Feeling betrayed or excited? – Consumers’ reassessment of expected utility for legally copied products in the post-purchase stage
Seong Eun Kim, Jung Ha‐Brookshire · 2025
This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.This study investigates consumers' reassessment of low-end legally copied products (LCPs) based on their intellectual property rights (IPR) morality. Through semi-structured interviews with 14 participants, the study explores how consumers' IPR morality influences their post-purchase evaluation of LCPs. Findings reveal that active consumers decreased their expected utility after discovering their purchases were LCPs, while passive consumers increased it, and ambivalent consumers showed no change. This research expands on the Copyright Law's Theory of Consumers and offers insights for low-end LCP brands in understanding how design similarity impacts consumer evaluations.