COUNTERFEITS AND THEIR COSTS

Counterfeiting is increasing and becoming a complicated issue across different countries in the world and Vietnam is not exceptional, so the policy makers and managers always try to find ways to face with the counterfeiting and reduce counterfeit products in the market. This paper attempts to investigate determinants that impact on consumers’ attitude toward non-deceptive counterfeit products and behavioral intention to purchase them. Using a data set collected from a sample of 176 consumers we found that social cost has an impact on consumers’ attitude and purchase intentiontoward counterfeit products. Moreover, the result indicates that intention to buy counterfeit products is influenced by consumers’ attitude toward these products. These findings suggest that companies should rely on the social cost as the main component of marketing communication messages to discourage consumption of fake products by implying the seriously harmful consequences of these goods to society and economy