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The Profiles of Software Pirates among Tertiary Institutions in Singapore

Author

Listed:
  • Lydia L. Gan

    (Division of Economics, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

  • Hian Chye Koh

    (Division of Marketing & International Business, Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Abstract

The study seeks to examine the perception of software piracy as well as to discover its underlying factors among Singapore’s three university communities. Some five hundred responses were gathered from students and staff. By means of cluster analysis and factor analysis, the results identify three clusters of pirate profiles as influenced by factors such as attitudes towards software publishers, general acceptance, convenience, and ethics. The decision tree method links each pirate profile to demographic and computer-related variables. It shows that while age is negatively related to software piracy, computer experience and computer usage demonstrates an ambiguous relationship to software piracy respectively. Further, the undergraduate students tend to be pirates more often than university employees, and the Malays tend to be less frequent pirates as compared to other races. It is hoped that the study will help the relevant policy makers to develop better strategies to protect and to enforce the intellectual property rights among the universities as well as in an increasingly knowledge-based economy such as Singapore.

Suggested Citation

  • Lydia L. Gan & Hian Chye Koh, 2005. "The Profiles of Software Pirates among Tertiary Institutions in Singapore," Economic Growth Centre Working Paper Series 0508, Nanyang Technological University, School of Social Sciences, Economic Growth Centre.
    • Handle: RePEc:nan:wpaper:0508
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Software Piracy; Software Policy; Protection and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights; Cluster Analysis; Factor Analysis.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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