Malaysian attitudes towards counterfeits of luxury brands

The problem of counterfeiting is harmful to economic growth and well being of countries and companies.

This chapter will cover previous literatures of each topic area. It is vital in supporting the derivation of hypothesis, which will be discussed in detail in Chapter 3. The one given by Cordell et al. This means, that the counterfeiters copied or imitated products that has been patented and trademarked without permission from the manufacturers of the genuine products.

The products are seen to look closely similar or identical to genuine products. This would include packaging, labelling, and trademarks, intentionally passing off as the original product Kay, ; Ang et al.

Lai and Zaichkowsky stated that counterfeiting and piracy are in the same essence since they are both the reproduction of identical copies of authentic products.

These two terms have been used interchangeably Wee et al. However, piracy is mainly related to software and fixed medium contents such as films and music recordings Chow, ; Cheung and Prendergast, De Matos et al.

Grey market goods are, by definition, overruns from outsourced manufacturers that are distributed through unauthorized channels Huang et al. Two common forms of consumer susceptibility to social influences are information susceptibility and normative susceptibility Bearden et al.

Information susceptibility refers to purchase decision based 14 on the expert opinion of others Ang et al. On the other hand, normative susceptibility concerns purchase decisions based on the expectations of what would impress others Ang et al.

The consumers whom are normative susceptibility would purchase a product based on what they assume the others would expect or want them to buy. Consumers may be informationally susceptible, when expertise from others influences their choice e. Regarding counterfeits, friends and relatives may act as inhibitors or contributors to the consumption, depending on how much this behaviour is approved by them.

According to the range theory, people use the range of remembered price 15 experiences to set lower and upper Malaysian attitudes towards counterfeits of luxury brands on price expectations, such that the attractiveness of a market price is a function of its position within this range Janiszewski and Lichtenstein, After adaptation-level theory was integrated into pricing theory, an internal reference price was presented as a degree of adaptation that depends on recent price experiences Janiszewski and Lichtenstein, Rajendran and Tellis have found that within this context, the lowest price is an important cue for a reference price, whereas over the time, the past prices of the actual brand seem to become the most important cue.

Most researchers claim that price difference is an important factor when purchasing counterfeit products Bucklin, ; Chang, ; Weigand, When the sellers of counterfeit products sell simultaneously alongside an authorized channel, consumers with a higher price consciousness may prefer to select the counterfeit products sold at the lower price.

Most of the consumers of counterfeit products pursue value for brand, prestige and image benefits, but unwilling to pay a high price for it Bloch et al. Therefore, for a lower price and a substandard quality, counterfeits are considered value for money Bloch et al.

Value conscious consumers consider themselves as smart buyers. They are concerned of paying a low price but the product is subject to some quality constraint. Marketing literature has long acknowledged perceived risk as an important issue during buying decisions, proposing that consumers seek to reduce uncertainty and the unfavourable consequences of purchase decisions Mitchell, ; Cox, ; Bauer, Perceived risk comprises of multidimensional constructs Mandel, ; Campbell and Goodstein, ; Mitchell and Boustani, ; Jacoby and Kaplan, ; Roselius, Since the 17 outcome of the choice decision made by the consumer can only be known in the future, the consumers are forced to deal with uncertainty till the extent of the consumers realize that the counterfeit products that they have bought did not accomplish all of their buying goals, then, risk is perceived.

Integrity is determined by personal ethical standards and obedience to the law. If the consumers view integrity as critical, the chances of them viewing counterfeit products as favourable would be less, but if the consumers do not feel that integrity is important then they would be in favour of counterfeits Ang et al.

In this sense, those consumers who have lower ethical standards are expected to feel less guilty when buying a counterfeit product Ang et al. Rather, they rationalize their behaviour in a way to reduce the cognitive dissonance of an unethical behaviour.

Consumers with high sense of personal gratification would be more conscious of the appearance and visibility of fashion products and are probably less prone to accept goods of inferior quality Phau and Teah, This is because by buying a counterfeit version of the genuine products, the consumers are seen as not thinking highly of themselves.

Apple iPhone scores on 'Attitude toward Object', fails on 'Attitude toward Behaviour'

There are conflicting results in literatures because Bloch et al. On the contrary, Ang et al. A consumer who is inclined to try new products would probably have positive attitudes towards counterfeits of counterfeit products.

Novelty seeking consumers are particularly inclined towards products with low purchase risk. Hence, the low cost of counterfeit products is well suited to satisfy their curiosity and the need for experimentation Wee et al. Status is a position or rank in a society, which is given or awarded to an individual by others.

Status consumers seek to possess brands that exude brand symbols that reflect their self-identity. Eastman suggests that significant levels of status consumption exist in all communities in the world where the utility of products is measured by the social advantage these purchases offer.

According to Tom et al. Consumers are willing to pay for the visual attributes and functions without paying for the associate quality Grossman and Shapiro, ; Cordell et al.the effects of the antecedents on attitudes towards counterfeit of luxury brands, finally the effects of attitude on willingness to purchase are examined.

Although numerous studies investigated the. Only two variables, namely social influence and price quality inference, are found to be significant predictors of attitudes towards counterfeits of luxury brands (F=, P.

Consumer Attitudes toward Counterfeit Fashion Products: Does Gender Matter?

Jason M. Carpenter, Assistant Professor to examine gender as a moderator of attitudes toward counterfeit fashion products among a sample of U.S. consumers (N = ). Findings suggest that while gender does toward the lawfulness of counterfeit luxury brands and. Perceptions of Intellectual Property: a review.

Haas School of Business. IP, NGOs and Multilateral Institutions by the University of London both provide an excellent overview of NGOs and their attitudes towards IP.

but retain their appetite for luxury brands”. Since there is scarcity of research on the purchasing decision of loud and quiet brands, particularly in the luxury market (Han et al., ) in Malaysia, this study is an attempt to understand the purchase attitudes and motives of consumers in purchasing logoed and non-logoed luxury brands.

Thus, this study is aimed to identify the consumer identities or profiles based on attitude towards purchasing counterfeit of luxury brands and investigate their purchase intention for counterfeits.

For this, respondents who are above 18 assuming decision making abilities were recruited through judgmental sampling.