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Martin Eisend is an Assistant Professor of Marketing, Marketing-Department, Freie Universität Berlin, Otto-von-Simson-Str. 19, 14195 Berlin, Germany, tel. +49 30 838 544 60, fax +49 30 838 545 57, [email protected] Pakize Schuchert-Güler is Professor of Marketing, Berlin School of Economics, Badensche Straße 50-51 10825 Berlin, Germany, tel. + 49 30 857 894 41, [email protected]. The authors wish to thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.
Explaining Counterfeit Purchases: A Review and Preview
About forty years ago the first cases of brand counterfeiting emerged. At that time, only a few manufacturers of very highly priced and very prestigious products like textiles, jewelry and accessories were affected and it was assumed that this phenomenon would be of minor significance. Since then, however, counterfeiting has become widespread and has developed into an economic problem of international significance. Recent figures estimate that seven percent of the world's merchandise trade, or $512 billion in 2004, may be based on trade with counterfeit products (Balfour 2005). This global economy for illicit goods is massive and it is growing. The number of counterfeit items seized at European Union borders has increased by more than 1,000%, rising to over 103 million in 2004 from 10 million in 1998. At U.S. borders, seizures of counterfeit goods have more than doubled since 2001 (Guiterez et al. 2006). With the ever-increasing success of counterfeiting, harm to economic systems and societies has also been on the rise. Although counterfeiting can have positive impacts on companies as well as on society, most nations prosecute trade with counterfeits as they expect a total of negative effects. For instance, counterfeiting is said to be responsible for the loss of about 300,000 jobs in Europe every year. The seriousness of the problem is troubling and has led to a variety of countermeasures based on lawful, political, administrative, or business techniques.
In addition, academics are also concerned with the analysis of the effectiveness of countermeasures (e.g., Green and Smith 2002; Grossman and Shapiro 1988a, 1988b; Olsen and Granzin 1992, 1993). In order to develop appropriate countermeasures it becomes necessary to understand the phenomenon of counterfeiting as a whole and, in particular, the reasons why people buy counterfeit goods. At first glance, it seems that consumers...