tiểu luận factors affecting vietnamese intention to purchase counterfeit products

Those determinants consist of brand image, economic benefit, and demographic factors age, gender, and income levels through a mediator which is the attitude toward buying counterfeit pro

FACULTY OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

FACTORS AFFECTING VIETNAMESE’ INTENTION

TO PURCHASE COUNTERFEIT PRODUCTS

Student: Tran Thi Thao Nhi

Class: 46K01.2

Course: Research Methodology

Lecturer: Bui Huynh Nguyen

December, 2022

2 Research Methodology TABLE OF CONTENTS

I BACKGROUND 4

II RESEARCH QUESTION AND OBJECTIVES 5

III REVIEW OF LITERATURE 5

1 Brand image 5

2 Economic benefits 6

3 Demographic factors 6

4 Consumers’ attitudes toward purchasing counterfeit products, Consumers’ intention to purchase counterfeit products and Theory of planned behavior 7

IV RESEARCH METHOD 8

1 Research design 8

2 Data collection 9

3 Data analysis 11

V TIMESCALE AND RESOURCES 12

1 Timescale 12

2 Resources 13

REFERENCES 14

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Meaning of Pearson correlation coefficient value (r) 12

4 Research Methodology

I BACKGROUND

There are many approaches to definite the counterfeit products, in which the most popular one is that “Counterfeit products are any unauthorized manufacturing of goods whose special characteristics are protected as intellectual property rights (trademarks, patents, and copyrights) constitutes product counterfeiting” (Cordell, Wongtada, Robert,

“Counterfeiting products as trade products that were identical with genuine products or products that were difficult to be differentiated from the registered trademark, so violating the rights of the trademark’s owner” (Chaudhrya & Walsh, 1996) A counterfeit product is also defined as “A product that has been illegally duplicated to appear identical to the genuine product” (Sejin & Lennon, 2006) Although counterfeit products can be idetified by many ways, there are some common characteristics of relica products including illegality, duplications of the products which are protected by intellectual property rights, low price and quality

Nowadays, product counterfeiting is globally widespread but particularly critical in developing nations In which, Asia is famously considered as the most exceedingly awful violator of intellectual property rights (Muhammad & Abdullah, 2016) The

with recent figures revealing that trade-in fake goods now accounts for 2.5% of world trade every year, the equivalent of $464 billion (Jones, 2022)

Counterfeit products are sold in irregular and unaccountable ways Counterfeiters avoid taxes and manipulate the facts about their production and quality of products They produce low-quality goods, but the packaging and other elements are so similar to genuine brands that people feel challenging to differentiate them This practice is not only most prevalent in counterfeit fashion and apparel products but also be observed in the industries of propriety foods, medicines, cosmetics, computer accessories, phone accessories, electrical appliances, toys, apparel, watches, and leather products

Making and trading of replicated goods threats seriously to authentic and genuine

products know these counterfeit products in the market and trying to save their historical image, brand names, revenues, and popularity (Green & Smith, 2002)

Even though counterfeit goods are affordable, cheaper, and easily accessible but they may be harmful to consumers due to the inferior quality of materials used in their manufacturing The product quality of counterfeit goods is increasing annually due to technical advancement, which makes counterfeit goods a competitive advantage besides the lower price compared to the original ones However, unlike the original goods,

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counterfeit goods are sold without any warranty, which causes financial risk for consumers when making a purchase (Candra, Kristina, & Mahendra, 2018)

Considering the alarmingly harmful effects of counterfeiting on people, governments, society and the economy, this study focuses on the traits which encourage customers to buy counterfeit goods and also to determine whether the most dominant factor affects a person Those determinants consist of brand image, economic benefit, and demographic factors (age, gender, and income levels) through a mediator which is the attitude toward buying counterfeit products As a result, it will be a supportive source for marketers to comprehend consumers’ purchase intentions

II RESEARCH QUESTION AND OBJECTIVES

The research question is: Do factors including brand image, economic benefit, and demographic factors (age, gender, and income levels) affect intention to purchase counterfeit of Vietnamese and how do they affect?

The research objectives are:

1 To understand Vietnamese consumers’ intention to purchase counterfeit products

2 To understand Vietnamese consumers’ attitudes to purchase counterfeit products

3 To examine the relationships between brand image, economic benefit, and demographic factors (age, gender, and income levels) and Vietnamese consumers’

intention to purchase counterfeit products through consumers’ attitude toward buying counterfeit products by applying theory of planned behavior

III REVIEW OF LITERATURE

1 Brand image

Brand image was defined as a set of memories about a brand, which may be either

is supposed to be essential due to its effect on a consumer’s intention and decision to purchase and his or her buying behavior (Bian & Moutinho, 2008; Li, Wang, & Cai, 2011; Zhang, 2015) Consumers normally do not spend time analyzing a product feature when about to decide to purchase; hence, consumers tend to be dependent on the brand image as an external indication to decide whether buy or not (Lin, 2007; Durrani, Godil, Baig, & Sajid, 2015; Akkucuk & Esmaeili, 2016) The recent research illustrates that majority of consumers prioritize products or services that are positioned as a brand

arguments above, we shall test the hypothesis below

6 Research Methodology

H1 Brand image has a positive influence on consumers’ attitudes toward buying

counterfeit products

2 Economic benefits

Economic benefits in this research is the term used to describe the advantages or profit that an individual earns from purchasing counterfeit products The buyers feel more satisfied when they may save money by purchasing cheaper imitations rather than paying money to buy the expensive originals because counterfeits are sold at lower prices compared to the originals It is revealed that price is the major factor that leads to strong intentions to purchase counterfeit products as there is a large difference between the price of the original and counterfeit products (Ahmad, Yousuf, Shabeer, & Imran, 2014) Due to the economic benefit that the consumer gains from the price differences, this will lead to a positive attitude towards counterfeit products A lower price always makes the transaction more enticing for the consumers, and some would buy the counterfeit if no one was likely to notice that it was a fake (Ong, Kamaruddin, Bulathsinghalage, & Seneviratne, 2013) This is because it might be challenging to distinguish between certain counterfeit goods that seem exactly like the originals Therefore, people believe that it is advantageous to purchase the less expensive knockoff than the more expensive genuine

unaffected by one's attitude toward the economic benefit It is also pointed out that buyers of counterfeit goods might not receive significant financial gain (De Matos, Trindade Ituassu, & Vargas Rossi, 2007) The reason is the fact that the counterfeit products are not as functional and qualified as the genuine articles and no warranty is offered in the event that anything happens to the products This is also supported by the

consumers’ willingness to pay for the expensive original products and ignore the economic benefits they can gain from counterfeits since they are convinced of the reliability and higher quality of the originals

It is obvious that there are both supportive ideas and arguments about the influence of economic benefits on attitudes toward counterfeit products Therefore, it is hypothesized that:

H2 Economic benefits have a positive influence on consumers’ attitudes toward

buying counterfeit products

3 Demographic factors

order to determine their respective intentions It was concluded in the research of Kumar,

Shukla, and Rojhe (2015) that in most cases, demographic variables have some significant association with counterfeit products More specifically, it shows that there

is a significant relationship between gender and customer attitude indicators And it is also concluded in the research that different age groups are directly related to the indicators of customer attitudes Also, there is a significant relationship between income and customer attitude indicators

attitude toward counterfeit goods Another demographic component that influences significantly customer attitude is age The results demonstrate that 87% of responses cannot deny that age cause consumers' intention to purchase fake goods through their positive attitude Their demands and ideals, such as lifestyle, change as their age does

lifestyle requirements, from entertainment and fashion to movies Becoming older, they would realize that the expenditure on those things are no longer worthy, they tend to invest on high-quality and durable products instead of cheap and perishable products like counterfeit products Based on the research finding, 90% of respondents believed that another demographic factors that affect consumers' attitude to buy counterfeit goods

is income Low earners have a tendency to be favor of fake goods but who has high level

of income tends to have negative attitude toward counterfeits This study found that

demographic characteristics Thus, we shall test the hypothesis below:

H3 Demographic factors have a positive influence on consumers’ attitudes toward

buying counterfeit products

4 Consumers’ attitudes toward purchasing counterfeit products, Consumers’

intention to purchase counterfeit products and Theory of planned behavior

The Theory of Planned Behavior posits that purchase behavior is determined by purchase intention which is in turn determined by attitude toward the Behavior, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control (Ajzen & Fishbein, Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior, 1980)

Therefore, having an understanding about the attitude is crucial since it has a direct impact on consumer behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1975) An attitude towards an object

is an internal evaluation by individuals based on their beliefs It influences individuals' intentions then affect their behaviors (Ajzen et al., 1980) Moreover, attitude is proved

as the mental state individuals use to structure the ways to perceive the environment It also guides them how to respond to their surroundings and environment (Aaker, Kumar,

& Day, 1995)

8 Research Methodology

in cases of counterfeited products

H6 Attitude towards buying counterfeit products has positive influence on the

consumers’ purchase intention of buying counterfeit products

As other similar research, the relationship of independent variables and dependent variable also have to be tested through following hypotheses Because attitude towards buying counterfeit products is expected to positively affect consumers’ intention of buying counterfeit products, the directions of effect of independent variables on the intention have been kept as same as the directions of effect of independent variables on the attitudes

H7 Brand image has a positive influence on consumers’ purchase intention of

buying counterfeit products

H8 Economic benefits have a positive influence on consumers’ intention of buying

counterfeit products

H9 Demographic factors have a positive influence on consumers’ intention of

buying counterfeit products

IV RESEARCH METHOD

1 Research design

The research design is based on a mono-method, quantitative methodology that uses a survey strategy to collect primary data through questionnaires due to the research of intention to purchase Especially, in this case, the chosen goods are counterfeit which is

a sensitive problem no one wants to admit openly to others, so the data is collected by using online questionnaires in order that respondents can submit anonymously

Questionnaires are chosen as a method to collect data because they offer an efficient and inexpensive thanks to the convenience of the Internet, and less time-consuming means

of gathering large amounts of information from sizeable sample volumes Moreover, questionnaires enable researchers to strategically manage their target audience and questions and to format the questionnaire while gathering large data quantities on any subject When taking a questionnaire, respondents are completely anonymous and not subject to stressful time constraints, helping them feel relaxed and encouraging them to provide truthful responses

However, the autonomy given by questionnaires also causes a problem - answer dishonesty - respondents may not always be completely truthful with their answers, they may answer how they think society would deem most acceptable The inaccurate answering of respondents also occurs when they do not read questions thoroughly or completely, thus impacting data validity Therefore, this risk is minimized by making questions as short and simple as possible

The questionnaire in this research is divided into 2 parts: The first segment of the questionnaire will examine the demographics of respondents, such as gender, age, and income level The following part of the questionnaire is intended to investigate the level

of agreement of the dependent variable, independent variables using a 5-point Likert scale: Strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), no opinion (3), agree (4), strongly agree (5) The variables were measured using established measurement scales obtain from the literature of this study Data was collected online using Google form through email purchased from customer database of counterfeit store, or through social media, especially in the counterfeit-trading community In this research, the unit of analysis is individual consumers in Vietnam, who have been exposed to counterfeit product buying decisions

With the solution of making the questions short and concise as mentioned above, 5-point Likert scale questionnaire is the most appropriate option since it is easier to understand, suitable for a large study, and also suitable to produce better data distribution

2 Data collection

Because the population is Vietnamese, and people who have bought fake goods are chosen to be the target population so that their purchase behavior and motivations can

be understood clearly However, currently, in Vietnam, the number of consumers of counterfeit goods is very large Therefore, it is decided to collect data from a sample - a subgroup of all possible cases because it will be impossible for the researcher either to collect or to analyze all the potential data available, due to the limitation of time, money and often access

Because of the method of collecting data on the Internet, the probability of each case being selected from the total population is not known and there is no available sample frame so non-profitability sampling is selected as a sampling technique for this research

In some cases, it is impossible to answer research questions or to address research objectives by using non-profitability sampling However, this research objective is to determine the factors affecting the intention to buy counterfeit goods of Vietnamese people, so this kind of sample technique does not prevent from answering the research questions but provides an information-rich case study to see the whole picture on condition that the researcher must infer statistically about the characteristics of the population

10 Research Methodology Because it is required a sample to be able to represent the total population and also because other sampling techniques related to non-profitability sampling tend to illustrate

a particular aspect or to make generalizations about theory rather than about a population, we would choose quota sampling, which, like probability samples, in an attempt to represent the total population Regarding sample size, quota sampling has similar requirements for sample size as probabilistic sampling techniques except for measuring the level of certainty or margins of error since the sample is not probability based

Firstly, it is necessary to decide on a suitable sample size, which is a large enough sample Because, the larger the sample’s size, the lower the likely error in generalizing

to the target population, more specifically, the closer its distribution will be to the normal, and the mean calculated for the sample is more likely to equal the mean for the target population To meet the above criteria, according to a study, the sample size must

be at least 30 (Chang, Huang, & Wu, 2006) However, with a sample size of 30, it is still not possible to represent the target population According to the investigation, there was

a high number - more than 15,000 cases of trading counterfeit goods in Vietnam, so getting data from the required sample size of 200-250 is not considered to be impossible

Since the sampling technique is a quota, factors such as the confidence or the margin of error are not mentioned

However, it is also necessary to consider another factor, the response rate According to one study, the response rate through collecting data by questionnaire on the Web is 36.29% (Ebert, Huibers, Christensen, & Christensen, 2018) Based on that figure, the required actual sample size can be calculated by using the following formula:

n is the minimum (or adjusted minimum) sample size

re % is the estimated response rate expressed as a percentage

Therefore, the research needs 552 or more responses when collecting data by questionnaires on the Internet in order to have the sample size represent the target population

The next step is considering the most appropriate sampling technique, as mentioned above, quota sampling For quota sampling, the population is divided into specific groups The topic is the factors affecting Vietnamese people’s buying behavior of counterfeit goods, which may contain demographic factors such as age, gender, and income Therefore, in terms of age, people will be divided into 5 groups (under 18 years