Exploring the Ethical Decision Making in Software Piracy under Conditions of Volitional and non-Volitional Control among Taiwan’s Undergraduate Student: A Situational Piracy Prevention Perspective

• Main Authors: Bai-qin Hsu, 徐百欽
• Other Authors: Xing-zi Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/76351887395040229063

碩士 === 國立高雄大學 === 經濟管理研究所 === 94 === With the prevalence of Internet and the rapid changes in information technology, software piracy has become a significant challenge around the world. According to Business Software Alliance (BSA) statistics in 2004, the software piracy of point-to-point (P2P) has increased materially by 770%. Also, in an April 2003 economic impact study, the International Data Corporation (IDC) concludes that a 10 point reduction in the global piracy rate could deliver both direct and indirect benefits. In this study, a situational prevention theory is proposed and applied into the piracy issue, which comprises five different prevention categories: (1) increase the effort, (2) increase the risks, (3) reduce the rewards, (4) reduce provocations, and (5) remove excuses. Further, we have extended the Theory of Planned Behavior by adding a new variable – habit, to explore the individual’s decision making in software piracy under conditions of volitional and non-volitional control among Taiwan’s undergraduate student A totally 707 returned survey are used for analysis using structural equation modeling (SEM) as performed in LISREL. The results show the individual’s pirate intention is positively influenced by attitude and subjective norm; the perceived moral obligation and self-regulatory efficacy are negatively impact on one’s pirate intention; as for the mediating variables, the piracy intention and habit both positively influence on one’s pirate behavior. While this study has considered a non-volitional control variable – habit into the existing TPB model, this variable has explained a significant proportion of the variance in one’s pirate behavior. Based on the research findings, conclusions and implications are discussed.