Title: Mapping the luxury purchase intentions of the counterfeit luxury buyers

Authors: Neena Sondhi

Addresses: International Management Institute, B-10 Qutub Institutional Area, New Delhi-110017, India

Abstract: This paper examines the phenomenon of counterfeit luxury consumption. An exploratory study was conducted amongst 392 urban adult buyers of counterfeit brands in two Indian cities. An exploratory factor analysis followed by a K-means clustering approach was used to identify four distinct clusters. These clusters were named as affective counterfeiter (n = 77); impulsive counterfeiter (n = 89); rational counterfeiter (n = 118) and hesitant counterfeiter (n = 108). All groups had a higher number of female (73%) and well educated consumers. The first three groups had younger spending singles; while the last group had slightly more married consumers. The affective and impulsive counterfeiters had a higher income than the others. The fact that well-known brands, better quality and finish as important factors bode well as these are indicative of the consumer looking for and understanding the importance of these attributes while making a branded purchase.

Keywords: luxury brands; exploratory factor analysis; cluster analysis; consumer purchase intentions; counterfeit luxury.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMP.2019.102535

International Journal of Management Practice, 2019 Vol.12 No.4, pp.476 - 494

Received: 23 Jan 2018
Accepted: 08 Jul 2018
Published online: 30 Sep 2019 *

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