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This paper introduces a unified conceptual framework for deliberate counterfeit purchase behavior by combining its diverse economic, ethical and socio-psychological perspectives using cognitive dissonance theory. Specific hypotheses are put forth about the interrelationships among counterfeit proneness, ethical judgments, subjective norms, counterfeit product evaluation and purchase intentions.

A field-survey with 380 shoppers (who had ever purchased a counterfeit product) in Hong Kong across four frequently counterfeited product categories (backpack, luxury watch, software and movie DVD) with varying levels of involvement, usage context and purchase motivation.

As hypothesized, counterfeit proneness positively influences ethical judgments and subjective norms about buying a counterfeit product, which in turn positively affect counterfeit product evaluation and purchase intentions. All these effects are fairly stable across the four product categories, which suggests robustness of the proposed unified model.

Using Hong Kong as the research setting and a relatively younger sample of ethnic Chinese consumers helps ensure high internal validity but it may also restrict the generalizability of the findings. Future research with a more diverse sample of consumers would help replicate the results reported in this paper. The conceptual framework may also be extended by including variables such as consumer innovativeness, risk-taking and change-seeking as antecedents of counterfeit purchase behaviour and usage.

Findings show that consumers are influenced by a combination of individual and sociological factors when they decide whether to buy and use counterfeit products. Hence, marketers and authorities need a multi-pronged strategy to curb the growing demand and usage of counterfeit products, especially among ethnic Chinese consumers. These results may also help identify consumer segments more prone to counterfeit purchase behavior and to develop special communication to target them more effectively.

Past studies mostly explore the ‘direct’ and ‘independent’ effects of consumer attitudes, ethical judgments and subjective norms on their counterfeit purchase behavior, ignoring their impact on each other and the roles of ‘counterfeit proneness’ and ‘product evaluation’. This paper addresses all these gaps with a unified conceptual framework that incorporates all these constructs using cognitive dissonance theory and provides useful insights about their direct and indirect effects on each other.

To identify ways for business managers to reduce consumer complicity with counterfeit products by better aligning their actions with consumer beliefs of complicity.

A mall intercept methodology was used to interview 54 US and 48 Brazilian business managers' understandings of consumer complicity with counterfeit products. A parallel web survey containing the questions in the interviews was used to assess 401 US and 390 Brazilian consumers' perceptions of what is important to them in determining that a product is counterfeit, the reasons why they were willing to acquire counterfeits, and the perceived effectiveness of anti‐counterfeiting actions.

Managers in both countries held beliefs that ran counter to those of the complicit consumer, particularly in the areas of understanding the reasons for consumer complicity and the perceived effectiveness of anti‐counterfeiting actions to reduce that complicity. Several anti‐counterfeiting actions considered to be of little use by managers were reported to be important by consumers regarding their intended complicity.

As the different motivations of consumer complicity with counterfeit products in different country markets become better known, managers can reduce their loss of business to counterfeiters by directly targeting those factors each country's consumers believe affect their complicity.

Comparing manager and consumer views of complicity with counterfeit products and the anti‐counterfeiting actions that can reduce that complicity in two country markets.

This research examines whether conflicting multicultural identities may influence counterfeit consumption behavior by examining how monocultural and multicultural consumers process shame and guilt differently depending on their cultural identities. It explores how consumers’ moral emotions after buying counterfeit goods can lead to regret and reduce their likelihood of buying such goods in the future.

This research employs a multimethod, multi-sample approach with 1,694 respondents across multiple cultures to test our hypotheses. Study 1 is survey research with overseas Chinese consumers and monocultural Chinese consumers, and Study 2 is a randomized block experiment with a European multicultural sample. This design allowed us to test both mediation and moderation hypotheses, validating the effects of shame and guilt on post-purchase regret across diverse multicultural settings.

Study 1 shows that cultural identity conflict (CIC) weakens the main effects of shame and guilt on counterfeit post-purchase regret. Study 2 shows that under artificially high levels of shame and guilt, CIC no longer weakens the effects of either shame or guilt on post-purchase regret, further confirming these main effects on counterfeit post-purchase regret. Furthermore, Study 2 demonstrates that, in a natural setting without manipulation, CIC weakens the main effects of shame and guilt on post-purchase regret, further supporting CIC’s moderating effect.

This study develops a model to examine counterfeit purchasing, going beyond the point of purchase to also consider post-purchase regret and repurchase intentions. It also explores moral emotions and cultural identity factors that can discourage future counterfeit purchases by increasing post-purchase regret. Finally, it investigates how this process may vary between multicultural and monocultural consumers, given their different cultural identities.

The purpose of this research is to examine the influence of the Dark Triad personality traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy) on consumers’ purchase intentions for counterfeit luxury products via the mediating effect of moral disengagement, drawing on moral disengagement theory. Furthermore, descriptive norms are tested as a moderators of the mediated relationships between the Dark Triad personality traits and purchase intentions via moral disengagement based on trait activation theory.

To test the hypotheses, a survey design is employed to gather primary data from 205 consumers. The final data are analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

This study finds that moral disengagement mediates the relationships between (1) Machiavellianism, (2) psychopathy and purchase intentions. Descriptive norms are found to moderate the indirect effect of moral disengagement between psychopathy and purchase intentions.

Dark Triad personality traits are linked to various unethical behaviours. However, no studies have explored how Dark Triad personality traits influence consumers’ purchase intentions for counterfeit luxury products. This study sheds light on how consumers with high Dark Triad personality traits are more likely to be morally disengaged, thereby leading to purchase intentions for counterfeit luxury products, drawing on moral disengagement theory. Furthermore, this study demonstrates descriptive norms as the boundary condition for the mediating relationship between Dark Triad personality traits and purchase intentions via moral disengagement, drawing on trait activation theory. The findings can be used to formulate better strategies to counteract the phenomenon of counterfeit luxury consumption.

This systematic literature review used bibliometric and science mapping as a means of exploring and understanding the evolution and landscape of research in the counterfeiting of products and goods. The review sought to document the size, growth trajectory and geographic distribution of counterfeiting research, identify high-impact scholars and documents, and explore the intellectual structure of the field. We identified 403 peer-reviewed articles published in the SCOPUS database, within subject areas of business, social sciences, economics, decision-making, arts and humanities, and psychology. We used VOSviewer software to analyse the data set of SCOPUS-indexed articles. Using citation analysis, the review identified the most cited scholars, documents, journals and most productive countries publishing research on counterfeiting. Aiming to identify highly influential documents whose impact in counterfeiting research has been sustained over time, we conducted a co-citation analysis. Apart from identifying main aspects of knowledge production through citation and co-citation analysis, we employed keyword co-occurrence analysis to illuminate research fronts in counterfeiting research, notably: anti-counterfeiting strategies for combating crime; counterfeiting and intellectual property rights; counterfeiting of luxury products; consumer ethics; consumer psychology and brand protection. We conclude that bibliometric analysis and science mapping offer a novel and useful means of investigating the development of this field of study.

Trade in counterfeit products has been expanding continuously. The emergence of the internet, the process of globalisation as well as the increase of digitalisation have enabled counterfeit products to infiltrate legitimate supply chains, causing harm not only to national economies but also to holders of intellectual property rights (IPR). In this chapter, we analyse the possible solutions that holders of IP rights and their legal representatives have in their fight against the online sale of counterfeit products. To elaborate on this issue, first, we explain the legislation on an international level for IPR protection and its specific characteristics. We explain the conventions on the protection of IPR that are governed by the World Intellectual Protection Organisation (WIPO) and the provisions of the TRIPS (Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement governed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). We also analyse the national legislative procedure of protecting and enforcing IPR in North Macedonia to explain a possible solution to fight online counterfeit trade. As a case study of this chapter, we explain the work of the Online Enforcement Programme of REACT as a not-for-profit organisation with over 30 years of experience in the fight against counterfeit trade and the challenges that they have in fighting against the online sale of counterfeit products. Since IP law is territorial in its nature as a conclusion, we suggest that a more centralised approach is needed in the fight against the online sale of counterfeit products.

Counterfeiting is an increasing global problem, which affects a wide spectrum of industries – fashion, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, electronic, food processing etc. Globalisation, growth of the world commerce, new markets and technology development have contributed to the growth of the phenomenon of counterfeiting. Besides, counterfeiting has an unfavourable effect on legitimate manufacturers, consumers, as well as on national and international economy.

This chapter is aimed at presenting attitudes of consumers in Bosnia and Herzegovina toward counterfeit products. The intention was to examine whether and why consumers buy counterfeit products, which counterfeit products are purchased most frequently, consumers' attitudes toward counterfeit products and the degree of awareness of the risk of using counterfeit products.

Results of a research conducted on the sample of 427 respondents in Bosnia and Herzegovina reveal that 78.2% of them have bought a counterfeit product, while the most frequently purchased kinds of products include clothes and footwear. The results show that consumers typically buy counterfeit products over the internet or in the local marketplaces, and that the most frequent reasons for buying counterfeit products include lower prices, impossibility to buy the original product and the impossibility to recognise a counterfeit product. The research has also showed that most respondents agree that product counterfeiting affects both manufacturers and the national economy. It was also revealed that the respondents are aware of the risks that counterfeit products may cause.

The purpose of the present chapter was to answer the research question which states; what are the factors that influence consumers to buy counterfeited smartphones in developing economies with the case of Tanzania. The study employed a convenience sampling technique and collected 200 questionnaires in Dar es Salaam region, Tanzania. The study employed Sharma and Chan (2011) previously developed Scale on consumers' preference to counterfeited products and 20 itemised Likert scale was used. Data were analysed by using confirmatory factors analysis (CFA). In general, the models were rejected, which suggest that factors such as ethics, social status and attitude are not significant in influencing consumers to purchase counterfeited mobile phones in developing economies. Areas for further research were provided.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perception and experience of counter pharmaceuticals in Nigeria compared to the European Union.

The findings from this paper are based upon a survey of 362 Nigerians sourced in public places with the data and then compared results from a survey by the European Union.

The key findings from this research showed some areas of similarity between Nigerians and Europeans on their views on the acceptability of purchasing counterfeits. However, Nigerians were more open to purchasing counterfeits despite the risks. There was also more anxiety over the risk of purchasing counterfeit medicines compared to the European Union.

Due to security issues, survey data could only be sourced from Abuja, Lagos and the relatively peaceful southwestern region of Nigeria. The data is, therefore, not representative of Nigeria.

The purchasing experience of counterfeit medicines by Nigerians along with their anxieties highlights the need for more enforcement action to tackle this problem and reassure the public.

The paper highlights the challenges of securing genuine pharmaceutical products in the Global South and the need for more greater cross-border action to tackle the problem.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first survey of Nigerian citizens on this issue.

This chapter presents a typology, a comprehensive overview and a deconstruction of food counterfeits. In this chapter, common targets, defined by type of commodity, supply chain (node) and location, are identified based on incident reports and vulnerability assessments in global food supply chains. As a second step, the effects of counterfeiting on brand owners, consumers and governments are detailed, which is followed by the characterisation of the groups of buyers and suppliers. To comprehend the counterfeiting process and its most important factors in greater detail, counterfeiting is disassembled into and analysed for existing motivational drivers, opportunities and control measures. Lastly, various strategies are proposed to deter counterfeiting and disrupt these practices.