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Majority of distribution companies are flourishing thanks to distribution channels that shepherd product from a manufacturer & eventually direct them to the consumers through a chain of legitimate distributors across the world. But a mounting & quite detrimental market subsists that can cause ignorant customers to buy technology products with untrue warranties, several designed for use in other countries - or worse products consisting counterfeit parts. These practices can erode customer satisfaction & harm brand integrity, causing major profit attrition for manufacturers'.

Welcome to the global ‘Grey Market' where branded products have been sidetracked from the authorised supply channel within a country or are imported into a country without the approval or awareness of the manufacturer. Grey market goods are usually sold at lesser prices than those proposed by the legitimate distributors. And the pricing disparity amongst various legitimate markets & customers generates an opportunity for the brokers' to procure labelled products at discounted prices & move them to markets where they can fetch high income.

A research study by KMPG demonstrates that grey market goods pose a grave challenge to information technology manufacturers' & their authorised dealers'. The study reveals that IT manufacturers' are communally losing up to US$5 billion in profits on yearly basis, a figure that is mounting. While the grey market affects many businesses, including automobiles, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, fashion accessories & others, this study shall validate that computers & related products are the industry segments most affected by grey market actions.

1.4 INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM

(a) Software Counterfeiting

Counterfeiting is amongst the most exigent problem facing the information technology (IT) industry today. Illegal replicas of brand-name & high tech products are flooding the marketplace, causing harm to legitimate companies' profits and dropping their aptitude to invest in research and development (R&D). Multiplication of technology employed to make computers, servers, and a host of high tech products—as well as a lack of regulatory enforcement in developing countries—is speeding up counterfeiting. It is now estimated that as much as 10 percent of all high tech products sold globally are counterfeit.

(b) Free Riding: A Way To Penetrate Markets?

‘Free Riding' is a term which comes into picture when software products have been counterfeited. Free-riding was first introduced by Tan et al. (1995, 1997) as an alternative explanation for the incidence of grey marketing, whereby grey entrepreneurs are provided with the opportunity to enter money-making markets that are presently supplied by big firms.

However, hostile measures have been taken to prevent grey market activities by agencies like AGMA & BSA as well as biggies like Microsoft, HP etc. HP is a本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。