The Influence of Consumers’ Moral Intensity, Perceived Risks and Moral Judgment in Purchasing Pirated Software

J.K. Ratnasingam and  C.H. Ponnu

Western Digital, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze the influence of consumers’ moral intensity, perceived risks and moral judgment in purchasing pirated software by using the issue-risk judgment (IRJ) model. Moral intensity includes magnitude of consequence, social consensus, probability of effect and temporal immediacy; perceived risks of consumers include financial, performance, prosecution and social risks; and moral judgment is based on cognitive moral development and reasoning. This paper also examines the role of demographics, past purchase experience and price on consumers’ purchase intention of pirated software. Using stratified random sampling with a sample size of 203 from the Klang Valley in Malaysia, results show that consumers’ purchase intention is influenced by their perceived moral intensity, perceived risks, moral judgment and their demographics, price and past purchase experience.

Keywords: consumer behavior, Pirated Software, Malaysia.
Shares