Smartphone counterfeiting costs manufacturers, distributers, and taxpayers billions
of dollars every year and is considered one of the costliest practices by-product category in the world.
This study investigates the role of emerging consumer orientation in shaping ethical perceptions in
the counterfeit smartphone market in China. Based on the view that consumers have a tendency to
form moral perceptions that are congenial to their value orientations, we hypothesize that emerging
consumer orientation creates distinctly different effects from those of traditional consumers on
ethical perceptions of counterfeit practices. A survey sample of 472 respondents was collected at two
electronics malls in Beijing and Shanghai. Our analyses indicate that emerging consumer orientation
has a positive influence on perceived unethicality and perceived social consequences in contrast to a
negative impact from traditional consumer orientation. Subsequently, the two perceptual factors are
found to be negatively related to intention to buy a counterfeit smartphone.