EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Counterfeit luxury consumption strategies in a collectivistic culture: the case of China

Jiahan Li, Mahsa Ghaffari () and Lin Su ()
Additional contact information
Jiahan Li: University of Portsmouth
Mahsa Ghaffari: University of Portsmouth
Lin Su: University of Portsmouth

Journal of Brand Management, 2020, vol. 27, issue 5, No 4, 546-560

Abstract: Abstract The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand the risk-reducing strategies used by Chinese consumers in a collectivistic culture to balance the psychological dichotomy they face when consuming counterfeit luxury products to construct their social identities. Consumers, on the one hand, are tempted to buy counterfeit luxury products due to their remarkable price advantages, while on the other hand they are reluctant to use these products given the fear of being socially caught out. This dissonance intensifies in a collectivistic culture, where the concept of social face is important. The study involved reviewing a large volume of literature on the research of non-deceptive counterfeit luxury consumption, based on which 26 semi-structured in-depth interviews among Chinese consumers were conducted to explore strategies used by consumers to construct their social identity through using counterfeit luxury products. In addition, the ways they select and use these products to avoid being caught out in order to maintain their constructed social identity were investigated. The data were analyzed by adopting (Mitchell in Manag Decis 30(3):26–31, 1992) risk reduction framework, and the findings illustrate the different strategies taking place through two separate consumption phases: pre-purchase and post-purchase. This research offers new insights into non-deceptive counterfeit consumption by introducing perceived risk and risk-reducing strategies.

Keywords: Non-deceptive counterfeit; Social identity; Social risk; Risk reduction; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41262-020-00197-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:jobman:v:27:y:2020:i:5:d:10.1057_s41262-020-00197-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/41262

DOI: 10.1057/s41262-020-00197-4

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Brand Management is currently edited by Joachim Kernstock, Shaun M. Powell, Mark Davies and Ur a Golob

More articles in Journal of Brand Management from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:pal:jobman:v:27:y:2020:i:5:d:10.1057_s41262-020-00197-4