To be successful in today’s globalized, increasingly digitalized and homogenized luxury business, small independent niche players need to show a great deal of creativity, flexibility and a good sense for the actual tastes and preferences of their globally dispersed clientele. By looking at innovative entrepreneurs and beyond the famous players in the global luxury market, this study – building upon and expanding earlier research of the authors – explores the main strategies enabling independent luxury niche companies to successfully position and effectively differentiate themselves from their larger and financially more powerful competitors. The study examines and further refines the strategy types identified in earlier research and further explores the business model configurations and the specific success factors of independent niche luxury players in a global market dominated by the ever-growing “luxury goliaths”.

• Fabio Duma(Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland)
• Maya Gadgil(Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland)