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This study sought to provide a theory driven model to explain how consumers make their purchasing decisions between genuine products and products they know are counterfeit. The influences of Goal-Driven Theory, Morality, and Prospect Theory were included as purchase decisions considerations. To measure their influence, while accounting for product attributes, purchasing decisions were assessed in choice sets as provided by Discrete Choice Experiment. Results found support for using Goal-Driven Theory and Prospect Theory to explain consumer purchasing decisions between genuine and counterfeit products. Morality was not a significant factor in the findings. Theoretical contributions and Managerial implications are discussed.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the status of the counterfeit pharmaceuticals in Jordan. Four types of pharmaceuticals Lipitor (Atorvastatin-calcium), Concor (bisoprolol fumarate), Co-Diovan (Valsartan, hydrochlorothiazide) and Plavix (clopidogrel) were subjected to physical and chemical analysis. 173 samples of these four medicines were collected from the three most populated cities in the country, namely Amman, the capital of Jordan, Zarqa and Irbid. A sample of confiscated counterfeited medicines was obtained from the health authorities and tested utilising the HPLC and dissolution testing, in order to validate the reliability of the testing procedures. Samples were then tested using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and dissolution tests in order to assess the quality of these samples. Results of both chemical and physical analyses revealed that all samples were found to fall within the specification limits of United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) and no evidence was found of any counterfeit drug products in the samples examined. Since this study found no indication of a drug counterfeiting problem in Jordan, the researcher has concluded that there seemed to be two contributing factors to this result: first, the very effective legislative campaigns conducted by the health authorities’ in Jordan against counterfeit trade through new public health and pharmacy law which has been launched in 2008. Second, the rigorous tough enforcement measures conducted by health and law enforcement agencies in the country.

Master of Science / Department of Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design / Joy M. Kozar / Within the global marketplace, the production and consumption of counterfeit goods represents a serious social problem. Scholars continue to suggest anti-counterfeit education as a means to resolve this global problem and curb the demand for counterfeit goods, but no scholarly research has empirically evaluated the effectiveness of anti-counterfeit education. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to draw upon such suggestions within the literature, and quantitatively assess the effectiveness of anti-counterfeit education on consumers' perceived knowledge, attitudes, and purchase intentions of fashion counterfeit goods. Convenience samples of male and female college students participated in this study. Utilizing a one-group pretest posttest, quasi-experimental design, the findings from a series of paired samples t-tests revealed a positive, significant change in consumers’ perceived knowledge of fashion counterfeit goods after viewing the anti-counterfeit educational unit. Negative, significant changes in consumers’ favorable attitudes and purchase intentions of fashion counterfeit goods were also revealed after the anti-counterfeit educational unit had been administered. Findings from this study provide relevant implications toward academicians, government officials, fashion retailers, and anti-counterfeiting organizations, such as how to develop effective anti-counterfeit educational content. Such parties with a vested interest in deterring the demand of fashion counterfeit goods should focus on formulating and implementing anti-counterfeit educational tools, such as campaigns and advertisements, which focus on the negative factors and consequences associated with the fashion counterfeit industry.

With the development of Internet technology, e-commerce is becoming more and more popular nowadays. A tremendous number of small and medium size enterprises have emerged, selling goods in e-commerce platforms. However, the transactions of counterfeit products on e-commerce platforms are becoming more severe in global electronic commerce, particularly in Chinese online markets. Not only are consumers and brand-owners suffering the loss of money, but also the whole ecosystem of e-commerce is being damaged by counterfeit issues. Accordingly, e-commerce platforms, which serve as the third party of online businesses, have a significant role to play in this serious situation. How e-commerce platforms handle counterfeit problems can be quite urgent.This thesis chooses Alibaba as a special case to study, considering its e-commerce platform Taobao, which has a large market share or e-commerce market place and always suffers a bad reputation of counterfeits distribution, as the most suitable and representative e-commerce platform in China. The research uses both interviewing and documental data as different resources to study the case. Learning from the perspective of e-commerce platforms, combined with mechanism theory, principle-agent theory, trust system, reputation theory, and contestable market theory, this research wants to reach a deeper understanding of the challenge counterfeits have made in Taobao. What measures Alibaba has done and how these measures are going on are the research questions in this case.The results of this investigation shows that Alibaba did try several ways to combat against counterfeit problems such as building some specific mechanisms like “return-back system”, “Xiaoer” and “Mantianxing plan”, considering trust, reputation and information asymmetry factors. Many people show their appreciations and supports to Alibaba’s measures and the current situation of counterfeit in Taobao is eased by these measures. But there is still a long way to go and many more things could be done to face the counterfeit challenge.

The issue of consumption pattern of luxury-bag has been concerned for a long time. The early researches of consumption pattern of luxury-bag, scholars studied on single consumption pattern of luxury-bag, it means, there is no research of many consumption patterns of luxury-bag in one time. So the author wants to compare the different consumption patterns of luxury-bag in consumption value, expecting that understanding the influencing factors between different consumers of purchasing patterns. There are two purposes in the research, 1. Make the radar charts in different consumption patterns of luxury-bag, and then according to the results give the suggestions of marketing. 2.Compare the different consumption patterns of luxury-bag in a single consumption value. By collecting and analyzing questionnaires, the results are that consumers with different patterns have different consumption value; people who purchase new luxury-bag have similar consumption value to people who purchase second-hand luxury-bag; people who purchase counterfeits pay much attention to social value; people who rent the luxury-bag pay much attention to condition value.

Ethical implications in business practices and consumers’ purchase decisions have been debated throughout the years and often differ across cultures. The research objectives of this study were to understand whether cultural indicators influence consumer attitudes towards counterfeiting. Which cultural factors/ indicators have an effect on attitudes and how strong are these indicators? In this study, moral intensity, materialism, subjective norm, ethnic identity, values, and belief systems were explored. Focus groups, one consisting of Canadian consumers and the other of Chinese consumers, were conducted to explore cultural indicators. A follow-up survey tested the relative strength of the cultural indicators: moral intensity, materialism, and subjective norm, within each of the two ethnic groups and the correlation of these indicators with attitude. Subjective norm had a significantly larger effect in the Chinese group than the Canadian group on attitudes towards counterfeit goods. Moral intensity and materialism did not significantly affect attitudes.

Världsmarknaden för läkemedlen beräknades år 2011 till 900 miljarder US$ enligt IMS-health. Marknaden för illegala läkemedel uppskattas vara värd mellan 75-200 miljarder dollar. I Sverige uppskattas den illegala läkemedelsmarknaden till motsvarande ≤0,5 %. Straffet för insmuggling av läkemedel till Sverige är böter eller max 2 års fängelse. Tullverket räknar med att man endast hittar 10 % av det som smugglas in. I andra länder kan straffet variera mellan böter (ekonomisk brottslighet i Afrika) till dödsstraff i Kina. I Utvecklingsländerna uppskattas 10-30 % av alla läkemedel som säljs vara förfalskade, jmf 1 % I-länderna. l. Förekomsten av förfalskade läkemedel har många allvarliga konsekvenser på människor som exempelvis, utebliven effekt, toxiska reaktioner, förgiftningar, som kan i värsta fall leda till döden. Ett annat alvarligt problem är resistensutveckling, ökad spridning av smittsamammasjukdomar som exempel, tuberkulos och/ eller HIV/AIDS. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att besvara frågan: Vilka problem ger den ökande förekomsten av förfalskade läkemedel i samhället. Undersökningen fokuserar på livstidsläkemedel, dvs ett läkemedel en person måste ta resten av sitt liv för behandling av sin kroniska sjukdom. För att komma till rätta med de problem, som förfalskade läkemedel, skapar krävs ett mer utvecklat samarbete mellan olika läkemedelsmyndigheter, läkemedelsföretag, internationella polisorganisationer, tull m.fl. Arbetet med att utveckla förpackningar som är svåra att förfalska bör intensifieras. Straffsatser bör kanske ses över. Det är viktigt att öka medvetandet bland allmänheten om risker med att köpa läkemedel utanför apotek (t ex via nätet).

North Korea began its involvement in illicit activities in the 1970s, but it took the United States until the new millennium to develop a series of major law enforcement approaches to counter these activities. North Korea's illicit activities are purportedly the funding input for the development of its nuclear weapons program, which constitutes the output. The main illicit activities to be discussed include drug production and trafficking, the counterfeiting of U.S. currency, cigarettes and pharmaceuticals, missile sales and human trafficking. The United States has aggressively addressed the nuclear threat that North Korea poses, but has been slow to address the inputs that fund the outputs. This thesis seeks to answer the question of why it took the United States over three decades to address the illicit activities of North Korea that purportedly fund its nuclear program. / US Air Force (USAF) author.

Counterfeit consumption is becoming widespread, developing into a problem of international significance. In an attempt to develop a refined understanding of the motivations and decision-making processes of consumers' deliberate counterfeit-consumption behavior, this empirical study not only integrates the theory of planned behavior and insights from self-regulatory theories, but also extends these theories by re-conceptualizing the relationships among key constructs with the inclusion of action desire. This research also introduces and integrates a new construct, namely consumers' Perceived Counterfeit Detection (PCD) by important others.Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods consisting of in-depth interviews and a self-administered paper questionnaire, this research empirically tested a proposed goal-striving model for deliberate counterfeit-consumption behavior, using structural equations modeling. Results demonstrated PCD's existence and supported a refined goal-striving model, based upon which effective strategies to decrease consumer's counterfeit consumption are discussed.