Impact of gender and opportunity recognition on attitude to piracy of computer industry products

Abstract

Software piracy has defied punitive measures, posing threats to jobs of millions of employees and the computer industry. The study proposed an attitudinal approach to the wide-reaching problem and examines the variance explained by gender and opportunity recognition in attitude to piracy of software products. It utilized a correlational design in a survey of two hundred and forty students in an institution of higher learning located in southwestern Nigeria. Results indicate that opportunity recognition and attitudes toward software piracy have a significant positive relationship (â = .18, p the variance in attitudes toward software piracy, indicating that it favourably disposes an individual to software piracy. Contrary to hypothesis, gender was not significantly related to attitudes toward software piracy (â = .06, n.s.). Practical implications of findings and future research directions are discussed.