EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Information security in SMEs: determinants of CEOs’ protective and supportive behaviors

Yves Barlette () and Annabelle Jaouen
Additional contact information
Yves Barlette: MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) - Montpellier Business School - UM - Université de Montpellier

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: This research addresses the determinants of CEOs' actions regarding the information security (ISS) of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This article aims to (a) identify factors influencing CEOs' ISS actions, (b) examine the relevance of protection motivation theory (PMT) in explaining top management support (TMS, i.e., supportive actions), and (c) find potential differentiated effects on protective vs. supportive actions. The results of a questionnaire-based survey (N=200) show that the PMT and social influence constructs, while explaining a significant amount of variance, exert differentiated effects: in contrast with protective actions, which are influenced mainly by self-efficacy, SME CEOs' supportive actions are strongly affected by the social influence of peers (partners and competitors) and customers. At a theoretical level, this research validates the relevance of the PMT framework for the study of TMS determinants in the context of ISS. This study is also the first to distinguish between these two types of actions and offers new insights on CEOs' ISS-related behavior literature. For practitioners, the results imply that even when CEOs do not exert protective actions, it is important to build on their professional relations to trigger and enhance their supportive actions.

Keywords: ISS; CEO; SME; Protection motivation theory; Top management support. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Systèmes d'Information et Management, 2019, 24 (3), pp.7-40. ⟨10.3917/sim.193.0007⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03037263

DOI: 10.3917/sim.193.0007

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03037263