We have examined the antecedents of luxury consumption by conducting a thorough review of literature. Valid scale items for measuring psychological, personal, social, cultural antecedents of luxury consumption in India are proposed. Using Factor Analysis on a sample of 550 responses of the scale items, we have developed a valid questionnaire for Indian luxury consumers. The proposed questionnaire is relevant in context of the proposed model and luxury consumption in India. The proposed questionnaire achieves parsimony in terms of reducing the cardinality of the set of items from 141 to 55.

The value of luxury brand is always latently charged with elements of sacredness. Fashion expresses symbolic meaning that allows customers’ experience to be sacralized in many ways. Hence, customers’ necessity to express their existence is also possible thanks to luxury brand which is defined as exclusive and image-driven. Building on Georg Simmel’s sociological theory of equalization and differentiation behavior in fashion and René Girard’s mimetic theory of sacred, this paper investigates the sacredness in perception of luxury brands. Different customers stereotypes can be defined resulting in what we conceptualize as the sacred experience framework. Specifically, the authors identify three dimensions of the framework, namely the active and passive attitude, the personal and social motivation, and the idolatrous and realist perspective. The framework can be used for strategic positioning of luxury brand. The focus is on risks and threats related to idolatrous positioning of luxury brand and opportunities related to realist positioning. Luxury brand sustainability is possible by fostering the symbolic myth that reflects customer sacred experience. The aim of this paper is a formulation of a general theory of luxury, which to our best knowledge has not been well defined yet. Such a new theory of luxury requires that customers’ needs and motivations theories show how existential desire should be fueled also by sacredness.

This paper identifies the key antecedents and moderators with regard to brand attitude and purchase intention of luxury brands. The findings suggest that is a strong importance of status seeking, as well as informational influences towards consumer brand attitude of luxury brands for both subtle and prominent brands. In addition, the moderating results indicate that consumer need for subtle branding only moderated the relationship between informational influences and consumers band attitude for subtly branded luxury products.

Exhibitions are becoming a new important marketing tool in the fashion industry. Consumer’s interest in the haute couture and arts is increasing in parallel to the increase of the need of museums to attract visitors. While many fashion brands have been holding exhibitions, very few studies have investigated the effectiveness of exhibitions. This study aims to obtain practical implications which can be applied to further exhibition marketing processes. To this end, the main goals of this study are thus as follows: (1) to analyze the fashion exhibition cases by categories; and (2) to examine customer satisfaction by the fashion exhibition types and to determine how customer satisfaction affects the brand image. In order to classify the fashion exhibition types, a total of 160 cases held in the last five years in all over the world were collected and the range was set to the B2C fashion exhibition practices. For quantitative analysis of the customer recognition, the survey was distributed to total of 309 participants. Each of respondents evaluated three stimuli therefore the nine stimuli were respectively evaluated by 103 people. As a result of our analysis, nine types of fashion exhibitions were derived by two criteria, namely, (1) the main purpose of an exhibition and (2) the contents of an exhibition. Most fashion exhibitions are held with the goals of aesthetics, sociability, and remembrance. Exhibitions display various fashion products, such as apparel, shoes, bags, and jewellry, fashion photography, as well as various artistic media, such as video, drawings, and installation arts. The nine types of fashion exhibitions were used as a stimulus to quantitatively verify the effectiveness of fashion exhibitions. According to the results of the statistical analyses, customer satisfaction and brand image were significantly different in the fashion exhibition type but the exhibition type does not directly affect the brand image. This study provides a better understanding of the growing influence of factors on the fashion exhibitions and extends the limited research area by verifying the response of fashion exhibition visitors on the marketing level. Moreover, our results provide practical implications for fashion brands to establish successful exhibition marketing strategies.

Expensive handbags, in particular, luxury designer handbags are incredibly popular among fashionable women. This is why many fashion houses such as Chanel and Hermes offer handbags as another product line as part of their accessories category (Juggessur, 2011). Some retailers claim that owning a luxury designer handbag worth more than £1,000 can make financial sense to middle-class women, who may not spend as much on clothing, but view an expensive luxury designer handbag as an investment piece which can be used every day, adding a touch of glamour (Juggessur, 2011). The global handbag market encompasses exceedingly dynamic players and an expanding consumer base, which is expected to flourish due to increasing demand from emerging markets and strong performances by the international luxury brands (Digital Luxury Group, 2013). The top 10 markets for luxury handbags, collectively gathered over 120 million online searches, demonstrating substantial global demand for the world’s most covetable luxury items (Digital Luxury Group, 2013) (see Figure 1) . Figure 1: demand of luxury handbag globally (Digital Luxury Group, 2013) The country subjects are UK and Indonesia. Despite the fact that both of Indonesia and UK are reflected as positive luxury market (Digital Luxury Group, 2013; Euromonitor, 2014), both of the countries have differences which may lead to different motivation of luxury purchase. Indonesia is emerging market, while UK is a mature market. The rise of emerging market makes difference. Back then, individualist country is more refer to western developed countries, while collectivistic country is refer to eastern developing countries (Hofstede, 2011; Shukla, 2012). Nowadays, emerging countries are catching up with developed countries (Nielsen, 2013). Increasing exposure to global media and the depiction of western lifestyles in local media seem to have increased the desire for high-quality goods and services among consumers in emerging markets (Belk, 1999). With regards to luxury products and services, studying the consumption patterns in emerging markets is particularly important due to the phenomenal growth of luxury consumption among consumers in these markets (Shukla, 2012). For example, according to Bain and Company (2012), 85 per cent of all luxury stores will be opening in emerging markets over the coming decade. Moreover, recent studies highlight the significantly strong influence of the materialism trait with luxury consumption in emerging markets (Lertwannawit and Mandhachitara, 2011; Podoshen et al., 2011). As predicted by BCG (2010), in 2015, emerging-market cities will account for around 20 per cent which is $2.6 trillion of the total global consumption of clothing and house as a priority of future expenditures. The key consumer base for luxury goods has long since left Europe, moving West to the United States, but also East to the Gulf States and Asia, and South to Latin America, particularly Brazil (Business of Fashion, 2014). Luxury companies are no longer focusing for mature market. However, luxury goods enable consumers to satisfy their material as well as socio-psychological needs to a greater degree than regular goods (Vigneron and Johnson, 2004; Wiedmann et al., 2009). Luxury brands are one of the most profitable and fastest-growing brand segments, yet at the same time, the social influences associated with luxury brands are poorly understood and under investigated (Shukla, 2010; Wiedmann et al., 2009; Tynan et al., 2010). Increasing exposure to global media and the depiction of western lifestyles in local media seem to have increased the desire for high-quality goods and services among consumers in emerging markets (Belk, 1999). With regards to luxury products and services, studying the consumption patterns in emerging markets is particularly important due to the phenomenal growth of luxury consumption among consumers in these markets (Shukla, 2012). From those passages, it can be inferred that emerging market countries are the targets of luxury brand companies to invest in the market. Culture is changing: The rise of Emerging Market As previously discussed in the second chapter, when the political, societal, and economic environments change, people's cultural values also change. Thus, many cultural theories should be updated and re-evaluated periodically. Hence, Wu (2006) said that Individualistic vs. Collectivistic Dimension theory is no longer applicable. Additionally Saiq et al. (2014) said that Hofstede’s Individualistic Dimension work is too old and can’t be effectively implemented in the era of rapidly changing environment, convergence and globalization. The arguments by Wu (2006) and Saiq et al. (2013) is supporting Bian and Forsythe (2012) which argue that culture is changing as a consequence of the increasingly global economy especially in emerging market, converging in the direction of greater individualism. As a result, collectivist societies might adopt some individualistic elements, but this would not change their societal identity or their social label as a collective society (Bian and Forsythe, 2012). The contrasts between few contemporary studies of luxury value perception in Individualistic vs. Collectivistic Country (Bian Forsythe; 2012, Li et al, 2012; Shukla and Purani, 2012) (see Table 1) are leading to confusion in understanding value perception on luxury purchase between individualistic country vs. collectivistic country. For an instance, according to Li et al. (2012), a collectivistic country (China) has high consideration of functional value dimension for luxury purchase, but according to Shukla and Purani (2012), a collectivistic country (India) has low consideration of functional value perception for luxury purchase. Another example, according to Bian and Forsythe (2012), an individualistic county (US) consider high personal and social value dimension for luxury purchase, but according to Shukla and Purani (2012), individualistic country (UK) consider low personal and social value dimension on the luxury purchase. The study results were supporting a statement of Shukla (2012) that culture is not static and it keeps changing Table 1: The contrast between study results about value perception across culture Impact on the Future Brand Strategy Consumer value plays as critical role at the heart of all marketing movement and hence undoubtedly deserves attention of every consumer scholars (Holbrook, 1999) especially, in the next decade, customer is predicted as the key orientation of luxury business (BCG Report, 2014) (see Figure 2). The current crisis in luxury marketing area is encouraging companies to look more deeply into the links between consumers and luxury brands (Godey et al., 2013). Consumption of luxury products is based on two main reasons: the purchase for one’s self, for pleasure and purchase as a symbol of success (Godey et al., 2013). Nevertheless, whatever the perspective chosen, the brand remains the main vehicle for connecting with the consumer (Godey et al., 2013).To understand the right brand strategy, the purpose of this study is to identify the constructs of perceived peer communication in social media activities of luxury fashion brands, and to evaluate the influence of those activities on purchase intention in the UK and Indonesia. This research will propose a strategy to enhance brands' performance by defining specific factors relating to purchase intention. Moreover, the findings will enable luxury brands to forecast customer purchasing behaviour. The full conceptual model of this study can be found on Figure 2. Figure 2: The conceptual model of the study Methodology Steenkamp and Baumgartner (1998) suggest using a structural equation modelling approach for cross-culture study. SEM analysis has been successfully applied by many scholars to measure luxury value perception (Bian & Forysthe, 2012; Shukla, 2012; Casidy, 2012; Monkhouse et al., 2013; Hennigs et al., 2013). The structural equation design of this study is illustrated on Figure 3. The method of self-completion questionnaire allows for a greater geographical coverage than face-to-face interviews without incurring the additional costs of time and travel and they are particularly useful when carrying out research with geographically dispersed populations (Seale, 2012). Self-completed questionnaires were distributed to thirty students with snowball sampling by online survey to each country (UK and Indonesia) and twenty valid samples were utilised from each country. Criterion sampling strategy reviews all cases that meet predetermined criteria (Patton, 2002). Both criterion and snowball sampling techniques were components of a purposeful sampling strategy designed to identify participants with this criteria: A. Originally from and live in Indonesia or originally from and live in the UK. B. Having experience in purchasing at least one of luxury handbag. Figure 3: The structural equation design of the study Result There are significant differences of value perception on luxury handbag between Indonesian consumers and UK consumers. Indonesian consumers are highly influenced by Social Value Perception while British consumers are less influenced by Social Value Perception when buying luxury handbags. British luxury handbag consumers are more focusing on the Functional Value Perception which is not much considered by Indonesian consumers. However, consumers from both countries are highly influenced by Personal Value Perception.

Our research focused on the development of a conceptual model of the turnover intention of part-time sales associates working in apparel retailing to enhance understanding of the issue and thus, provide information to apparel retailers to curtail the loss of human resources. The model consists of input variables and outcomes. Input variables were personal characteristics, work engagement, and work effort. Outcome variables were job performance, job satisfaction, burnout, and employee turnover. A convenience sample of 294 part-time workers completed an online questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses regarding antecedents to turnover intention. This study revealed that self-efficacy and work competencies indirectly influenced intention to turnover because they influenced work engagement, which in turn positively affected work effort. Work effort and work engagement directly influenced job performance, which in turn impacted job satisfaction. The data also indicated a negative relationship between job satisfaction and burnout. Burnout had a direct influence on turnover intention. As a research limitation, our data came from a purposive sample. A random sample of part-time associates is needed to generalize findings. This study provides numerous implications for future research with regard to additional variables impacting work effort, work engagement, job satisfaction, and turnover intention.

The information technology has affected many aspects of retail world as in other areas of human life. This makes understanding consumers’ acceptance and usage of such technological innovations a critical task for both retail businesses and scholars alike. The technology acceptance model (TAM; Davis 1989) is one of the most widely adopted theoretical frameworks for explaining and predicting consumers’ acceptance of technology. Implementing the meta-analysis method, this study aimed at testing the validity of TAM for understanding consumers’ attitudes and behaviors toward the various technologies adopted in fashion retail stores and online commerce sites. Specifically, the effect sizes of two TAM antecedents of perceived usefulness (PU) and ease of use (PEOU) were estimated and compared. Moderating factors that affect the effect sizes of PU and PEOU on attitudes and behaviors were also explored. A meta-analytical SEM methodology was expected to deliver more thorough and valid test of the model than single sample studies, because accumulation of multiple samples through meta-analysis would bolster the test's statistical power (Hom et al., 1992). A sample of studies on consumers’ acceptance of retail technology in fashion retail context that adopted the TAM model were collected through a systematic search through the databases such as EBSCO, Google Scholars, and Dissertation Abstracts. Efforts were made to include unpublished studies to avoid publication bias. A total of 31 published and unpublished research reports that allowed the calculation of effect sizes of the key paths in the model were included in the final analysis. The effect sizes were calculated out of the identified samples, and the homogeneities of the effect sizes were tested using comprehensive meta-analysis software. The types of technology, product type (apparel vs. general merchandise), subject characteristics (gender; country; student vs. general), and study setting (actual experience vs. simulated situation) were considered as moderators to explain for the variances in correlations among variables. Finally, a meta-SEM model was tested on the aggregated data using AMOS.

Today, mobile advertising is an important tool as interactive communication has a great potential to promote market sales. This study is to examine the effect of price perception on behavioral intention to use mobile phone-based promotions, and compare the differences in choice heuristics between levels of the intention to use mobile promotions. Multi-item scales for price perception, choice heuristics and mobile-based promotions were either developed in our qualitative study or adopted from existing scales in literatures (Lichtenstein, et al., 1993; Bettman & Park, 1980). Based on behavioral intention to use, mobile promotions were classified into three types, such as sales promotion, reward program and brand ads. All items were measured on a seven point rating scale (1=very unlikely, 7=very likely). A pilot study was conducted in which 97 female consumers who had ever redeemed mobile promotions for purchasing fashion products. Respondents were aged from 18 to 35 years (average age=23.6 years). Factor analysis revealed that price perception extracted three factors, such as price consciousness (items =4, Cronbach’s α=.90), coupon proneness (items =5, Cronbach’s α=.89), and sales proneness (items =4, Cronbach’s α=.89). Regression analysis was used to examine the effect of the price perceptional factors on use intentions for mobile promotions. For sales promotion, price consciousness (β=.27, p<.01) and coupon proneness had significant effects on intention to redeem for sales or coupon (F=13.59, p<.001, Adjusted R2=.29); price consciousness (β=.22, p<.05) and coupon proneness (β=.36, p<.01) significantly affected behavioral intention to participate in reward program (e.g., QR code events, point mileage, free gift, etc.) (F=10.34, p<.001, Adjusted R2=.23); and intention to use brand ads was significantly affected by sales proneness (β=.26, p<.05) and price consciousness (β=.24, p<.05; F=9.18, p<.001, Adjusted R2=.21). For purchasing in mobile context, consumer choice heuristic was consisted of five rules: compensatory, lexicographic, price-based conjunctive, affect-referral heuristic and sequent elimination in the mobile context. It is found that consumer choice rule was differed by intention to use mobile promotions. There was a significant difference in lexicographic (MLow=3.89, MHigh=4.63, t=-3.54, p<.01), price-based conjunctive (MLow=3.64, MHigh=4.13, t=-2.12, p<.05), and affect-referral heuristic (MLow=3.31, MHigh=4.02, t=-2.95, p<.01) between high and low levels of use intention for redemption for sales or coupon; for reward program, there was significant difference in price-based conjunctive (MLow=3.45, MHigh=4.27, t=-3.72, p<.001) or sequent elimination (MLow=4.39, MHigh=5.00, t=-2.13, p<.05) between the high and low levels of use intention. Also, there was a significant difference in price-based conjunctive rule between high and low levels of use intention for brand ads (MLow=3.49, MHigh=4.30, t=-3.76, p<.001). The findings extended a consumer choice model under mobile promotional stimuli and discussed a managerial implication to build effective promotional strategy in the context of mobile commerce..

The more the marketplace become competitive, the more clear and distinct market segments the marketers need to identify. A minority of consumers takes important roles in the marketplace as market influencers or diffusers of information to others, for instance, market maven or opinion leaders. Market mavens tend to have overall market-related knowledge, while opinion leader and fashion leader possess product class-specific information. Fashion leaders are more likely to adopt a product at the early stage, but opinion leaders or market mavens are not necessary. Despite significant roles as reference groups, limited research has examined the differences in the essential traits of three influential groups. The purpose of this research is to examine and compare the differences of psychological attributes in market maven, opinion leaders, and fashion leaders with respect to consumer self-confidence, clothing involvement(INV), status consumption(STATUS), and price consciousness(PRICE). The instrument was modified based on the previous studies(Bearden, et al., 2001; Clark & Goldsmith, 2005; Feick& Price, 1987;Goldsmith, et al., 1991) and each item was measured by seven-point Liker type scales. A total of 857 data were collected through the internet survey method. About 50.3% of respondents were female, 39.2% were single, and age ranged from 20 to 59 years old. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed the differences of the measurement in three influential groups, explaining 70.76% of variances. Consumer self-confidence was generated into five factors, information acquisition & consideration-set formation (IA&CF), personal outcomes(PO), social outcomes (SO), persuasion knowledge(PKN), and marketplace interfaces(MI). Cronbach's alpha was ranged between .78 and .93. In order to investigate the effects of psychological attributes on three influential groups, five factors of self-confidence (IA&CF, PO, SO, PKN, and MI), INV, STATUS, and PRICE were entered as the independent variables in the regression model respectively. In explaining market maven, IA&CF(β=.37) and SO(β=.35) showed the strong positive effects, and STATUS, PKN(-), MI(-), and PRICE were also significant in order (F=107, adj. R2=.498). Opinion leaders were significantly related with SO(β=.84), and PO, INV, and PRICE presented the minor effects(F=496.2, adj. R2=.822). SO(β=.38), STATUS(β=.37), INV(β=.34), and PKN were significant predictors for fashion leaders (F=289.3, adj. R2=.729). When analyzing the influence of market maven, opinion leader, and fashion leader on buying behaviors, market maven and fashion leaders were significantly, positively related with impulse buying behavior (F=69.28, adj. R2=.193), and overall satisfaction(F=38.21, adj. R2=.115). The implications were discussed.

The global marketplace is changing and retailers must decide on unique positioning strategies to attract consumers away from the competition. Socioeconomic changes are shifting consumer shopping patterns. Technology development drastically affected retail environment and consumers shopping behavior. While traditional retailers provide consumers to touch and feel merchandise and provide instant gratification, online retailers, meanwhile impress shoppers with wide selection, low prices and other consumers ratings and reviews. As the retailing industry move toward an omnichannel retailing experience, there are no exact distinction between traditional offline and online stores. Under the circumstances, retailers pursue an integrated sales experience that melds the advantages of physical stores with the information-rich experience of online shopping. In order to develop effective marketing strategy, retailers need adapting best practices from both the offline and online worlds in areas including developing products, pricing, designing the shopping experience and building relationships with customers (Brynjolfsson, Hu & Rahman, 2013). In order to do this, the first step is to understand the consumers who DO shopping in stores and “redesign shopping from scratch (Rigby, 2011): Why do they visit the stores? What do they expect from the stores? What does make their shopping experience special? What does shopping mean to consumers? The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding and conceptualizing of consumer’s perspective on shopping at this era of omnichannel retailing. Given the exploratory nature of the research, a qualitative research methodology was necessary because it is useful in gaining insights from consumers’ own perspectives (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994). The photo elicitation interview method was used for this research. This method allows the research discussion to start with real places and real experiences and visual data are useful for envisioning and speaking about possible, desired futures (Dumreucher & Kolb, 2008). For this research, we invite 20 college students to answer a research question by taking photos and explaining their photos to the researcher in the interview session. We used Dempsey and Tucker (1994)’s five step protocol for photo-interviewing. The five steps include: sourcing photographs, selecting specific photographs, preparing the interview schedule, conducting the interviews, and analyzing textual data. In order to collect sourcing photographs, we asked participants to consider the general research questions (e.g., what does shopping mean to you? What does come across your mind when you read “shopping”?) and how to take photos that reflect their view point on the research questions. Then, participants implemented their reflections by taking 30 photos of specific subjects in their surroundings (e.g., people, places, activities, or buildings) that related to the research questions and are meaningful to them during the next 2 weeks. In the selecting photographs step, photos were grouped in categories. In the interview, participants consider their photos and verbalize their thinking. In the final step, the data—photos, and interview transcripts-were analyzed (Dempsey & Tucker, 1994; Kolb, 2008) and core categories have emerged which have then been refined. The findings suggest that Korean young consumer’s concept of shopping were sorted into six categories: 1) considering various channels to shop (e.g., department store, outlet store, online store, mobile stores, offshore direct buying), 2) thinking of fashion items (e.g., clothing, shoes, cosmetics, accessories), 3) searching for promotional activities (e.g., sales, markdowns, special events, online coupons), 4) browsing and comparing attributes through online stores, 5) releasing stress/changing mood, 6) socializing with others, and 7) getting stress from shopping. Gaining a better understanding of the smart shopper will enable retailers to more accurately target this consumer group. Although various retail channels were the most photographed and mentioned in this study, department stores and mobile stores (using smartphone) were the most mentioned and photographed. Participants also mentioned browsing and comparison shopping through online stores as “pre-shopping activity.” Another area is hedonic aspect of shopping: one of the major meanings of shopping found in this study is releasing stress or changing mood. Some also mentioned that although they do shopping in order to release their stress, sometimes shopping leads to another type of stress. There are also few participants who suggested shopping is a stressful work to do. By the photo elicitation interview, this study illustrates that shopping embrace a multi-dimension of meanings and provides insights to improve our understanding of young Korean consumers’ concept of shopping. The photograph aided in the visual and emotional memory of the experience as a memory anchor as they recalled the places or moments, and using photographs in the research enabled the research to proceed to a deeper understanding and meaning

Tablets and the omnipresent mobile environment create opportunities and challenges for m-commerce (mobile commerce) vendors, seeking to increase their profits. Understanding factors that affect that consumer behavior, positively and negatively, in tablets is essential for vendors in order to provide a fruitful m-commerce customer experience. The objective of this paper is to facilitate the understanding of consumers’ perceptions and behavior in m-commerce and social media on tablets and explore the potential of tablets for m-commerce purposes. The paper reports the findings of two exploratory research studies on wine and luxury goods. The first study examines consumer perceptions of the use of tablets and social media, in the context of m-commerce of wine. The second study relates to selling of luxury goods through the Internet. The results of our qualitative analysis show that user experience and design aspects, such as ease-of-use, are important factors for tablet adoption and use for m-commerce and social media. Adapting web content to tablets is, therefore, critical to enable effective m-commerce on this popular device. Business opportunities enabled by tablets and social media in m-commerce and how these can be leveraged in the wine and the wider luxury goods context are discussed.

Greece wine production has shown swinging trends: in 2013 it grew by 17,9% reaching 3.7 Million Hectoliters (USDA), but it 2014 it decreased by 15% (Greek Wine Federation), whilst grape prices went up. Greece has a huge potential, but it is still a small producer in Europe. The Greek wine industry got through several phases: before the 80s the product was quite “poor”, but with the entrance in the market of some educated winemakers who have introduced a new business philosophy and approach to wine, production has changed (GaiaWines.gr). The population of firms consist of a few larger producers, and most of the companies are relatively small. Although the quality has been improved, most of the production is addressed to the domestic market, since only few producers have established export networks (Vlachvei et al., 2012). Thus, the economic crisis that affected Greece has created difficulties also for domestic sales. Background research has outlines some of the limits of the Greek wine industry: according to Vlachvei et al. (2012),the new competitive challenges require owner and managers to achieve a better understanding of operational and marketing process that can contribute to the development of their brand in order to develop an integrated marketing communication approach. The Greek wine sector is extremely fragmented with a high predominance of small size firms; as size increases, the degree of professional organization grows, as well as the relative presence of foreign markets (Papalexiou, 2009). Thus, it has been recognized that Greek wine export is disorganized (Baiocchi, 2011; Papalexiou, 2009). The limits imposed by UE to plantings have affected Greece growth strategy: Greece is still a small producer and although it shows similarities with the south of Italy, it is impossible to think to follow the “Italian Style” (Baiocchi, 2011). Thus the urgency of undertaking a propter model for the development of the industry is seen as a priority for the Greek wine system. Wineries have seen in related businesses an effective tool for improving the competitiveness of the wine industry (Papalexiou, 2009); a lot has been done for achieving an integration between wine tourism and the wine business. Background research describes the experiments undertaken around wine routes, conceived as a useful tool for improving the wine sector (Hall & Mitchell, 2000) and for the development of rural areas (Karafolas, 2007). In 2014 the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission has undertaken a Smart Specialization pilot project that involves rural areas in Northern Greece, in order to foster local economic development by adopting an entrepreneurial discovery approach (EDP). JRC can be considered as a source of technology generation and a service that provides expert advice to the institutions of the European Union and more specifically to the European Commission and the European Parliament (Moncada-Paterno`-Castello, 2003). It can be guessed how JRC outcomes could impact citizens’ lives. From September 2014 for 15 months JRC has been involved in the European Parliament Preparatory Action; the aims of this project are: to facilitate the refinement and implementation of the RIS3 strategy in a region heavily hit by the crisis; and to serve as a model for other convergence regions in Greece and Europe (from JRC website). The project has seen the collaboration of JRC – IPTS (Institute for Prospective Technological Studies) with DG Regio and the Managing Authority of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. The wine sector has been selected, together with few others for the preparatory action. The approach that has been adopted was the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process (EDP), in order to allocate resources under the guide of entrepreneurial actors, from the public and private sector. EDP is “a process in which the entrepreneurial actors are discovering and producing information about new business and innovation activities and the government is collecting, assessing and transforming this knowledge into policy action” (http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/s3-governance).EDP plays a leading role in the Smart Specialization Strategy (S3): EDP suggests that the allocation of resources is the result of a process undertaken by entrepreneurial actors. It emerges how innovative this process is, if compared to past industrial policies. EDP contributed to minimise failures of market innovation. The Smart Specialisation perspective let entrepreneurs discovering the right domains of future specializations (Foray, 2012). A newer approach to regional competitiveness (Ketels, 2013) has been followed by European Commission, that, in order to promote an efficient and effective public funding policy in regional economic development (Mempel-Śnieżyk, 2013), has actively supported Smart Specialisation Initiatives. On the other side, S3 has a prior role in the EU Regional and Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 (Martínez-López & Palazuelos-Martínez, 2014). This paper examines the role that EDP and S3 have had in the definition of a strategy for the development of the local wine industry. The paper aims to answering to the following research questions: What are the elements seen as priorities from entrepreneurs for developing the local wine industry in Greece? Is there an overlapping between the findings emerging from JRC workshops and those that have been pointed out by relevant opinion makers and experts in the Greek wine industry? What about the effectiveness of EDP in wine? The paper is structured as follows: In the first part a description of the Greek wine industry will be carried out; in a second section authors will point out JRC’s EDP approach; thirdly an analysis of data collected from JRC sessions and from interviews with international experts in Greece will be performed. 9 experts that took part to the workshop will be interviewed. Data will be collected through telephone interviews and web based survey; once collected data will be analyzed through a text analysis. A literature review on EDP and theoretical issues that have inspired the organization of JRC sessions will be presented in order to support Research Questions. The papers ends up with a discussion and conclusions in order to provide inputs for professionals, and policy makers.

For many brands, offering valuable and original experiences for customers is the main means of gaining awareness, image values and hence, strategic competitive advantage. Brands like Abercrombie and Fitch, BONOBOS and Victoria’s Secret have understood the opportunities offered by experiential marketing as a new philosophy of thinking, conceiving and proposing a marketing offer. This challenge is as important for online fashion brands that target millennial customers considered as internet addicts (Bergman et al., 2005) always looking for information, exhibitionism and enjoyable online experiences. With the growth of online fashion shopping it is important that fashion retailers pay attention to the relationship between specific website quality dimensions and customer satisfaction (Kim and Stoel, 2004). Fashion brands must go beyond the vision of the website as a medium of information to a medium of entertaining proposing additional extraordinary and optimal experiences for these customers. As noted by Kim (2007), online fashion retailers need to be able to communicate the product information virtually in order to create accurate product perceptions for consumers who are visiting their website. Thus, the main question is “what are the elements of the website which could help achieve these aims?” There has been little empirical research which focuses on how information features affect consumers` commitments to a shopping site on the web (Park and Kim, 2006). Consequently,the main aim of this paper is to further research in the domain by illustrating how the online fashion brand provides a valuable shopping, consuming and cognitive experience that fits with the consumer’s expectations aligning these with the extraordinary and symbolic world of the brand. From this perspective, the website of the brand – due to its multisensory, interactive and hyper-mediatized nature – can be a very effective digital support for achieving these goals. It represents the virtual environment that enables the brand to create and open up a universe that transcribes its functional, experiential and symbolic values. From the consumer’s psychological perspective, this online communication strategy questions the psychological process that underlines the perception, elaboration and reactions of the consumer during his online experience: To this is end, it is relevant to focus on the influences of the usability of the website on the attributes of the mental images the consumer experiences and the moderating role that brand attitude and involvement in the product category could have in this. Also, based on MacInnis and Price (1987) recommendations, it is relevant to analyze the role the consumer’s style of processing could have in this process. Thus, the research questions are: How do the attributes of the website impact the mental imagery experience of the consumer during his/her website visit?; and what are the consequences of these psychological reactions on the consumer’s post-visit attitude and behavior. In attempt to respond to these questions, we explore the psychological process that underlies consumer online behavior. We draw on the literature which emphasizes the link between the website attributes and the imagery processing of the online consumer. We present and empirically test our conceptual model within the current quantitative study. We follow with a discussion of our results and presentation of the implications of our study for theory and practice.

The prices of premium brands of Single Malt Whisky have risen during the last years and the demand as well. The objective of this research is to check if a trading-up phenomenon can be observed within the industry and in which circumstances the clients are willing to pay more for premium brands of Single Malt Scotch Whisky given (1) situation of purchase (for yourself; for the birthday of a good friend; for a nice dinner to share with friends; for a present for your boss; for a party with friends who are non-connoisseurs); (2) distribution channels used to sell those premium brands (duty-free; Specialty Store and Super-market); (3) socio-demographics variable; (4) level of expertise and (5) for specific whisky attributes (among 14). The main results show that a consumer is willing to pay a higher price premium for his boss than for his friends. Attributes used to select whiskies are not the same depending the channels. In a specialty store, the premium factors the industry should develop to charge price premium are the cask number, bottling by independent or for commemorative event and bottles coming from closed distilleries whereas in duty-free, independent bottling, vintage and cask's origin and bottling for a specific country are key attributes. For Supermarket, private label is a way to charge higher price. Level of alcohol should not be too high. Level of expertise is strangely not influencing the willingness-to-pay price premium.

The aim of this paper is to apply of Quality Function Deployment for redesigning on fashion product. Quality Function Deployment is a useful tool in product development with the application of voice of customer. The findings could helps in redesigning Malaysia Batik sarong to be a better in design quality. According to Legino, 2012 and Yunus, 2013, local Batik producers in Malaysia are still producing batik sarong with printing or stamping method and freehand stylus batik using canting. This research will focus on the Batik sarong which locally produced in Kelantan and Terengganu states in Malaysia. Ismail et al. (2013) stated the batik designing activities frequency could boost up the sales performance of Small Medium Enterprises in Peninsular Malaysia. As in a Batik sarong tradition production, all the design specifications are from the ideas and creativity of the designer or the Batik producer (Yunus, 2013). The first objective of this research is to utilise the application of Voice of Customer in redesigning cultural fashion product. The customers’ feedback or known as the term ‘Voice of Customer’ could help the manufacturer to better the product before the following production. This Voice of Customer could offer a specific detailing for quality which needs to be redesigned in a product. Meanwhile, the second objective is to distinguish design specifications and characteristics using House of Quality. In product designing phase, it is crucial to identify each specification and characteristic which translated from Voice of Customer to the House of Quality matrix. This matrix would help designers to design according to qualities that customer wants for a better and successful product in a market. Quality Function Deployment is has been used in automotive industries in the decades back but now other industries are applying it as well. Golshan et al. (2012) studied on using Quality Function Deployment to detect important items influencing clothing industry in Iran focusing in men’s shirt. Meanwhile, Huang and Tan (2007) research was on how to characterise various key factors affecting apparel design and product quality. Ng and Wang (2007) explored further benefits of research collaboration between an innovative clothing-making technology and an effective design management instrument, Quality Function Deployment toward integrated products design development. Waisarayutt and Siritaweechai (2006) study about the potential of using Quality Function Deployment as a tool for product development, the communication transferred between marketing to research and development to prove Quality Function Deployment efficiency in producing sports bra in Thailand. The input that could be concluded in these researches is Quality Function Deployment could be applied to fashion product. It really helps to identify and managing a proper production process with specific technical aspects. But the challenge would be the cost and time constraint to test the results into production. The scope of this research would be limited on the Malaysia Batik sarong and the samples taken on Malaysian women consumers only. As a pilot test, a structured survey was executed with targeted sampling total the minimum of 10 and the maximum of 30 participants. It would be suffice to have the data from 10 to 30 participants to build the House of Quality model (Griffin and Hauser, 1993). The expertise opinion for matrices validation would be from the Malaysian expertise in fashion design with Malay Batik sarong knowledge. It is hope this research would indicate the customers’ requirements and production team idea could be measured and translated to a systematic data. It could be a detailed and specific technical requirement could be planned earlier before it is actually being produced. This could be a sustainable approach for a traditional product which could control the material that they use and sustain the quality as the past production. This research would help the Small Medium Enterprises design team or the designers to design a product from customers’ view and plan well. This research finding also could assist designers or batik producers to understand the consumers’ requirements in Batik sarong. The Small Medium Enterprises also could plan their sarong product using the identified specifications in the research as a starting point of research and development plan in sales and marketing strategy.

The fashion supply chain, even if represents one of the most important economies of the European industry, is one of the most polluting industries in the world, being a huge consumer of water, electricity and chemicals, and discharging massive quantities of wastes to land. Despite this fact, only few contributions have offered an analysis of the practices adopted by fashion companies to reduce its environmental impact. This paper present an empirical study on the sustainability practices adoption of Italian companies in the fashion Clothing, Leather industries. The research has been conducted through an online survey submitted to a sample of 192 Italian companies, having respectively the 14 and 15 ATECO 2007 code in the AIDA database, with a response rate of 13%. The results have been analyzed through the statistical software SPSS, in order to conduct a cluster analysis and 6 different clusters have been identified. Companies belong to cluster 1 do not apply any sustainability practices, even if they are coherent with what they declare on their website. Companies of cluster 2 adopt some practices, but sustainability is not integrated into their culture. Cluster 3 is composed by companies that declare a high interest to the environment, mainly for marketing reason. This way, companies of this group represent the ones more misaligned and not consistent from the practices declared on their website and the one really implemented. Cluster 5 is composed by companies endorsing environmental sustainability as a part of the company values and a high level of practices implemented is reported. Last, companies belonging to Cluster 6 have the environmental sustainability as a strategic objective and implements sustainability practices in a consistent and coordinated way.

Reflecting the phenomenon of the growing importance of sustainable consumption in achieving sustainable development, this study argues that luxury fashion brands can promote consumers to make sustainable consumption, by encouraging consumers to choose timeless style over seasonable fashion and long-lasting quality over excessive quantity, and thereby buy less and wear the product for long, having a socially and environmentally friendly influence to the planet. In addition to the leading role that luxury fashion brands play in consumers’ sustainable consumption, this study draws on the Coping Theory to explain how consumer guilt plays an important role in promoting consumers’ sustainable behavior (i.e., sustainable divestment intention). To achieve the aim of this study, we will collect 400 valid responses from consumer panelists of a commercial online survey company. Further, this study will analyze the data by adopting structural equation modeling (SEM) via AMOS 22.

Attitude and ability of frontline employees in customer interaction influence company reputation. Since respective theory is scarce, this paper – based on a qualitative interview study – presents an examination of the status quo of the topic in luxury watch retail. Theories of service quality, identity and impression management are briefly addressed.