The effect of ethics on consumer intention to purchase counterfeit clothing products

Abstract

The issue of counterfeits has affected various industries including automotive, pharmaceutical, electronics, and fashion. As technology evolves, the quality of counterfeit products has also increased, creating a major threat not just to the genuine manufacturer and brand owners, but also to consumers. It is important that consumers understand the negative impact of counterfeiting beyond financial consequences, such as in terms of morality and ethical values of society. Hence, the purpose of this study is to look into the factors that affect consumer intention to purchase counterfeit fashion products. The framework includes eight latent variables – five exogenous and one endogenous. The exogenous variables are materialism, status consumption, consumer ethics, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control, whereas the only endogenous variable is the intention to purchase counterfeit fashion products. Furthermore, this study also looks to extend the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) by incorporating the theory of Consumer Ethics as part of the determinant of intention. The data were collected by using a self-administered questionnaire in the area of Klang Valley and the hypothesized relationships were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling – Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS). A total of 450 questionnaires were distributed for this study. The results from this study provide empirical support as per the proposed research framework. Attitude, subjective norms, and consumer ethics have been found to have a significant relationship with intention whereas perceived behavioural control was not. On the other hand, materialism has been found to have a significant relationship with attitude, whereas no significant relationship was found between status consumption and attitude. The findings from this study provide further understanding regarding the consumption of counterfeit fashion products. One of the implication that can be derived as a result of this study is that government agency such as Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) such serve as a vital link between industry players and consumers. Various efforts should also be done in order to educate the Malaysian population regarding the importance of intellectual property and what are the legal as well as ethical issues with regards to counterfeit related products.