Transcript Mohamed Nada

Ethical Decision Making
in Software Piracy
By: Trevor T.Moores
&
Jerry Cha-Jan Chang
MIS Quarterly Vol. 30 No.1 March 2006
Basic Information
• What’s software piracy?
• Global piracy rate hovers between
35 – 40% (BSA 2005)
• Losses of 32.70 Billion $ for the
software industry in 2004.
• Vietnam (95%), Ukraine (91%),
China (90%) – USA (21% = 6.65
Billion $)
Introduction
• Software piracy costs the software industry billions of
dollars each year.
• To understand piracy the paper proposes a fourcomponent model of ethical decision making:
–
–
–
–
Moral Recognition
Moral Judgment
Moral Intention
Moral Behavior
• The model is tested with a sample of self-reported IS
students in Hong Kong.
• Effects of age and gender on moral behavior was
investigated.
• The article suggests that Use is determined by buying,
buying is determined by intention and intention is
determined by judgment.
• Paradox: Respondents recognized piracy as an
infringement of intellectual property rights, however they
still used pirated software.
Hypotheses
Moral
Recognition
(RECOG)
H1
Moral
Judgment
(JUDGE)
H2
Moral
Intention
(INTEN)
H4a
H3
Using
Behavior
(USE)
H4b
Using
Behavior
(USE)
H5
H6
Age
Gender
Hypotheses
• H1. Moral recognition determines moral
judgment.
• H2. Moral judgment determines moral
intention.
• H3. Moral intention determines buy behavior.
• H4a. Moral intention determines use
behavior.
• H4b. Buy behavior determines use behavior.
• H5. Age has a significant moderating effect
on the ethical decision-making process.
• H6. Gender has a significant moderating
effect on the ethical decision-making
process.
Discussion
-The results suggest that the four-component model can
indeed be defined as a sequential causal model.
-The article did not find a relationship between recognition
and judgment, but because piracy is perceived as commonplace, recognition of the act does not provoke moral outrage.
- Deciding whether to engage in software piracy, therefore,
begins with an individual's judgment and not recognition of
the ethicality of the act itself.
- The results show limited support for gender differences but
significant support for age differences since males and
females interpret the act of software piracy similarly.
Limitations
•
The four-component model defined here is a simplification of the original
model.
•
The model was adapted to specifically address the problem of ethical
decision making in software piracy.
•
Feedback and feed forward loops that would be part of a morecomprehensive depiction of the ethical decision-making process were not
included.
•
The article also did not include other moderating factors such as culture
that might explain our results.
•
Some students undoubtedly sought to hide their involvement in software
piracy while others might have inflated measures of their behavior to
show off.
•
The high rates of piracy behavior also raise questions about how well the
model would perform with samples where the behavior is not prevalent.
•
Use of students also limits the external validity of the results. Students do
not represent the general workforce.
Article’s Conclusion
-There’s a sequential causal model of ethical
decision making in which recognition determines
judgment, judgment determines intention,
intention determines buying behavior, and buying
behavior determines levels of use was
hypothesized.
- The model was tested across multiple ethical
scenarios related to software piracy.
- The article also investigated the roles of
age and gender.
- Within a sample of respondents that knew
the problem well (students in Hong Kong),
the model was generally supported, with
differences detected by age.
My Conclusion
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