Influence of Materialism and Life Satisfaction on Consumer Willingness to Buy Counterfeit Luxury Brands

Despite the constant efforts of organizations and law enforcement agencies to stop counterfeit luxury brands, it still remains as one of the most challenging issues for not only genuine luxury brands but also policy makers around the world. In recent years, counterfeit luxury brand consumption continues to increase worldwide, and it is now sometimes regarded as a common act of consumption. In order to reduce the demand for counterfeit products, previous research has focused on studying consumers and their behavior. Variables such as perceived price benefits, psychographic characteristics, product characteristics, demographic variables, and social influences were analyzed to the extent but current knowledge about counterfeit luxury brands consumption from a consumer focus is still far from being consolidated and consistent. This conceptual paper proposes to enlarge existing literature on counterfeiting of luxury brands by building a research model to examine the influence of materialism and life satisfaction on consumer willingness to buy counterfeit luxury brands (WTBCLB). By synthesizing existing literature from two different bodies of relevant research streams, this conceptual study attempt to take a fresh look at the demand size of counterfeiting