Counterfeiting is an expanding and increasingly relevant phenomenon in\ud contemporary markets that has a particular impact on luxury branded goods. Most\ud academic literature to date has focused its attention on the determinants of purchase,\ud underestimating the consumption phase. This paper aims to fi ll this gap by\ud investigating how people consume counterfeit luxury products. Our results help us\ud to better understand the phenomenon as a whole, with the objective of providing\ud useful insights for the companies that produce luxury goods, and assisting them in\ud realising effective policies for stemming counterfeiting

Counterfeiting is a widespread practice throughout the world. The conventional\ud wisdom is that it affects branded goods negatively. In this paper, however, we\ud suggest that counterfeiting may actually benefit certain luxury brands. By means of\ud two studies, we show how the market presence of luxury counterfeit items can\ud increase consumers’ willingness to pay for original brands. In Study 1, we show that\ud the presence of luxury counterfeits can increase consumers’ willingness to pay for\ud well-known original brands, but not for lesser-known ones. Brand awareness plays a\ud moderating role in the positive relationship between counterfeiting and willingness to\ud pay (WTP). In Study 2, we address the psychological mechanisms that explain this\ud increased willingness to pay. The results show that consumers’ (a) pleasure at being\ud envied, (b) pleasure in distinguishing themselves, and (c) perception of the quality of\ud the original goods fully mediate the relation between the presence of counterfeit in the\ud market and consumers’ WTP for originals. We subsequently discuss the theoretical\ud and managerial implications of the two study results

Brand crises endanger companies. Social media are a key platform where stakeholders elaborate and react to crises. This research explores whether social media audience and traditional mass media audience react differently to a brand crisis in terms of their (1) attitude towards the brand and (2) word-of-mouth (WOM). As to the brand attitude, we argue that stakeholders mainly exposed to the brand crisis via social media have a more negative reaction towards the brand compared to those who are principally exposed via traditional media. As to the behaviour, we posit that social media exposure intensifies WOM. By analysing the Barilla crisis, the findings suggest that the social media act as ‘multipliers’ of the reaction of stakeholders to a brand crisis

He has a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Pisa. He teaches Consumer Behavior and Marketing Communications, and his research interests focus mainly on consumer behavior. His projects include the consumption of authentic items, consumption communities, cause-related marketing, and crisis management. He has published in the International

Palm oil (PO) is a product widely used in the food, energy and cosmetics industries. In fact, its high fat content and diverse range of uses combined with a low market price make PO and its co-product palm kernel oil particularly appealing (Hansen et al., 2015). Notably, while only 7% of the world's agricultural land is dedicated to the cultivation of oil palms, this land provides almost 40% of the global vegetable oil production (Rival and Levang, 2014). Oosterveer (2015) reports that approximately half of the products in a typical supermarket contain PO. Hansen et al. (2015, p. 140) maintain that PO is now 'the most produced and consumed vegetable oil in the world', and Choong and McKay (2014) predict that the total world consumption of PO will be approximately 43 million tons in 2020. However, PO is also subject to relevant controversies (e.g. Disdier et al., 2013; Oosterveer, 2015). For instance, because PO contains saturated fats, its high consumption has been related to obesity and cardiovascular diseases (Chong and Ng, 1991; McNamara, 2010) and, more recently, even to cancer (Chapman, 2017). Due to the rapid expansion of massive oil palm plantations, PO has then been associated with deforestation, damage to biodiversity and an increase of carbon released into the atmosphere (Reijnders and Huijbregts, 2008; Saswattecha et al., 2017). Additionally, PO production has been linked to violations of property rights, child labour and other human rights abuses (D'Antone and Spencer, 2014, 2015). The emergence of these controversies, which have jeopardised the legitimacy of PO, has resulted in a call for a different approach to its production, as illustrated by a growing interest in a more sustainable type of PO (Boons and Mendoza, 2010; Hansen et al., 2015). One of the most *Revised Manuscript-Clean Version Click here to view linked References