Consumers’ Perceptions of Pirated Textbooks: The Moderating Role of Quality

Pirated textbook usage has become an unstoppable and widespread activity particularly among college students who have been little deterred by legal actions. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between different types of textbooks and quality on consumer behavior. This article presents the results of a scenario-based experiment in which two types of textbook (original vs. pirated) and two types of quality (low vs. high) were tested among 98 undergraduate students. The results clearly show that pirated textbooks lead to higher levels of willingness to buy, commitment, and satisfaction than original textbooks. Contrary to expectations, consumers have higher levels of willingness to buy for low quality pirated textbooks than high quality original textbooks.