 New insights into unethical counterfeit consumptionXuemei Bian, Kai-Yu Wang, Andrew Smith and Natalia Yannopoulou Journal of Business Research, 2016, vol. 69, issue 10, 4249-4258 Abstract: Consumer demand for counterfeit luxury brands is often viewed as “unethical,” but the demand is also robust and growing. The aim of this exploratory research, which employs in-depth interviews, is two-fold: 1) to identify the psychological and emotional insights that both drive and result from the consumption of higher involvement counterfeit goods and 2) to uncover the coping strategies related to unethical counterfeit consumption. This research reveals new psychological motivations (e.g., “thrill of the hunt,” being part of a “secret society” and genuine interest) underlying counterfeit consumption and the associated emotional outcomes (e.g., embarrassment, shame, and positive hedonic gains). This research is also one of the few studies to identify cognitive moral logics by disclosing the neutralization techniques (specifically, denial of responsibility and appealing to higher loyalties) that consumers adopt to cope with the cognitive dissonance associated with debatable counterfeit consumption. The paper contributes to scholarly, managerial, and policy conversations. Keywords: Counterfeit; Luxury brand; Consumer ethics; Motivation; Moral logics; Neutralization (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:69:y:2016:i:10:p:4249-4258 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.038 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier |
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