How do moral judgment and saving face interact with positive word–of–mouth regarding counterfeit luxury consumption?

ABSTRACT This study empirically investigates the combined effects of social factors such as word-of-mouth (WOM) and individual psychological factors such as moral judgment and saving face on consumers’ purchases of counterfeit luxury goods. Using a snowball sampling method, we gathered data from 257 Chinese consumers who had purchased counterfeits and tested our hypotheses using a hierarchical multiple regression model. We found that positive WOM and moral judgment increased counterfeit luxury purchases. Interestingly, saving face was found to mitigate the impact of positive WOM on counterfeit luxury purchases. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on consumer behavior regarding counterfeit luxury purchases by introducing innovative insights and proposing new moderating predictions related to moral judgment and saving face. Additionally, the findings have practical implications for global luxury companies, enabling them to devise effective marketing and communication strategies that dissuade consumers from buying counterfeits. In particular, the study emphasizes the importance of considering saving face from a cultural standpoint to discourage counterfeit purchases.


Introduction
Global luxury brands are unable to effectively address significant managerial challenges posed by the growth of the worldwide counterfeit luxury goods market (Iyer et al., 2022;Singh et al., 2022;Song et al., 2021).The efforts of global companies to combat counterfeiting do not seem to have yielded satisfactory results.For example, LVMH has hired more than 60 lawyers and invests US$ 17 million annually in legal action (Fontana et al., 2019).However, the counterfeit goods market has been growing steadily recently, with the total trade in counterfeit and pirated products estimated at US$ 464 billion, amounting to 2.5% of world trade (OECD/EUIPO, 2021).
Counterfeit luxury products certainly devastate the value of authentic luxury products and brands; thus, the mechanisms underlying consumers' counterfeit purchase behavior should be examined from both academic and practical perspectives.Prior research has advanced our understanding of the factors influencing consumers' behavioral intentions and actual behaviors toward counterfeit products from various perspectives, including product attributes, individual psychologies, demographics, and social factors (Eisend et al., 2017;Iyer et al., 2022;Kassim et al., 2020;Phau & Teah, 2009).However, the exploration of the interplay between social factors and individual psychological factors in counterfeit luxury purchases remains limited, necessitating further investigation.
Social influence is important, including social risks toward unethical counterfeit consumption (Bian et al., 2016).Although previous studies have offered initial insights on social factors (e.g.collectivism and information susceptibility; Phau & Teah, 2009;Teah et al., 2015), we believe that little attention has been paid to the effect of word-ofmouth (WOM) communication.Only a few studies provide preliminary findings into the role of WOM in the behavioral intentions of consumers toward counterfeit products (Khalid & Rahman, 2015;Mir, 2011Mir, , 2013)).Nevertheless, extant research on counterfeits and WOM did not consider the following two questions: First, what is the relationship between the social influence of positive WOM and consumers' actual purchasing behaviors regarding counterfeit luxury products or brands (i.e.counterfeit luxury purchases)?Second, what individual psychological factors can enhance or inhibit positive WOM effects in markets with collectivist cultures that value the social network?Addressing these two issues can have managerial implications for how global luxury companies can adequately influence consumers who purchase luxury counterfeits while considering cultural perspectives, as they must necessarily act against the detrimental effects of positive WOM toward counterfeit products.
To answer these questions, this study aims to empirically examine whether and how social (i.e.WOM) and individual psychological (i.e.moral judgment and saving face) factors influence consumers' purchases of counterfeit luxury goods.Using data from 257 Chinese consumers, this study advances extant literature in two ways.
First, we investigate counterfeit luxury purchases while considering both social and psychological factors.Although a few WOM studies (Mir, 2011) provide insights into purchase intentions, this study is among the first to discover positive WOM's role in promoting actual purchase behaviors of counterfeit luxuries in the Chinese market.While our finding on the negative impacts of moral judgment is largely consistent with that of most previous studies (Jiang et al., 2019;Tan, 2002), saving face does not directly influence actual purchase behaviors.The finding regarding saving face contradicts our initial hypothesis and the claim made by Jiang and Shan (2016) regarding the positive effect of face consciousness.This disparity warrants further discussion, particularly considering that the concept of saving face has rarely been investigated in the context of counterfeit luxury literature.Our approach has the potential to enhance our understanding of consumers' motivational factors in making counterfeit luxury purchases from a cultural perspective.
Second, this study is the first to incorporate the interaction effect of moral judgment and saving face with positive WOM, enabling a comprehensive understanding of the intricate behaviors associated with the actual purchase of counterfeit luxury products.We argue that, despite the importance of emphasizing saving face owing to its ability to mitigate the positive effects of positive WOM on counterfeit luxury purchases, the moderating effect of moral judgment is insignificant.We extend the WOM's role in counterfeits (Lan et al., 2012) and hence contribute to the literature -although moral judgment and saving face are largely classified as individual psychological factors, their effects on counterfeit luxury purchases vary.By highlighting the cultural perspective of saving face, global luxury companies can use our findings to develop effective marketing communication strategies to dissuade consumers who receive positive WOM from purchasing counterfeits.

Theoretical framework and hypothesis development
WOM is an oral or written communication process between a sender and receiver to share and acquire informal information (Ma & Kim, 2022).Regardless of diverse forms (i.e.writing/written vs. speech/oral) and contents (i.e.positive vs. negative), WOM has a significant effect on consumer product evaluation and purchase behavior (Fang et al., 2023;Kong & Ko, 2017;Lan et al., 2012;Ma & Kim, 2022).WOM among consumers is more reliable than information received through planned communication designed by companies (e.g.advertising).The ability for consumers to share their opinions, information, knowledge, or even recommendations is a powerful communication tool that influences other people's buying behaviors.Previous research on WOM consistently highlights that positive WOM enhances the intention to purchase counterfeit products (Khalid & Rahman, 2015;Mir, 2011Mir, , 2013)).
Conversely, this study posits conditional effects on the fundamental argument, which pertains to the relationship between positive WOM and counterfeit luxury purchases.Specifically, moral judgment and saving face are considered to delve into the underlying mechanisms at a deeper level.This approach seeks to explain consumer behaviors concerning psychological factors (i.e.internal factors), such as an individual's beliefs and values, and social factors (i.e.external factors), such as an individual's culture and group membership (Bharti et al., 2022;Shahid et al., 2023;Teah et al., 2015).Specifically, we base this study on the theory of reasoned action (TRA) (Alsaad, 2021;Kopot & Reed, 2022;Minton et al., 2018), which is one of the most prominent frameworks that simultaneously considers social and psychological factors.TRA proposes that behavioral intentions (i.e.willingness to perform or not perform an act) influence a person's actual behavior.Two motivational factors have primarily influenced these intentions: attitudes (i.e.personal belief and value) and subjective norms (i.e.perceived social influence or pressure underpinned by others' beliefs and opinions).
In TRA, personal attitudes serve as individual psychological factors, while subjective norms act as proxies for social factors.TRA has proven to be a valuable tool in predicting consumer behaviors, as evidenced by its extensive application in various consumption contexts such as ethical consumption (Alsaad, 2021), sustainable consumption (Minton et al., 2018), online beauty product shopping (Kopot & Reed, 2022), and counterfeit goods (Jiang et al., 2019).However, TRA researchers do not necessarily include and empirically test all key constructs in their examination of consumer behaviors.For instance, Kopot and Reed (2022) adapted TRA to focus solely on subjective norms in predicting purchase intention for online beauty products, while Minton et al. (2018) limited their scope to the direct influence of attitudes and subjective norms on actual behaviors related to sustainable consumption.It is important to note that in the context of counterfeit literature utilizing TRA, Alsaad (2021) conceptualized ethical judgment as an attitudinal evaluation (i.e.attitudes) that influences behavioral intention, while Jiang et al. (2019) explored the role of moral judgment in predicting attitudes.
Figure 1 depicts our conceptual framework, which summarizes our arguments about 1) the direct link between positive WOM and counterfeit luxury purchases and 2) the moderating effects of moral judgment and saving face on their direct association.We conceptualize positive WOM as a social factor and moral judgment and saving face as individual psychological factors.Moral judgments are an individual's normative assessment with reference to their decisions of rightness or wrongness (Kumar et al., 2022;Tan, 2002).Meanwhile, saving face is an individual's desire to maintain or enhance identity, social status, and self-esteem while avoiding losing face (Filieri et al., 2017;Qian et al., 2007), a unique cultural value component, especially in China (Siu et al., 2016).

Positive WOM
Previous research has demonstrated that consumers are more likely to have a favorable attitude toward counterfeit products when they receive positive (vs.negative) WOM about these products, which increases consumer satisfaction and their willingness to buy these products (File & Prince, 1992;Khalid & Rahman, 2015;Mir, 2011Mir, , 2013)).Lan et al. (2012) discovered that positive WOM indeed enhanced the consumption of counterfeit products when compared to negative WOM.The degree of familiarity with the individuals who pass the information also seems to amplify the impacts of WOM on consumer judgment and decisionmaking.For example, the favorable effect of positive (vs.negative) WOM on consumer behavior was stronger when consumers received the information from individuals who were close to themselves (Hu et al., 2019;Paruthi et al., 2022).As counterfeiters cannot officially advertise their products through public media (e.g.television, newspapers, etc.), they tend to use various types of non-commercial social transmissions, including social media, among consumers as an effective and influential marketing tool (Lan et al., 2012).Compared to commercial advertisements, information received from personal sources often seems to be more reliable and trustworthy (Keller & Fay, 2012;Murray, 1991), which could help enhance consumers' perceived credibility of specific products or services that have lower credibility.Therefore, we propose that positive WOM received from individuals who are especially close to them (e.g.friends, relatives, or associates) will increase consumption of counterfeit luxury products.Formally, we hypothesize the following: H 1 : Positive WOM about counterfeit luxury products received from socially close individuals will increase counterfeit luxury purchases.

Moral judgment
Conceptualizing the relationship between morality and consumer behavior based on the moral foundation theory (Cowan & Yazdanparast, 2019), moral judgment is an important factor in determining consumer attitudes and consumption behaviors (Jiang et al., 2019;Kumar et al., 2022).Immoral feelings often have a negative impact on consumer behavior toward counterfeits given that they are generally unethical (Bian et al., 2016;OECD/EUIPO, 2021).Martinez and Jaeger (2016) suggested three important immoral feelings, including anger, guilt, and a lack of gratitude.For example, consumers may feel guilty or remorseful when considering buying counterfeit products due to unethical behavior.They may also feel more frustrated or angry about consuming counterfeit products instead of genuine goods, as such behavior cannot be easily justified.In contrast, they may feel less grateful and thankful about using counterfeit goods, which are unlikely to be made with sincere effort or spirit.Increased moral awareness and moral emotions (e.g.anger, guilt, and gratitude) when considering consumption of counterfeit luxury products have been shown to alter consumers' moral judgment about products, which, in turn, influences their purchase intentions (Martinez & Jaeger, 2016).In addition, consumers with high moral judgment are less willing to purchase pirated software or counterfeit fashion products compared to those with low moral judgment (Ha & Lennon, 2006).Therefore, we propose that consumers are less likely to purchase counterfeit luxury products if they believe the act of purchasing them is immoral.Formally, we hypothesize the following: H 2 : Feeling immoral about buying counterfeit luxury products will decrease counterfeit luxury purchases.

Saving face
Saving face refers to being concerned with other people's perceptions of oneself and is often accompanied by a need to maintain or enhance one's own status (Li et al., 2022;Park & Yang, 2010).Although having counterfeit luxury brands might help maintain or improve the owner's status (Jiang & Shan, 2016), these behaviors also put individuals at risk of serious loss of face.For example, Chinese consumers who want to save face are more likely to have negative attitudes toward counterfeit luxury goods since they are afraid of being seen buying or accused of buying them (Filieri et al., 2017;Qian et al., 2007;Siu et al., 2016).Therefore, we propose that consumers who value saving face will want to avoid the risk of jeopardizing their status that can be caused by their use of counterfeit luxury products.Formally, we hypothesize the following: H 3 : Concerns about saving face will decrease counterfeit luxury purchases.

Interaction effects
TRA explains that both individual values (i.e.attitudes) and social values (i.e.subjective norms) determine consumers' actual behavior (Minton et al., 2018).Meanwhile, the functional theory of attitudes suggests that this actual behavior is driven by both social and personal attitudes (Singh et al., 2022;Siu et al., 2016).Applying these insights to our research context, along with the quasi-moderator concept (Sharma et al., 1981), we extend our baseline argument in H 1 (i.e. a direct effect) by predicting that counterfeit luxury purchases are also formed by the interactions between the social factor (i.e.WOM) and individual psychological factors (i.e.moral judgment and saving face).The detailed logic will be explained subsequently.First, we examine the moderating role of moral judgment in the association between WOM and counterfeit luxury purchases.For example, Kim et al. (2012) provided empirical evidence regarding the importance of moral judgment in counterfeit purchase intention.They found that justification for buying counterfeits was significantly correlated with different levels of moral judgment.This hypothesis is further based on moral psychology (Jiang et al., 2019;Kumar et al., 2022), which states that consumers with high moral judgment will respect their own correct moral views or norms.
We posit that the strong influence of a negative attitude toward counterfeit luxury purchases will outweigh the influence of a positive WOM on consumers, dissuading them from purchasing counterfeit luxury goods.Therefore, when consumers with high moral judgment receive positive WOM regarding counterfeit luxury products, their existing moral judgment will lead them to believe that purchasing these products is morally undesirable or incorrect.Consequently, a negative attitude toward counterfeit luxury purchases and subsequent purchase behavior develops.However, for individuals with low moral judgment, positive WOM is expected to exert a stronger impact on the purchase of counterfeit luxury goods.This leads to the following hypothesis: H 4 : The positive relationship between positive WOM and counterfeit luxury purchases will be attenuated among individuals with a higher level of moral concerns.
This study also investigates the moderating role of saving face in the association between WOM and counterfeit luxury purchases.First, the previous literature suggests that saving face is an important moderator for Chinese luxury consumption (Filieri et al., 2017;Le Monkhouse et al., 2012;Siu et al., 2016).For instance, Le Monkhouse et al. (2012) found that saving face plays an important role in luxury consumption among East Asian consumers.Second, consumers with a strong desire to save face feel pressured to live up to others' expectations, as they feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, and annoyed if they fail to save face (Li et al., 2022;Park & Yang, 2010).Therefore, such consumers tend to protect their identities and social positions, fearing the loss of face that would occur if others were to learn about their purchase or use of counterfeit luxury products (Filieri et al., 2017;Siu et al., 2016).This fear is based on the assumption that most consumers regard purchasing counterfeits as unethical (Bian et al., 2016).
We believe that consumers who show concern about saving face are less likely to purchase counterfeit luxury products, even when they receive positive WOM regarding these products from close acquaintances.However, the original prediction of H 1 will be relatively stronger among individuals with a relatively low desire to save face, leading to the following hypothesis: H 5 : The positive relationship between positive WOM and counterfeit luxury purchases will be attenuated among individuals with a higher level of saving face.

Research context and data collection
We collected primary data for the study from a sample of Chinese consumers through a questionnaire survey.The Chinese market was chosen for the following two reasons: First, while both developed and developing countries are affected by counterfeiting, China is one of the largest markets for manufacturing, selling, and purchasing counterfeit luxury goods (Daxue Consulting, 2023; OECD/EUIPO, 2021).Second, personal interviews with Chinese consumers and prior studies (Siu et al., 2016) indicate that recently, Chinese consumers' recognition of authentic luxury products and their brands has increased along with their income level and knowledge of luxury brands.This may influence their consumption habits and attitudes toward counterfeit luxury goods.
We used the snowball sampling method to collect data (Singh et al., 2022), as our questionnaire sought sensitive and private information about counterfeit purchase behavior that is widely considered unethical.Furthermore, we focused on a small group of respondents who have purchased and used counterfeits.When consumers who have had these experiences are difficult to contact, we expected the snowball sampling method to assist us in finding suitable respondents.We gathered data by sending questionnaires through Chinese social networking sites (e.g.WeiBo).During the survey, building on the insights of Song et al. (2021), we asked respondents to recall their previous counterfeit purchase behaviors by focusing on luxury fashion products that dominate the counterfeit luxury market.These products include wallets, bags, clothing, shoes, sunglasses, and watches offered by major luxury companies (e.g.Burberry, Chanel, Coach, Gucci, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, and Rolex).We obtained 257 usable responses for further analysis.
Analyzing the respondents' profiles, we discovered that most were female (75.1%) in their twenties (60.3%).A bachelor's degree was held by 62.6% of the respondents.While 63.8% of them had an annual income of more than US$ 6,916 (50,000 yuan), the mean and median values of usable money freely per month (UMFPM; i.e. excluding tax and other fixed expenditures such as monthly rent and electricity charges) were US$ 745 (5,387 yuan) and US$ 415 (3,000 yuan), respectively.Finally, more than half of them (58.4%) had purchased and used genuine luxury products.

Measurement
Table 1 presents the constructs and scale items used in the study.The measures are reflective and multi-item, with a five-point Likert scale (where "1" = "strongly disagree" and "5" = "strongly agree").While the constructs of counterfeit luxury purchases (Lan et al., 2012;Wang & Song, 2013) and positive WOM (Khalid & Rahman, 2015;Mir, 2013) are measured with five items each, moral judgment and saving face are measured with two moral decision items (Tan, 2002) and two face-related items adopted from Qian et al. (2007), respectively.Additionally, we used five control variables to address the heterogeneity of the sample respondents.We controlled UMFPM for hypothesis testing by using its logarithm value.We also used a dummy variable to control for other demographic characteristics and past purchase behavior: gender (i.e.female = 1, male = 0), age (i.e.twenties = 1, others = 0), degree (i.e.bachelor's degree = 1, others = 0), and authentic luxury experience, referred to as an experience of purchasing genuine luxury products (yes = 1, no = 0).

Common method bias
Since the data were collected using a single survey instrument, we used the marker variable technique (Lindell & Whitney, 2001) to alleviate concerns about common method bias.We assumed a theoretically unrelated item (i.e.I believe that developing guanxi-the direct particularistic ties -is necessary for one's daily life) as a covariate (|r| < 0.14).The results demonstrated no statistically significant difference between the observed and adjusted correlations, indicating that common method bias is not a major issue in our data.

Construct validity
We performed a confirmatory factor analysis to assess the validity of our constructs.Overall, the measurement model demonstrates a satisfactory fit to the data (χ 2 (68) = 129.41,p < .05,GFI = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.06, CFI = 0.95, IFI = 0.96).First, we tested the convergent validity using average variance extracted (AVE) and composite reliability (CR), and the data have satisfactory convergent validity (Table 1).Specifically, the AVE values show satisfactory results, except for positive WOM (0.47), which is marginally below the threshold of 0.5 suggested by Fornell and Larcker (1981).The CR values range from 0.77 to 0.88, which is greater than the threshold of 0.6 (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988).Subsequently, we examined the discriminant validity of our constructs by following Fornell and Larcker (1981) and comparing the AVE value with the shared variance (r 2 ) for all possible pairs of constructs.The shared variance values calculated in Table 2 range within 0.00-0.26,which is less than the AVE value of every construct, evidencing the discriminant validity of our constructs.

Hypotheses testing
We conducted a hierarchical multiple regression analysis to test our hypotheses (Table 3).To avoid the multicollinearity problem, we mean-centered all predictor variables before creating two interaction terms (Aiken & West, 1991).Since the variance inflation factor values are below 1.24, our findings are not influenced by multicollinearity.Although some control variables (i.e.Age_ β = −0.15,p < .01;Authentic luxury experience_ β = −0.13,p < .05)are significant, our primary findings are not dependent on whether these control variables are excluded or included.
As summarized in Table 3, our findings reveal a significant positive impact of positive WOM (H 1 : β = 0.50, p < .001)and a significant negative impact of moral judgment (β = −0.25,p < .001) on counterfeit luxury purchases.However, unlike H 3 , saving face has no statistically significant impact (β = −0.10,p > .05) on counterfeit luxury purchases.Therefore, H 1 and H 2 are accepted, while H 3 is rejected.In addition, we find a negative and significant moderating effect of saving face (β = −0.19,p < .01).Following Aiken and West (1991), we conducted additional analysis to elucidate the interaction effect.We examined the simple effect of positive WOM on counterfeit luxury purchases, with high and low levels of saving face as one standard deviation above or below the mean.The simple slope analysis results (Figure 3) show that positive WOM's effect on counterfeit luxury purchases is weaker (high SF_b = 0.31, p < .001)when consumers have a greater desire to save face but stronger (low SF_b = 0.63, p < .001)when the desire to save face is low.Therefore, H 5 is accepted.However, unlike H 4 , we do not find evidence for the moderating effect of moral judgment (β = −0.07,p > .05).The simple slope analysis results (Figure 2) reveal that when positive WOM is dominant, moral judgment does not discourage Chinese consumers from purchasing counterfeit luxury goods (high MJ_b = 0.41, p < .001;low MJ_b = 0.52, p < .001).Therefore, we reject H 4 .

Theoretical implications
This study has two major theoretical implications.First, we simultaneously examine social and psychological factors in the context of actual purchase behavior concerning counterfeit luxury products.Unlike previous studies investigating the direct impact of WOM on behavioral intention, we test WOM's impact on actual purchase behaviors toward counterfeits.With the exception of Martinez and Jaeger (2016), who found a nonsignificant impact of moral judgment at the 5% significance level, our findings on a direct negative effect of moral judgment on counterfeit luxury purchases is largely consistent with those of prior research.In contrast to our prediction, saving face is not directly linked to counterfeit luxury purchases (H 3 ).This result is also inconsistent with that of Jiang and Shan (2016), who proposed the positive effect of face consciousness on promoting counterfeits.We assume that the rationale for H 3 's rejection is that a tradeoff effect may exist between consuming counterfeit luxury goods as a visible display of status or accomplishment and the perceived risk of losing face when caught using counterfeits (Bian et al., 2016).Second, we investigate the interaction effect of moral judgment and saving face with positive WOM regarding counterfeit luxury consumption.While prior research has advanced our knowledge of the direct impact of moral judgment (e.g.Ha & Lennon, 2006;Martinez & Jaeger, 2016) and saving face (e.g.Jiang & Shan, 2016) on behavioral intentions, this study is one of the first to empirically examine how culture-specific psychological factors can moderate the impact of positive WOM on the actual purchase behavior of counterfeit luxury products.We propose that saving face (or moral judgment) plays a significant (or non-significant) moderating role in mitigating the positive impact of positive WOM on counterfeit luxury purchases.By comparing these two moderators, we can specifically enhance our understanding of the relative impact of psychological and social factors on counterfeit consumption.
Third, despite a few studies contributing to our understanding of the cultural aspects of counterfeit luxury consumption (Teah et al., 2015), the specific dimension of the cultural factor, such as saving face, has been seldom investigated.For example, Teah et al. (2015) examined the impact of overall collectivism on Chinese luxury consumption, whereas we found a significant moderating role of saving face on the impact of WOM on counterfeit luxury consumption.Additionally, by simultaneously examining social and psychological aspects, we can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the motivational factors driving actual purchases of counterfeit luxury products from a cultural perspective.In addition, it has been noted that counterfeit products can increase the value of authentic luxury brands (Nia & Zaichkowsky, 2000;Romani et al., 2012).For instance, Romani et al. (2012) highlight the role of brand awareness in enhancing the value of authentic brands due to the existence of counterfeit products.Nia and Zaichkowsky (2000) also demonstrate that the presence of counterfeit products can increase the satisfaction of authentic brand owners.Future studies should investigate the impact of positive WOM regarding counterfeits on the purchase intention of authentic brands as well as the satisfaction of authentic brand owners.
Finally, our findings are critical, as while moral judgment and saving face are largely classified as individual psychological factors, their effects on counterfeit luxury purchases vary.Consequently, by responding to a call for research on WOM's role in counterfeit purchasing behavior (Lan et al., 2012), this study paves the way for future research on how culture-specific psychological factors of moral judgment and saving face influence consumer behavior toward counterfeit goods in various markets and product segments.

Managerial implications
This study has two important implications.First, global luxury companies must develop feasible marketing and communication campaigns that can dissuade consumers from buying counterfeit luxury goods.Specifically, based on our findings with a direct negative impact of moral judgment, we recommend that managers communicate to consumers that purchasing and consuming counterfeit luxury goods is illegal and a morally reprehensible act.Creating a strong message such that consumers buying counterfeits will confront social embarrassment when seen buying and using them by peer groups would also be feasible (Bian et al., 2016).Therefore, managers could also use social media to associate counterfeit purchases with the negative consequences of other immoral behaviors (e.g.child labor).
To foster moral judgment, managers must also encourage consumers to spread positive WOM of genuine luxury products by emphasizing authenticity.We found that, in collectivist cultures such as China, where consumers highly value close interactions in social relationships, WOM can be an important factor influencing counterfeit luxury goods.If consumers are widely aware that purchasing authentic products is the right choice, positive WOM's effects on counterfeit luxury products can be limited.As people buying counterfeit luxury products want to save money without losing face while enhancing their own social status, we recommend that global luxury companies focus on marketing campaigns for affordable luxury brands.Under surreal circumstances such as COVID-19, where consumers experience decreased purchasing power, affordable luxury brands would be more sustainable for consumers, holding stronger promise for traditional luxury lovers and middle-income consumers (Shahid et al., 2023).
Second, managers must deeply understand the cultural perspective of saving face.When consumers have a strong desire to save face, the positive WOM's impact is reduced.Therefore, in a market where the positive WOM of counterfeit luxury products is widespread, managers must create an advertising message that easily leads consumers to associate counterfeit luxury products with saving face.A creative message that catches consumers' attention would be effective, such as "When you feel the urge to buy counterfeits, do you want to save money or your face?" Managers could also educate consumers on the dangers of purchasing counterfeit luxury products from dishonest sellers and how to distinguish between counterfeit and authentic products.Consumers must be made aware that saving their faces by using genuine luxury products will help their peers working for companies selling genuine luxury products.

Limitations and scope for future research
This study has several limitations that must be addressed in future research.First, regarding the two-item scale of moral judgment and saving face, a measurement scale with full multi-items should be utilized to improve the results' validity and accuracy and to understand the specific role of sub-dimensions of each construct.Second, this paper primarily tested the behavioral aspects of counterfeit purchases instead of examining consumer attitudes to mitigate social desirability bias, aligning with previous studies that employed a similar approach (e.g.Shimp & Kavas, 1984).However, future research could explore the TRA by directly assessing consumer attitudes toward purchasing luxury counterfeits.Third, future studies on other psychological factors unique to China, such as renqing (i.e.social favors), guanxi (i.e.direct particularistic ties), or family orientation (Qian et al., 2007), could advance our understanding of counterfeit consumption.Additionally, they could be promising if the interaction of WOM with cross-cultural dimensions (e.g.collectivism/individualism level, or power distance) among different countries is investigated.Fourth, although we mainly focus on the specific message effect to prevent counterfeit consumption, future research must extend the research scope, for example, by elaborating on the role of brand engagement of authentic brands in related counterfeit consumption (Islam & Rahman, 2016;Paruthi et al., 2022).Fifth, as China is widely recognized as the primary market for counterfeit luxury products (Daxue Consulting, 2023), we focused on Chinese consumers in our study.Moreover, considering that women tend to buy more luxury products compared to men (Brown, 2019), we believe that our sample, consisting predominantly of younger females (75%), represents a suitable target consumer group for this industry.However, future research could explore whether similar patterns emerge in other income target groups or countries to enhance generalizability.Finally, as saving face is implicitly related to the social aspects of considering others, future studies should elaborate on the conceptualization of saving face in various moral decisions.Tan, B. (2002).Understanding consumer ethical decision making with respect to purchase of pirated software.Journal of Consumer Marketing,19(2), 96-111.https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760210420531 Teah, M., Phau, I., & Huang, Y. A. (2015).Devil continues to wear "counterfeit" Prada: A tale of two cities.Journal of Consumer Marketing,32(3)

Table 1 .
Constructs and measurement assessment.
a Standardized coefficients; AVE = Average variance extracted; CR = Composite reliability.

Table 2 .
Descriptive statistics and correlation matrix.
The square roots of AVE values are presented in italics in the diagonal row; a Dummy variable; UMFPM = Usable money freely per month excluding tax and other fixed expenditure; SD = standard deviation; * p < .05.