Paper Details

Name: Deepak Devgan
Country: India

Year: 2025
Volume: Volume-12, Issue-2, Year-2025(Special Issue)
Page Number: 136-147
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18711307

The ease with which counterfeit products can be made and sold poses both an ethical dilemma and an economic challenge to international and local marketplaces. This study examines what drives consumer behaviour regarding the purchase of counterfeit products in Amritsar District, India. Five determinants were selected to be the basis of the research: consumer price sensitivity, brand loyalty, ethical concern, and social influence. The study is quantitative and regression based. Primary research data were obtained from 300 respondents via a structured questionnaire. Among the variables under analysis, social influence and price sensitivity were the greatest positive contributors to the purchase of counterfeit products. This pointed to social and economic drivers as the primary motivators in the consumption of counterfeit products. Conversely, brand loyalty, ethical concern, and perceived risk acted in opposition by restricting the intentional purchasing of counterfeit products. This pointed to the moral and psychological factors of concern revealing possible low quality and social stigma which inhibit purchasing counterfeit products. Economically driven and socially controlled behaviour were the primary motives for the consumption of counterfeit products in Amritsar with little to no restrictions in the domain of brand loyalty or ethical concern. The study elaborates on the applicability of the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Social Identity Theory to understand the consumption of counterfeit products in emerging markets. By highlighting the importance of the consumer education, provision of genuine products at reasonable prices, and the enforcement of regulations to anti-counterfeiting, it also outlines the considerations for marketers and policy makers.
Keywords: Counterfeit, Theory of Planned Behaviour, Consumer Behaviour, Social Identity Theory.