Ethical decision making in counterfeit purchase situations: the influence of moral awareness and moral emotions on moral judgment and purchase intentions

Counterfeiting is an increasingly global phenomenon that threatens the economy as a whole and also presents a risk for the consumers. The purpose of this study is to explore moral emotions along with moral awareness and moral judgment with respect to their influence in the consumption of counterfeits.

An online questionnaire was distributed among participants (n = 225) who were asked to respond to a counterfeit purchase scenario.

Results highlight the importance of moral awareness as an essential element of moral decision-making. Also, moral emotions were found to influence moral judgment as well as purchase intention.

A limitation refers to the fact that a scenario was used to evoke participants’ emotional responses. Although the situation was realistic and the majority of the people could very well imagine experiencing the reported scenario, results might change in an actual purchase situation.

This study’s findings may be particularly relevant for authorities and educators who design campaigns to curtail counterfeit consumption, thus seeking to encourage consumers to recognize the several negative consequences that result from counterfeiting behavior.

This is one of the few studies that examine the impact of cognitive and emotional influences in a counterfeit purchase decision. Fighting this problem requires an in-depth understanding of consumers’ motivations and how they feel about engaging in this morally questionable behavior.