مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

 مجله تحقیقات بازاریابی – Journal of Business Research

The luxury industry has a significant share in the global market of luxury brands growing from about 90 million consumers in 1995 up to 330 million in 2013 (Bain e Company, 2013). Brazil represents an attractive market for luxury entrepreneurs, capturing investments of US$ 2 billion a year Modesto (2007) notwithstanding the national culture of Brazil thwarting entrepreneurial behaviour (Woodside, Bernal, & Conduras, 2015). Brazil is the eighth country in the world considering losses in tax revenues amounting to US $ 15 billion each year (Havocscope, 2016).

A significant challenge for luxury brands remains the growing number of companies that are counterfeiting and creating a parallel or shadow market (Kapferer & Michaut, 2014). Yoo and Lee (2005) define counterfeiting as the practice of manufacturing or selling products using a brand owner’s trademark without the permission or the trademark owner’s oversight. Usually, these goods are cheaper and inferior in quality. While counterfeits may stimulate demand in an economy (Givon, Mahajan, & Muller, 1995) and provide social status and symbolism at a fraction of the original cost (Nia & Zaichowsky, 2000), counterfeit products mislead consumers by making them believe that they are an original brand (Kim, Cho, & Johnson, 2009). Hence, counterfeit products bring serious economic losses for the original luxury brands.

While the growth of luxury markets is caused by emerging countries (Kapferer & Michaut, 2014), most of the research about counterfeiting was carried out in developed economies (Eisend & Schuchert-Guler, 2006; Staake, Thiesse, & Fleisch, 2009). According to OECD (2007) studies, counterfeiting differs among countries due to a series of factors (e.g. how local government deal and combat piracy). Sheth (2011) outlines five characteristics of emerging markets (heterogeneity, sociopolitical governance, chronic shortage of resources, unbranded competition and inadequate infrastructure) that are fundamentally different from the traditional industrialized economies. Yet, the speed of transformation has been somewhat too high for the enforcement agencies and many countries are now emerging as both large producers and consumers of fakes with counterfeiting being also considered a source of income for the population and a form of transference of technology (Staake et al., 2009).