Counterfeits luxury consumption in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

This research examines how Geert Hofstede’s indulgence versus restraint (IVR) cultural dimension on an individual level could influence the attitudes towards the use of counterfeit luxury goods.Given the booming and lucrative luxury industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it was chosen as a context to study the relationship between indulgence versus restraint and attitude towards counterfeit consumption. The author hypothesized that indulgence versus restraint might be related to how important social judgment is to an individual, which in turns influence his/her attitude towards counterfeit products. Results showed that, counter-intuitively, a higher level of indulgence is linked with higher perceived importance of social judgment, which is then linkedto more positive attitudes towards counterfeit products. Indulgence versus restraint however is not directly related to attitudes towards counterfeit products. Managerial implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.