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The purpose of this paper is to continue the emerging stream of literature that has found knockoffs and counterfeits to be unobtrusive or even beneficial to luxury companies by analyzing how they produce paradoxes of meaning and contribute to the renewal of luxury markets. This is done by exploring them as doppelgänger brand images that reappropriate brand imagery for their own purposes.

This is a conceptual paper that focuses on the role of knockoffs and counterfeits in the renewal of luxury markets.

The findings highlight how knockoffs and counterfeits can contribute to the emergence and cyclical diffusion of luxury. As luxury offerings are introduced to the market, knockoffs and counterfeits accelerate the snob effect, aid in anchoring trends and contribute to induced obsolescence. During diffusion, knockoffs and counterfeits can strengthen aspiration, bandwagon and herding effects. In doing so, knockoffs and counterfeits create a paradox as they simultaneously legitimize the idea of the “authenticity” of genuine offerings through their presence in the market and create cyclical demand for novel offerings by undermining the authenticity claims of existing luxury offerings. Thus, knockoffs and counterfeits can be understood as a paradox of luxury markets that contributes to the market cyclicality not despite but because of this paradoxical interplay.

While research on knockoffs and counterfeiting is plentiful in the field of marketing, this is among the few studies that analyze how these offerings contribute to luxury markets and their renewal.

The purpose of this study is to propose a bearer service, which generates and maintains a “digital doppelgänger” for every financial contract in the form of a dynamic transaction document that is a standardised “data facility” automatically making important contract data from the transaction counterparties available to relevant authorities mandated by law to request and process such data. This would be achieved by sharing certain elements of the dynamic transaction document on a bearer service, based on a federation of distribution ledgers; such a quasi-simultaneous sharing of risk data becomes possible because the dynamic transaction document maintain a record of state in semi-real time, and this state can be verified by anybody with access to the distribution ledgers, also in semi-real time.

In this paper, the authors propose a novel, regular technology (RegTech) cum automated legal text approach for financial transaction as well as financial risk reporting that is based on cutting-edge distributed computing and decentralised data management technologies such as distributed ledger (Swanson, 2015), distributed storage (Arner et al., 2016; Chandra et al., 2013; Caron et al., 2014), algorithmic financial contract standards (Brammertz and Mendelowitz, 2014; Breymann and Mendelowitz, 2015; Braswell, 2016), automated legal text (Hazard and Haapio, 2017) and document engineering methods and techniques (Glushko and McGrath, 2005). This approach is equally inspired by the concept of the “bearer service” and its capacity to span over existing and future technological systems and substrates (Kavassalis et al., 2000; Clark, 1988).

The result is a transformation of supervisors’ capacity to monitor risk in the financial system based on data which preserve informational content of financial instruments at the most granular level, in combination with a mathematically robust time stamping approach using blockchain technology.

The RegTech approach has the potential to contain operational risk linked to inadequate handling of risk data and to rein in compliance cost of supervisory reporting.

The present RegTech approach to financial risk monitoring and supervisory reporting is the first integration of algorithmic financial data standards with blockchain functionality.

In the Western thought tradition, the tourist has not been a subject worthy of intellectual musings and philosophical deliberations. Indeed, the tourist has been portrayed in primarily derisive ways. Nietzsche’s remark, “Tourists—they climb mountains like animals, stupid and perspiring, no one has told them that there are beautiful views on the way,” epitomizes the dominant attitude. Why does the figure of the tourist elicit such negative reactions? Do the sentiments perhaps imply something else, or is the tourist a doppelgänger, not anomalous or marginal but normative—a paradigmatic figure? If so, then what can be said of the poetics and politics of the tourist conceptualized as a paradigmatic subject?

The increase in international trade, the advances in technology, the growing importance of the emerging markets are the main factors that have contributed to the explosion of counterfeiting experienced in recent years, estimated to be valued at about 5-7 per cent of the world trade. The luxury industry in Italy has been particularly hard hit and most brands nowadays are urgently looking for demand-side and supply-side strategies to track and control the phenomenon. The aim of this paper is to provide a supply chain view of counterfeiting and illegitimate trade phenomena, in a supply chain risk management perspective, to define and illuminate the interaction of the legitimate and the illegitimate supply chains.

The paper introduces the LISC model to represent and include all the illegitimate trade phenomena under analysis such as pure counterfeiting, factory overruns, grey and parallel market, supply chain infiltrations, product diversion and sale of stolen goods

The interrelations between legitimate and illegitimate supply chains are crucial to approach counterfeiting issue and define which illegitimate trade paths are more harmful to companies and customers.

The first limitation of the work is that the illegitimate trade categories defined in this paper mainly rely on data and phenomena collected from secondary sources that have not yet been directly observed by the authors. The second one is that a specific focus on high-end fashion industry was employed throughout this work: further analysis for evaluating the applicability and the significance of the illegitimate trade in other industries is still pending. The final limitation stems from the fact that it will be necessary to investigate the implications and the applicability of the model to the illegitimate on-line trade.

During the course of the MI-FIDO project, the model and the selection rules identified for illegitimate trade family classification were used as a basis for defining the rules for anomalies detection to be included in a “track and trace” system developed the project team currently under with a major Italian fashion brand.

To the authors ' knowledge, this is the first work that attempts to present a concise and systematic approach to luxury illegitimate trade from a supply chain perspective. Understanding which legitimate-illegitimate supply chain interactions are the most damaging will help fashion luxury and other industries to battle the counterfeiting phenomenon more effectively

To identify, conceptualize, and analyze a newly emerging form of consumer-initiated, brand-altering activity that we term “brand remixing.”

A content analysis of 92 remixes of the Nokia Lumia 820 smartphone case.

We find that nearly 40% of the remixed versions of Nokia’s case retained at least one element of its standard template. The remixed cases contained considerable congruency with the design elements in the standard template, a high degree of personalization, and no negative brand imagery.

Our research is the one of the first examinations of the role of 3D printing upon marketing activities. It has important implications for marketing scholarship by showing that 3D printing empowers consumers to physically alter the brands they consume. Our research also suggests that practitioners interested in using this technology to develop and enhance their brands should accept the notion that firms are no longer fully in control of their brand assets. Hence, we believe that brand managers should develop co-creation platforms that allow customers to easily modify, remix, and share various aspects of their brands with their peers.

We identify and label an important emerging branding practice (i.e., brand remixing). This practice has the potential to dramatically alter the branding landscape.

We stress the public demand for accountability of global brands and the rise in normative public brand evaluations in online networks. To gain an empirical and theoretical understanding of these phenomena, we introduce the notion of public brand auditing, which refers to public agents collectively contrasting brands against a multiplicity of shared understandings of what is worthy and good.

Convention theory serves as a theoretical lens to conceptualize public brand auditing, since it provides a normative framework of orders of worth based on which the appropriateness of actions are judged. Empirically, we conduct a netnographic study and illustrate public auditing strategies with online discussions about Google on the Slashdot platform.

We find that public brand auditing comprises two major auditing strategies: drawing leeways of acceptable brand conduct and allocating responsibilities.

Approaching public forms of normative brand judgments from a convention theory perspective allows researchers to better understand how the public holds brands accountable and evaluates brand conduct against higher-order principles.

The concept of public brand auditing helps managers to understand and approach the normative basis of both positive and negative brand judgments.

We urge brands to monitor public demand for accountability and emphasize the importance of the civic, market, and industrial orders of worth in guiding brand conduct.

This paper offers a conceptualization of and a framework for investigating public brand auditing phenomena.

Designing learning environments is increasingly about mediating between the interactions in real and virtual space of largely self-organising learning communities. Traditional ways of briefing designers are less and less proficient, as the demands made on space become less timetabled, more probabilistic. ‘learning landscapes’ ¹ are proposed in which clusters of activity can be seen to be taking place across a field, that activity can be browsed, audited and fully engaged with. Such organic flows of interest and concentration are hindered by traditional demarcated space models, and attempts to enable the flows through ‘flexible’ interlinking of rooms fail.

There is evidence ² that the organic interactions between learners grow exponentially when these learners are connected together as virtual communities in open, robust virtual platforms. But this works best when these interactions are grounded from time to time in real places. How can designers best provide spaces that support learning in real and virtual space? Should design teams be composed of people with skills in devising real and virtual space?

Increasingly the answer is ‘yes’, and this places strains on procurement processes. Built form can take a long time to deliver. So can virtual platforms take time to devise and make operable. Can these processes be aligned? The concepts for RMIT’s Design Hub, a physical design research platform, were developed through research conducted twelve years before the building was completed. Many of the gap years were taken up with establishing the financial basis for constructing the Hub. During this time the concepts were validated by testing with various potential user groups, and a further tranche of international investigations validated the level of innovation being sought. The process for RMIT’s Swanston Academic Building (SAB) was smoother and shorter, but it involved a year in which a ‘learning landscape’ concept was moulded through intensive work with user client focus groups.

Neither of these projects has a virtual doppelganger, though both have sophisticated and evolvable IT systems. The Hub embeds a process of curating research interaction and dissemination that is hampered by this fact. The mediated learning landscape of the SAB falls short of the originating concepts, – because space constraints did not allow for an undivided, flowing landscape. A well designed virtual counterpart could have provided what the insertion of walls has obscured. Should all future innovative learning and researching environments have a virtual counterpart from the outset?

There is an emerging trend for such paired environments in creative city thinking and in museums. Surely briefing and procuring real and virtual environments in tandem will enliven future space use in universities?

Penetration tests have become a valuable tool in the cyber security defence strategy in terms of detecting vulnerabilities. Although penetration testing has traditionally focussed on technical aspects, the field has started to realise the importance of the human in the organisation, and the need to ensure that humans are resistant to cyberattacks. To achieve this, some organisations “pentest” their employees, testing their resilience and ability to detect and repel human-targeted attacks. In a previous paper, the authors reported on PoinTER (Prepare TEst Remediate), a human pentesting framework, tailored to the needs of SMEs. This paper aims to propose improvements to refine the framework. The improvements are based on a derived set of ethical principles that have been subjected to ethical scrutiny

The authors conducted a systematic literature review of academic research, a review of actual hacker techniques, industry recommendations and official body advice related to social engineering techniques. To meet the requirements to have an ethical human pentesting framework, the authors compiled a list of ethical principles from the research literature which they used to filter out techniques deemed unethical.

Drawing on social engineering techniques from academic research, reported by the hacker community, industry recommendations and official body advice and subjecting each technique to ethical inspection, using a comprehensive list of ethical principles, the authors propose the refined GDPR-compliant and privacy respecting PoinTER framework. The list of ethical principles, as suggested, could also inform ethical technical pentests.

Previous work has considered penetration testing humans, but few have produced a comprehensive framework such as PoinTER. PoinTER has been rigorously derived from multiple sources and ethically scrutinised through inspection, using a comprehensive list of ethical principles derived from the research literature.

Social media has promoted anti-brand communities, which build around the shared aversion to a specific brand. The purpose of this paper is to investigate social media-based anti-brand communities and their effects on the sports team brand in question.

The authors conducted a netnographic study of Facebook-based anti-brand communities that oppose a professional football team.

The netnographic study reveals characteristics and drivers of Facebook-based anti-brand communities that oppose a professional football team. The research further identifies co-destructive behaviours of anti-brand community members that harm the sports team brand and even its sponsors. However, the findings also reveal that anti-brand communities may play a positive role in sport, as they strengthen the relationship between fans of the opposed brand and this brand and foster rivalry among football fans.

This research establishes the relevance of social media-based anti-brand communities for sports brands. Recommendations are made for team sport brands with regards to how to deal with the phenomenon of anti-brand communities.

While the previous research on anti-brand activism focused on either offline movements or movements using traditional websites, this research is the first to investigate the pivotal role of social networking sites for anti-brand activism. The paper further uncovers unique motivational, attitudinal, and behavioral patterns of fans that meet in communities opposing not only the rival team, but also the brand associated with the team. Findings show ways to better understand and deal with such anti-brand communities in sports.