Professor Steven Chan, assistant professor of marketing at Sy Syms School of Business, recently contributed to the study “Not All Fakes are Created Equal: Cultural Differences in Considering Counterfeits,” together with Professor Nelson Amaral of the Kogod School of Business at American University.  The study, funded by a grant from the Institute on Asian Consumer Insight, surveyed hundreds of students from various cultural backgrounds at multiple US universities.  Their results suggest that people across different cultures consider counterfeit products in varying ways. While work still remains to pin down the process behind the cultural difference, preliminary evidence supports their theory that people with an East Asian background, when compared with people of other cultural backgrounds, are more tolerant of changes in genuine products that make up counterfeit products. The study links this tolerance for change in products to a cognitive style, more prevalent in East Asia, that appreciates a more holistic view of what constitutes an authentic object. This continuing work aims to uncover a more dynamic understanding of the growing global issue of counterfeit consumption.