An Exploratory Examination of Antecedents to Software Piracy: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Software piracy continues to be a growing problem on a global scale for software developers. The purpose of this study was to conduct a cross-cultural comparison of a model predicting the intent of individuals to pirate software using two sub samples: Jordan and the US. Our results suggest that the Theory of Reasoned Action provides a strong predictive ability for our US sub sample, but not for our Jordanian sample. Additionally, public self-consciousness, ideology, and religiosity varied in their ability to moderate the relationships of TRA across cultures. Overall, our results suggest culture plays an important role in affecting software piracy, and individual behavior in general.