Investigating the Moderating Impact of National Culture in Information Systems Security Policy Violation: The Case of Italy and Ethiopia

Information systems security (ISS) has become one of the top agendas of companies located in the developed world. Despite this fact, there is an increasing trend in the types and frequency of ISS breaches. Most of the time researchers and practitioners focus on threat that are caused by external agents while most of the threats are originated from insiders. In addition to this, the majority of the investments and researches around ISS are limited to technically oriented solutions. It is now realized that the technical approach alone couldn’t bring the required level of ISS, and this led ISS researchers to embark on socio-technical approaches. One of the critical social factors that has been given little emphasis is culture. Thus, this research investigates the impact of national culture on employees’ ISS behaviour. Specifically, it answers the question “what is the moderating impact of national culture on the influence of ISS countermeasures on employees’ intention to violate ISS policies?” We will develop and test an empirical ISS compliance model, using rational choice theory and national culture constructs. Survey will be used to collect data from Italy and Ethiopia.