Knowingly Purchasing Counterfeit:from The Perspective Of Allure And Resistance

Counterfeiting is acknowledged as the disaster of21century (International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, IACC,2008). In point of academic research, western literatures concerning counterfeiting have switched their research subject from the suppliers to the demand side, with some works alleging that consumers demand is the leading cause of counterfeit goods transactions and its rapid development (Gentry et al.,2001). However, Chinese studies about counterfeiting still focus on topics of its causes, its negative effect and countermeasures from the perspective of suppliers. Most studies regarded customers' purchasing counterfeit as an unwitting behavior, while researches on knowingly purchasing counterfeit are scarce.With the booming of Chinese market economy, the quantity and proportion of knowingly purchasing counterfeit keep increasing in counterfeit goods consumption. In accordance with the fact, this paper concentrates on the study of knowingly purchasing counterfeit. Specific research process is as follows:(1) Defining the research objects. Prior works has principally studied the purchase of counterfeit luxury goods. This paper extended the study to the knowingly purchasing of counterfeit products of generally well-known brands.(2) Constructing the theory model. This paper put forward the constructs of "allure of counterfeit" and "tendency to resist counterfeit", based on which constructed the model of intention to purchase counterfeit knowingly.(3) Situational simulation. This paper used a scenario-based survey and a2(brand influence, high/low)*2(legitimacy pressure, high/low) design.(4) Empirical study. According to the designed scales, this part analyzed consumers' perceived allure of counterfeit, tendency to resist counterfeit, the intention to purchase counterfeit knowingly in different circumstances and verified the correlate hypotheses. (5) Managerial implications. The paper gave several countermeasures to reduce consumers'purchasing intention of counterfeit goods on the basis of the conclusion.Findings of this paper are as below:(1)Allure of counterfeit has positive effect on consumers' intention to purchase counterfeit knowingly, while tendency to resist counterfeit has negative effect.(2)Price margin between counterfeit and genuine, brand influence, perceived substitution, face-saving consciousness positively influence consumers'perceived allure of counterfeit, while perceived risk acts from the opposite.(3) Face-saving consciousness, perceived risk and legitimacy pressure has a positive correlation, while price margin between counterfeit and genuine is negative correlated with consumers'tendency to resist counterfeit.(4) face-saving consciousness is consisted of "want to save face" and "afraid of losing face", has positive effect on the two dimensions of consumers'intention to purchase counterfeit knowingly, both "allure of counterfeit" and "tendency to resist counterfeit".(5)No-fault cognition is generally existed in consumers purchasing counterfeit.This paper makes several research innovations:(1) This study found that, for abnormal consuming behavior or risky demand, consumers experienced allure as well as resistance in some degree simultaneously. The ultimate behavior is the interactive result of these two forces. Consistent with the study, similar behavior can be explored with the framework of "allure" and "resistance".(2)This study proposed and defined the construct "allure of counterfeit" and decomposed it into two dimensions,"mental allure" and "material allure". It developed and verified the "allure of counterfeit" scales as well.(3)This study applied situational simulation method and assuming that our state has established penalty against knowingly purchasing counterfeit. It's verified that penalty would significantly enhance the legitimacy pressure when purchasing counterfeit knowingly and augment consumers'tendency to resist counterfeit, which finally reduce their intention to purchase counterfeit knowingly. This finding enriched the theory and was instructive in practice.(4) Transforming the objects of cracking down on counterfeit goods from suppliers to consumers. This study confirmed that it was demand that spawned the counterfeit transactions. Therefore, reducing consumers'demand for counterfeit is the foundation of eliminating counterfeit goods.This paper still has several limitations. First, this study researched purchase behavior of brand-name casual shoes that is familiar to undergraduates, which may differ from conspicuous consumption, such as purchasing fake luxuries. Second, this study applied situational simulation method. Although the scenario design were based on interviews and pretest, absolute rationality assurance remains impossible. Finally, when asked sensitive questions (eg, sex) or taboo issues (for example, suicide and homosexuality), the respondents tend to consider "how the society view this problem" rather than "how I myself treat this issue", which may contribute to deviation from social expectation and then, impair the questionnaire validity.