced from marketing and health research disciplines and employed to predict anti-spyware use when consumers are confronted with threats. Utilizing structural equation modeling, this study will analyze the factors that will motivate the consumers to adopt anti-spyware tool and provide support for the research model based on PMT.