IP Outreach Research > IP Crime
Reference
| Title: | Why Are People So Prone to Steal Software? The Effect of Cost Structure on Consumer Purchase and Payment Intentions |
| Author: | Joseph C Nunes [University of Southern California], Christopher K Hsee [University of Chicago], Elke U Weber [Columbia University] |
| Source: | Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 23, no. 1: 43-53 |
| Year: | 2004 |
Details
| Subject/Type: | Piracy |
| Focus: | Software |
| Country/Territory: | United States of America |
| Objective: | To examine why otherwise honest people are more inclined to steal intellectual property products than more tangible, material products. |
| Sample: | 247 undergraduate business students; 200 undergraduate students; 140 undergraduate business students |
| Methodology: | Three different questionnaires |
Main Findings
Ordinarily law-abiding people are more prone to stealing intellectual property products (such as software) than other more tangible, material ones. This seems to be connected to the cost structure of the product perceived by the consumer: they are much more inclined to pay the costs it takes to produce a single unit of the product in question (the so-called variable costs, which are typically low for intellectual property goods and high for material goods), while they feel less obligated to pay the upfront costs, which include product research and development, buildings and equipment (the so-called fixed costs, which are usually high for intellectual property goods and low for material ones).
Accordingly, consumers feel that they cause less harm by not paying for intellectual property goods (with low variable and high fixed costs) than by not paying for conventional tangible goods (such as jewellery, with a high variable and low fixed costs), and consequently, are more likely to steal the former.
In view of this evidence, the authors recommend that marketers better communicate a more accurate representation of total costs to the consumer and that they take measures to increase the variable costs for intellectual property (creating a more favourable variable to fixed costs ratio).
[Date Added: Aug 12, 2008 ]