Survey Bias

I think in France the results would have been quite the same, because, although in France the tradition of intellectual property may be stronger than in the US, we are talking about western countries.
But what about Asian countries? In my opinion, in China for exemple, people are more likely to use open source software and are less willing to pay for a software they can download for free on the net. But it's just a feeling... What do you think about that? What about Taiwan?

In Poland, if someone uses OS products, such us Linux, he/she is somehow considered a geek, as there aren't too many users of these products. It can be considered as being a rebel or a great programmer.

However more and more people are installing two operation systems on they computers and switch between then depending on what they want to do. But those of my friends who used Linux fell in love with it and still do use it.

Moreover just recently couple of my friends switched to OpenOffice and are strongly recommending it to me.

But coming back to the question - I believe that results would be a bit different, maybe slightly more people would opt for free products.

What has to be remembered, is that the survey has been made among students, whose product and substitutes awareness is higher, their income is higher as well. The question may be not only what would have happened if we change the country but also if we add new society groups?

I think this survey is not really significant... Or just for the WTP for students in the States.
In my opinion, if you would question maybe people in their 30's or 40's, they have more WTP than students. I also think, they hardly use any piracy and they probably trust more software, for which they have to pay, instead of OS. They probably don't have as much time as students have, to compare prices or to evaluate the value of each product. So they just buy what they already know (from recommendations etc...). For example, a trial Microsoft Word is already installed on each computer, so they probably think, this is a good think because it's already on my computer. So they just buy this one..

Absolutely! Like I mentioned in the other question about Pirated Software, in Venezuela everyone is sharing software or pirating it. I believe the results would be leaning more towards open source software.
@Bartek, students don't necessarily have more money... in the contrary, in the USA, more students are poor rather than rich (you have to remember that in USA school is not socialized).

i agree with you i think in most countries the answer will be the same. Students tend to be more familiar wtih computers and information systems , they usually try to find the cheapest prices , use OSS or share between friends. i also think that adding different society groups would be interesting , their WTP for a reliable product would be higher

I agree with you I think in France the results would have been the same because this is two kind of similar society concerning this.

Actually I'm a bit surprised, I thought students would be willing to pay less for PS than other demographies. In my country especially students are poorer than working people, and try to save money on things like software, and that is why I think most people have use pirated software and that is also why they are usually more willing to try out OSS as an alternative. Students in my opinion are also more open to trying new things than people who are older and less likely to change the way they've been working for a long time.

soraya_berdeil wrote:i agree with you i think in most countries the answer will be the same. Students tend to be more familiar wtih computers and information systems , they usually try to find the cheapest prices , use OSS or share between friends. i also think that adding different society groups would be interesting , their WTP for a reliable product would be higher

So it seems that while the results of the study are coherent for a observation population of students, this can't been a general conclusion for the entire population of a country:
-which groups do you think should be included?
-which are the most important for proprietary software makers like Microsoft? (ie: which would have higher WTP)

jeremie_francois wrote:

soraya_berdeil wrote:i agree with you i think in most countries the answer will be the same. Students tend to be more familiar wtih computers and information systems , they usually try to find the cheapest prices , use OSS or share between friends. i also think that adding different society groups would be interesting , their WTP for a reliable product would be higher

So it seems that while the results of the study are coherent for a observation population of students, this can't been a general conclusion for the entire population of a country:
-which groups do you think should be included?
-which are the most important for proprietary software makers like Microsoft? (ie: which would have higher WTP)

i think that working people should be include, 30 or 40 years old people who are more demanding in terms of reliability of the product and who are able to pay. Even families or older 50/60 years old people who are not really familiar with computers and who never heard of OSS; their WTP would be quite high

True enough, if you don't know that you can have a given for free, then your WTP is high ! Besides, the older you get the wiser (normally... or I hope!). I know people in their 40s that won't pirate anything ! Does it come from education ?

jeremie_francois wrote:This survey was conducted at a business school in the United States. Do you think
the results would be different if it was done in your home country? Can you provide
any examples?

Obviously, this survey wasn't conducted through a general investigation. There must be some inaccuracy.
I don't think the samples of students at a business school are representative.
Therefore, the true result must be (maybe very) different from that stated in this case.

Moreover, I think the main hypothesis of this case is "Most of the people respect intellectual property."
Frankly speaking, I think most of the people in Taiwan and mainland China don't respect intellectual property.
If this survey were conducted in Taiwan or mainland China, the result may be "Preventive control can always be cracked easily, so people are not willing to pay for any proprietary software." or "Because people are taught by their friends or parents that it is not worth paying for a overpriced information good and being frugal is a virtue, so deterrence control is often of no avail." or "Since people can use proprietary software for free, what do they use open source software for? So, the presence of open source software doesn't affect the willingness to pay."

The above is my personal conjecture. I have no intention to offend anyone.

florent_lefevre wrote:True enough, if you don't know that you can have a given for free, then your WTP is high ! Besides, the older you get the wiser (normally... or I hope!). I know people in their 40s that won't pirate anything ! Does it come from education ?

No, I don't think it related to education. The reason why older people are willing to pay for proprietary software might be that they have more money to pay or they tend to play safe lest they will be punished because of piracy.

TA_Max_Huang wrote:

florent_lefevre wrote:True enough, if you don't know that you can have a given for free, then your WTP is high ! Besides, the older you get the wiser (normally... or I hope!). I know people in their 40s that won't pirate anything ! Does it come from education ?

No, I don't think it related to education. The reason why older people are willing to pay for proprietary software might be that they have more money to pay or they tend to play safe lest they will be punished because of piracy.

I think also they will trust more a program if it's a paying one. They will think it's impossible to have a free AND safe software !

do people around 40 years old spend as much time as we do chilling out on the internet or on the computer? No, it is just another generation.
I agree definitely with other people, this survey is totally biased. Students have i guess the smallest WTP among all the generation.
People, a little bit older, did not grow with computer or other kind of technology we are using today. It is also harder for them (maybe?) to think that they can get a program for free, and would rather pay for it. They could feel better, and could call if there is any problem (they could not call if they got it illegally)

jeremie_francois wrote:This
survey was conducted at a business school in the United States. Do you think
the results would be different if it was done in your home country? Can you provide
any examples?

Students of a business school is of course not really representative for the whole population. I don't think it will be a big difference if its done in The Netherlands though. In terms of software piracy, I think its quite the same as the United States.

I have other thoughts. Although the students of the US business school cannot be generalized to the population all over the world. However, the sample may represent the voice of the potential users of both open source software and proprietary software. According to the "age" factor, many of us have mentioned earlier, maybe this sample is not that bad. The research results could still be take into serious consideration since the students in the whole world have similliar economic concern and belong to the same generation.