Integrating Psychological Ownership and Protection Motivation Theory in Chinese IT Organizations

Protection motivation theory (PMT) has long explained information security behavior as a rational evaluation of threats and coping mechanisms. However, existing models provide limited insight into how organisational conditions translate into information security experts' personal responsibility for protecting information assets. This study addresses this gap by integrating psychological ownership (PO) into PMT and reconceptualising protection motivation as an ownership-driven process. Using survey data from 1,254 information security professionals in Chinese IT organisations and structural equation modelling, the results show that PO is the strongest predictor of protective intention. PO significantly strengthens threat appraisal and self-efficacy, whereas response efficacy and response cost do not significantly influence intention. These findings suggest that security behavior is driven less by calculative threat evaluation than by the internalisation of organisational responsibility, offering a psychologically grounded perspective on sustainable information security engagement.