Consumers' willingness to knowingly purchase counterfeit products

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of personality factors on consumers' attitudes toward counterfeits and their willingness to knowingly purchase counterfeit luxury brands. Product performance and useful life are included to investigate their influence on consumers' willingness to purchase counterfeit luxury brands.

Design/methodology/approach

A self‐administered questionnaire is designed using established scales. Data are collected using a convenience sampling method from a large Australian university. Regression analyses are conducted using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

Findings

Integrity is found to be the only factor influencing attitudes toward counterfeits. The useful life of a counterfeit luxury brand showed significant influence on consumers' willingness to purchase. Attitudinal factors and personality factors do not influence consumers' willingness to purchase counterfeit luxury brands.

Research limitations/implications

The findings are limited to an Australian context. Mall intercept method can be implemented for future studies. The paper has only examined a high involvement luxury brand. Other product categories or low involvement products can be further investigated.

Practical implications

It is recommended for government to implement educational programs that are not only limited to schools, but also to multinational companies and domestic businesses. Luxury brand owners are also encouraged to distinguish their products through emphasis on product attributes, such as their product's useful life.

Originality/value

A specific high‐involvement luxury brand is studied as opposed to previous studies only examining counterfeit luxury brands as a whole. Furthermore, this paper has also examined both personality factors and product attributes.

Citation

Phau, I., Sequeira, M. and Dix, S. (2009), "Consumers' willingness to knowingly purchase counterfeit products", Direct Marketing: An International Journal, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 262-281. https://doi.org/10.1108/17505930911000865