Ethical decision-making in the Internet context: Development and test of an initial model based on moral philosophy

This paper proposes an ethical decision-making model in the Internet context based on moral theories and then empirically tests the model. The model posits that five moral philosophy variables—justice, relativism, egoism, deontology, and utilitarianism—affect ethical judgment; ethical judgment, in turn, affects behavioral intentions. To empirically test the model, four scenarios, real-life situations containing an ethical dilemma on the Internet, were developed and empirically analyzed by structural equation modeling with data from 111 university students.The results showed the five moral philosophy variables affected ethical judgment, each having different effects according to the particular ethical situation. Also, justice, utilitarianism, and ethical judgment were found to influence behavioral intentions in ethical dilemma situations on the Internet.

► An ethical decision-making model was proposed based on moral theories.
► Four scenarios were developed.
► The five moral philosophy variables affected ethical judgment.
► Justice, utilitarianism, and ethical judgment affected behavioral intentions.