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“To Pirate or Not to Pirate”: A Comparative Study of the Ethical Versus Other Influences on the Consumer’s Software Acquisition-Mode Decision

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Abstract

Consumers of software often face an acquisition-mode decision, namely whether to purchase or pirate that software. In terms of consumer welfare, consumers who pirate software may stand in opposition to those who purchase it. Marketers also face a decision whether to attempt to thwart that piracy or to ignore, if not encourage it as an aid to their software’s diffusion, and policymakers face the decision whether to adopt interventionist policies, which are government-centric, or laissez faire policies, which are marketer-centric. Here in order to assess the decision-making of all three of these stakeholders, we focus on the consumer’s point-of-view as central and examine it by considering on a comparative basis the ethical dimension versus other dimensions, including economic, legal, and other salient consumer behavior considerations. Based on a survey of 689 software consumers conducted over the Internet, the results indicate that ethics as a factor is embedded in a multidimensional set of determinant factors influencing software piracy, including attitudes, legal aspects, social support, perceptions of economic loss and age. Policy and research implications, based on these findings, are provided.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, Wright State University, 260-E Rike Hall, 3640 Colonel Glenn Hwy, Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A, 45435-0001

    Pola B. Gupta

  2. Department of Marketing, Baruch College,The City University of New York, New York City, NJ, U.S.A, 10010

    Stephen J. Gould

  3. Keesler Medical Center, Biloxi, MS, U.S.A, 39534

    Bharath Pola

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  1. Pola B. Gupta
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  2. Stephen J. Gould
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  3. Bharath Pola
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Correspondence to Pola B. Gupta.

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Gupta, P.B., Gould, S.J. & Pola, B. “To Pirate or Not to Pirate”: A Comparative Study of the Ethical Versus Other Influences on the Consumer’s Software Acquisition-Mode Decision. J Bus Ethics 55, 255–274 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-004-0991-1

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