Master of Science / Department of Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design / Joy Kozar / China is the world’s largest apparel producer, exporter, and maintains the largest domestic apparel market. Since economic reform in the 1980s that opened up the Chinese market for foreign investors, China’s domestic apparel market has attracted many foreign (Western) apparel brands (Shenkar, 2005). More than 10,000 different international apparel brands share China’s domestic apparel market, including brands from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, Britain, and South Korea, among others. Around 2,000 Chinese domestic apparel brands have experienced difficultly surviving in China’s domestic apparel market. Besides the large number of foreign (Western) apparel brands, counterfeit apparel products have grown faster than China’s government can control. As a result, China has become the world’s largest counterfeit market. This has become a secondary threat to China’s domestic apparel market and national economy. Additionally, because of economic growth and modernization in China, Chinese consumers have accepted more Westernized values, but also retained their traditional face-saving values. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore how their attitudes toward counterfeit apparel products, China’s domestic apparel brands, and foreign (Western) apparel brands are influenced by their level of perception about knowledge and attitudes toward counterfeit apparel products, face-saving values, materialistic values, and ethical values. This study utilized a sample of males and females between the ages of 18 and 64, who reside in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Wuhan, China. A questionnaire was utilized as part of this study and data was collected online by SOJUMP Survey Company. A total of 1,192 participants (736 males and 456 females) participated in this study. There are in total nine significant relationships that have been found in this study. First, the researcher found a positive relationship between Chinese consumers’ perception about knowledge of counterfeit apparel products and their attitudes about counterfeit apparel products. Second and third, the present study also discovered that Chinese consumers with favorable attitudes of foreign apparel brands or negative attitude of China’s domestic apparel brands would similarly hold positive attitudes of counterfeit apparel products. Fourth, the present scholar concluded that Chinese consumers with favorable attitudes of China’s domestic apparel brands tend to hold negative attitudes of counterfeit apparel products. Fifth and sixth, it was found that Chinese consumers with high level of face-saving values show positive attitudes of foreign (Western) apparel brands and counterfeit apparel products. Seventh, Chinese consumers with high level of face-saving values also possess strong materialistic values. Consequently Chinese consumers with strong materialistic values tend to hold positive attitudes of counterfeit apparel products and foreign (Western) apparel products, but negative attitudes of China’s domestic apparel brands. The findings of this study show that Chinese consumers have a very low level of perception about knowledge of counterfeit apparel products. It is necessary to connect educators, government, apparel industry, and brand owners to develop and enhance anti-counterfeit educational programs. These programs should clearly explain the perception about knowledge of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), trademark, and the negative causes of counterfeit products are warranted. Also, it is better for China’s domestic apparel brand companies to develop better brand images and improve product quality to meet Chinese consumers’ face-saving standards and materialistic values.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’explorer la consommation de contrefaçon non trompeuse qui se présente lorsque les consommateurs reconnaissent que le produit n'est pas authentique dans le cadre des marques de luxe. Les objectifs et les problématiques de la recherche sont exposés : Les valeurs de la marque prédisent-Elles la consommation de contrefaçon de celle-Ci ? La possession de la marque contrefaite influence-T-Elle l’achat de la marque authentique ? Quelle influence la connaissance de la marque peut avoir dans la consommation de produits contrefaits ? A l’issu d’une revue de littérature et une approche qualitative auprès de 25 consommateurs chinois qui permet de comprendre en profondeur les motivations de la consommation de produits contrefaits, le modèle conceptuel construit autour de neuf hypothèses est proposé. Les résultats des hypothèses montrent que l’ostentation, le plaisir auto-Géré, la sensibilité à la mode et l’envie aux autres affectent positivement la possession de marques de produits de contrefaçon. La possession de la contrefaçon des produits de marque modère la relation entre l’image de la marque et l’intention d’achat de la marque. La connaissance de la marque comme variable modératrice, possèdent des effets interaction significatifs pour les variables l’ostentation, le plaisir autogéré, et l’envie aux autres. Cette thèse a contribué à une meilleure explication de la consommation des marques de produits de contrefaçon. Elle a apporté également des implications théoriques et pratiques, du point de vue académique et apporte des connaissances qui proposent des méthodes à lutter contre les consommations des marques de produis de contrefaçon. / The current thesis focuses on the non-Deceptive counterfeits, which means that the consumers intentionally purchase fake products. The thesis aims to answer three important questions: Can different brand value predict the consumers’ counterfeit consumption? Dose counterfeit branded product ownership alters consumers’ authentic branded product purchase behavior? Will brand knowledge interact with consumer values in consuming counterfeit branded product?We introduce and review the literature relating to counterfeiting, and an exploratory qualitative approach to explore counterfeit consumption. The conceptual model is formed on the basis of the literature review and the results of exploratory qualitative analysis, which constituted by nine research hypotheses.The results find a positive relationship between conspicuousness and consumers’ counterfeit branded product ownership. The influence of self-Directed pleasure, the fashion consciousness, and envying others on counterfeit branded product ownership is also supported. The moderator effect of counterfeit branded product ownership on the relationship between brand image and brand purchase intention is supported.The interaction term of brand knowledge is significant on the relationship of related value factors (conspicuousness, self-Directed pleasure, envying others) and consumers’ counterfeit ownership.The present thesis contributes a comprehensive understanding of the consumer demand for counterfeits. The findings offer brand managers a foundation from which they can start to deliberate effective methods to fight against counterfeit in the luxury brand sector.

The purpose of this paper is to study what the press in Sweden wrote about counterfeiting from 1944 to 1950. By studying how the newspapers wrote about the crime of counterfeiting, the paper aims to give a glimpse of how counterfeiters worked and got their notes in circulation. The analysis is based on a theoretical perspective of a "we" and "they" in which Sweden is compared to the opposite abroad. The paper examines how the security of Swedish banknotes is discussed in Swedish news articles and how they describe counterfeiters and passers. The paper examines forty one newspaper clippings from the period 1944-1950 from twenty five different newspapers from different parts of the country. The study is implemented with previous research of media and counterfeiting. The paper describes nine individual cases of counterfeiting, as well as a longer sequence of events with a criminal gang that is behind the counterfeit notes, where several similar notes are spread in different cities in Sweden. The conclusion is that counterfeiting is a small problem in Sweden during this time and the notes that come out in circulation are relatively poor copies. But the counterfeit notes are not always directly detected and that makes them spread in the country. Counterfeit banknotes are most likely to be detected in public environments such as cafes, shops and bakeries. And also outdoor by different merchants, according to the view of the press. The notes are mostly put in circulation during the evening or night, or when it's rush hour. Swedish banknote quality and safety is often compared to other countries where a "we" and "they" are constructed in the media. The press gives a comprehensive picture of counterfeiters as criminals, mysterious cheaters, fraudsters, artists but also as a dissenting profession.

The production and distribution of counterfeit drugs is a serious worldwide health problem. One recent example is the appearance of fake artesunate antimalarial tablets in Southeast Asia. Due to the malevolent circumstances in which these fakes are produced, concern over the presence of toxic tablet ingredients is very much a legitimate health issue. Therefore, quantification of the amount of active ingredient present in tablets marketed as artesunate, a drug used for the treatment of the multidrug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Southeast Asia required liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS). This quantification allows the classification of the tablets as genuine, sub-therapeutic or fake and the validation of field results using colorimetric tests. During the LC-MS experiments, there were the observations that several of the samples contained a “wrong” active ingredient (AI). This was identified via accurate mass measurements, chromatographic retention time and in-source collision-induced dissociation (CID)as erythromycin, a common antibiotic. Using multivariate unsupervised clustering algorithms, the LC-MS data was utilized for “chemically fingerprinting” the fake tablet samples and investigating the similarities between them. The results of this initial survey show a correlation between sample origin, the different types of fake authentication holograms found in the packaging and sample composition.

The production and distribution of counterfeit drugs is a critical health problem that plagues nations worldwide. The presence of counterfeit antimalarials has become especially worrying, as these drugs are most often needed by those living in nations whose resources to verify the medicine supply are lacking. Rapid analysis methods used for screening large quantities of poor quality antimalarials are critical in the battle to protect those in less developed regions of the world. Simple, cost effective analysis methods that can be used in the field must be developed so those whose governments cannot afford to maintain medicine regulatory agencies can still have faith in their medicinal supply. A very powerful screening method, Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS) has been used to investigate thousands of poor quality medicines. This method, however, is known to fragment molecules more readily than commonly used, 'softer' ionization methods, such as electrospray ionization. Excess fragmentation in 'harder' ionization sources is due to deposition of additional internal energy to the ionized molecules. This internal energy deposition can be measured, so the analyst can be knowledgeable as to what to expect when examining unknowns using this recently developed ionization source. Quantitation of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in pharmaceuticals is crucial to the determination of what class a poor quality medicine fits into. Because poor quality drugs can be of different types, it is important to accurately classify them, in hopes of improving the supply of medicines available to those in less developed regions of the world. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is most commonly used to quantify the active pharmaceutical ingredient in poor quality medicines, however, this method is time consuming, preventing its use in high throughput settings. During the course of my research, hundreds of poor quality pharmaceuticals were analyzed using DART-MS. The active pharmaceutical ingredient was detected during the rapid screening for many of these drugs, however, a more in depth analysis would often reveal less than the expected quantity of active ingredient. A rapid non-chromatographic quantitation method was developed using a mass spectrometer as the detector. This method allows for both quantitative and qualitative information regarding a specific sample to be obtained simultaneously, saving the analyst time and resources. Utilizing this non- chromatographic mass spectrometric method, degradation products have been identified, thus increasing our ability to classify drugs into their respective divisions.

Background: In many countries, a significant proportion of medicines traded and consumed are of poor or variable quality. Meanwhile, failures in appropriately framing and responding to the problem have led to a proliferation of public health and governance challenges. Objective: To examine the issues exacerbating the trade and consumption of medicines of poor or variable quality, as well as present locally relevant strategies. Methods: Analytic triangulation was applied to the synthesis of publicly available documents. Results: Where economic and regulatory environments are less structured, supply chain security strategies that fixate on ‘counterfeits’ often fail in limiting the prevalence of poor quality medicines. In addition to a multivariate drug quality classification chart, three quality frameworks are presented for examining appropriate policy strategies in mediating drug quality. Conclusion: These tools can assist stakeholders in determining more locally relevant and context-specific strategies, while interrogating the proposition for greater transparency vis-à-vis drug quality.

Background: In many countries, a significant proportion of medicines traded and consumed are of poor or variable quality. Meanwhile, failures in appropriately framing and responding to the problem have led to a proliferation of public health and governance challenges. Objective: To examine the issues exacerbating the trade and consumption of medicines of poor or variable quality, as well as present locally relevant strategies. Methods: Analytic triangulation was applied to the synthesis of publicly available documents. Results: Where economic and regulatory environments are less structured, supply chain security strategies that fixate on ‘counterfeits’ often fail in limiting the prevalence of poor quality medicines. In addition to a multivariate drug quality classification chart, three quality frameworks are presented for examining appropriate policy strategies in mediating drug quality. Conclusion: These tools can assist stakeholders in determining more locally relevant and context-specific strategies, while interrogating the proposition for greater transparency vis-à-vis drug quality.

This dissertation examines how Victorians used the word “queer” as associated with senses of “counterfeit” and “eccentricity” in selected Victorian novels. The word was popularly used, by Victorian writers of both genders and in various and diverse circumstances, to mean the unfamiliar, the unconventional, the incomprehensible, and the non-normal. Unlike the contemporary uses of the word, which are oriented toward a relatively particular meaning, the non-normal sexual, Victorian uses of the word had been fluid, unstable, and indeterminate, yet referring to or associating with the non-normal aspects in things and people. Knowing how the Victorians used the word helps us to understand that a concept of marginality can be extended to the extent of tolerating Otherness in marginalized positions and minority identities. Victorian novels including Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Aurora Floyd (1863), Wilkie Collins’s Hide and Seek (1854), and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) demonstrate how the word “queer” is indeterminately used and also represent how queer marginality is appreciated or rejected, and tolerated or discriminated against. As queerness is defined as the status of counterfeitabilty, a counterpart of authenticity, queer subjects are described to provoke a feeling of repulsion and tend to be criminalized or pathologized. On the other hand, as queerness is defined as the status of eccentricity, queer subjects are sympathized and defended in the narrative. Manifestations of eccentricities in queer subjects are occasionally reprimanded, but admired for queer subjects’ uncommon or distinguished individuality. Victorian novels demonstrate that queer marginality can be employed as a self-fashioning identity or social status for any non-normal individual to deal with social pressure of conformity.

No abstract available / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / gm2014 / Centre for Human Rights / Unrestricted

No description available.