An Analysis of the Impact of Culture and Wealth on Declining Software Piracy Rates: A Nine-Year Study

This paper examines the relationship between Hofstede’s national culture indices (IDV, PSI, MAS, and UAI), economic wealth (GNI), and software piracy rates (SPR). Although a number of studies have already examined this relationship, the contribution of this paper is two-fold. First, we will examine not only the relationship to SPR, but also the relationship to declines in SPR. The average national SPR has been declining since 1994, although the global rate has leveled off since 1997 and has recently seen a slight increase. Second, we will use a 9-year dataset stretching from 1994 to 2002 to assess wealth and SPR. This allows for a more sensitive analysis of the relative wealth of a country and the underlying SPR. Using a sample of 45 countries, we find a significant negative relationship between GNI, IDV and SPR. We also find that decline in SPR is a function of culture (PDI), not wealth. Areas of further research are discussed.