An Investigation of Software Piracy among African American Students using ETPB

• In Event: SESSION 1C: Information Systems

Abstract

This study contributes to the software piracy literature. Prior studies tested software piracy among students using the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and samples from a same university. We used a broader theoretical framework and a sample from a different university.
Theoretically, the TRA suffers indeterminacies and insufficiencies, forcing Ajzen (1985) to develop the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Later, Dodor (2007) proposed an Extended TPB (ETPB), which we used in this study.
Methodologically, using samples from the same university does not provide sample diversity and can limit the generalization of findings. Thereby, this paper used a different sample from a different university.
We found no abnormal software piracy behavior specific to the sample of African American students. Instead, we did find proportions of likely software piraters similar to those of Woolley and Eining (2006). Further, the ETPB explained incremental variances in software piracy intentions compared to the alternative models.

Author

• Koffi Dodor, Jackson State University