Understanding Consumer Preferences for Counterfeit Luxury Products in Emerging and Developing Countries

The counterfeit luxury products (CLPs) market is rapidly growing, particularly in emerging and developing countries. This study aims to examine the impact of materialism, value consciousness, and collectivism (personality/individual and social factors) on three motivational factors (perceived authenticity, perceived luxuriousness, and perceived fair price) and, in turn, on purchase intention through consumer attitudes toward CLPs in emerging and developing countries (China and Pakistan). The data employed in the current work were collected from 645 consumers using a structured questionnaire (NChina = 359; NPakistan = 286) and analyzed through structural equation modeling. The results revealed that materialism and collectivism significantly influence perceived authenticity, perceived luxuriousness, and perceived fair price in both samples (except for the influence of collectivism on perceived fair price in the Pakistan sample). The results further showed that perceived authenticity and perceived fair price are the key predictors of consumer attitudes, leading to higher purchase intentions in both China and Pakistan. The current study contributes to our understanding by proposing a mechanism in which individual/personality (materialism and value consciousness) and social (collectivism) factors drive perceived motivational factors, which, in turn, shape consumer attitudes toward CLPs and, ultimately, purchase intention.