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Brand Management and Strategies Against Counterfeits

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  • Yi Qian

Abstract

In this paper, I provide a theory for brand‐protection strategies to reduce counterfeiting under weak intellectual property rights. My theoretical framework has general implications for endogenous sunk cost investments as a means of deterring counterfeiters. My model incorporates two layers of asymmetric information that counterfeits can incur: counterfeiters fooling consumers and buyers of counterfeits fooling other consumers. Brands have a number of tools at their disposal to maintain a separating equilibrium in the face of counterfeits. One of the theoretical predictions of this study is that counterfeit entry induces incumbent brands to introduce new products. This helps to explain the innovation strategies that authentic firms employ in response to entry by counterfeiters in practice. Authentic prices rise if and only if the counterfeit quality is lower than a threshold level. In addition, the model demonstrates how authentic producers could invest in self‐enforcement to increase counterfeiters' incentives to separate themselves from brands. Better channel management through company stores and other costly devices are forms of nonprice signals and complement a company's own enforcements against counterfeits. These predictions are validated using unique panel data collected from Chinese shoe companies covering the years 1993–2004. Data further reveal that companies with worse relationships with the government invest more in various self‐enforcement strategies, which are effective in reducing counterfeit sales, and that the set of strategies are complements rather than substitutes for each other.

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  • Yi Qian, 2014. "Brand Management and Strategies Against Counterfeits," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 317-343, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jemstr:v:23:y:2014:i:2:p:317-343
    DOI: 10.1111/jems.12057
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    Cited by:

    1. Shohei Yoshida & Cong Pan, 2015. "Technology Transfer in the Market with Heterogeneous Consumers," ISER Discussion Paper 0953, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    2. He, Chao & Tan, Chunqiao & Ip, W.H. & Wu, C.H., 2023. "Combating counterfeits with the Blockchain-technology-supported platform under government enforcement," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    3. Marta Biancardi & Andrea Liddo & Giovanni Villani, 2020. "Fines Imposed on Counterfeiters and Pocketed by the Genuine Firm. A Differential Game Approach," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 58-78, March.
    4. Roger Bate & Ginger Zhe Jin & Aparna Mathur, 2015. "Falsified or Substandard? Assessing Price and Non‐price Signals of Drug Quality," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 687-711, October.
    5. Zhou, Yu & Gao, Xiang & Luo, Suyuan & Xiong, Yu & Ye, Niangyue, 2022. "Anti-Counterfeiting in a retail Platform: A Game-Theoretic approach," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    6. Sun, Jiong & Zhang, Xing & Zhu, Qingyuan, 2020. "Counterfeiters in Online Marketplaces: Stealing Your Sales or Sharing Your Costs," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 189-202.
    7. Niu, Baozhuang & Ruan, Yiyuan & Xu, Haotao, 2024. "Less is more? Channel separation to mitigate triple competition and combat copycats in agency e-commerce," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 315(1), pages 242-270.
    8. Sarah Yini Gao & Wei Shi Lim & Christopher S. Tang, 2017. "Entry of Copycats of Luxury Brands," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(2), pages 274-289, March.
    9. Yi Qian, 2014. "Counterfeiters: Foes or Friends? How Counterfeits Affect Sales by Product Quality Tier," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(10), pages 2381-2400, October.
    10. Ching, Kenny & Forti, Enrico & Katsampes, Spyridon & Mammous, Kostantinos, 2024. "Style and quality: Aesthetic innovation strategy under weak appropriability," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(3).
    11. Zhang, Qian & Li, Yongjian & Hou, Pengwen & Wang, Jun, 2024. "Price signal or blockchain technology? Quality information disclosure in dual-channel supply chains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 316(1), pages 126-137.
    12. Bin Shen & Ciwei Dong & Stefan Minner, 2022. "Combating Copycats in the Supply Chain with Permissioned Blockchain Technology," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(1), pages 138-154, January.
    13. Hubert Pun & Pengwen Hou, 2022. "Combating copycatting from emerging market suppliers in global supply chains," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(8), pages 3304-3319, August.
    14. Bian, Junsong & Zhang, Guoqing & Zhou, Guanghui, 2023. "The strategic impact of vertical integration on non-deceptive counterfeiting," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    15. Hubert Pun & Jayashankar M. Swaminathan & Pengwen Hou, 2021. "Blockchain Adoption for Combating Deceptive Counterfeits," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(4), pages 864-882, April.
    16. Yi Qian & Qiang Gong & Yuxin Chen, 2015. "Untangling Searchable and Experiential Quality Responses to Counterfeits," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(4), pages 522-538, July.
    17. Butticè, Vincenzo & Caviggioli, Federico & Franzoni, Chiara & Scellato, Giuseppe & Stryszowski, Piotr & Thumm, Nikolaus, 2020. "Counterfeiting in digital technologies: An empirical analysis of the economic performance and innovative activities of affected companies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(5).
    18. Keisuke Hattori & Keisaku Higashida, 2023. "Who should be regulated: Genuine producers or third parties?," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 249-286, April.
    19. Beqiraj, Elton & Fedeli, Silvia & Giuriato, Luisa, 2020. "Policy tolerance of economic crime? An empirical analysis of the effect of counterfeiting on Italian trade," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    20. Yao, Shiqing & Zhu, Kaijie, 2020. "Combating product label misconduct: The role of traceability and market inspection," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 282(2), pages 559-568.
    21. Anthony Koschmann & Yi Qian, 2020. "Latent Estimation of Piracy Quality and its Effect on Revenues and Distribution: The Case of Motion Pictures," NBER Working Papers 27649, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Kittaka, Yuta & Pan, Cong, 2023. "The bright side of outside market entry with manufacturer encroachment," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).

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