Fairness, Guilt, and Perceived Importance as Antecedents of Intellectual Property Piracy Intentions

We extend the moral approbation model of ethical decision-making, and suggest that establishing moral intention is influenced by perceptions of the fairness/justice of the act and by feelings of guilt for performing the act. Issues of high perceived importance of an ethical issue (PIE) are proposed to have stronger links from perceptions of fairness to moral intentions, while issues low in PIE have weaker links because of the influence of other factors. The results of a questionnaire experiment involving four intellectual property activities are presented. When establishing moral intent, individuals weighed the action’s fairness/justice equally with whether it would make them feel guilty for the highest PIE issue, while guilt was the only significant influence on intent for issues lower in PIE. In light of the relatively low impact of fairness/justice on establishing moral intent, we conclude by analyzing strategies for reducing the unauthorized duplication of intellectual property.