Demystifying Counterfeit Purchase Behavior: Towards a Comprehensive Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Counterfeiting is one of the fastest growing industries in the world spreading from luxury products like clothing and personal accessories to a wide range of product categories, including music, movies, food, computer software, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers and machinery parts. Prior research has focused mostly on deceptive counterfeiting in which the consumers are not aware that they are buying counterfeit products. There is little research on non-deceptive counterfeiting in which consumers knowingly purchase counterfeit products and most of it is fragmented or exploratory in nature, resulting in mixed or inconclusive findings and leaving many important questions still unanswered. This gap is addressed in this conceptual paper, by proposing a new comprehensive two-part conceptual framework based on an exhaustive literature review and synthesis of the current research in this growing area.