The purpose of this study is to reveal differences towards conspicuous consumption of the hard-hit by the recession Greeks and foreign consumers. For the purposes of this research a survey was carried out in Greece. Tandem cluster analysis was performed in order to separate consumers based on their conspicuous consumption patterns and tendencies. The analysis resulted in a three cluster solution and deduced that the recession-hit Greeks buy branded luxury goods, as hypothesized and expected.

Small, independent and privately owned luxury companies face a number of challenges in today’s globalized and increasingly digitalized luxury market dominated by big luxury groups. However, the Internet and Social Media also create new opportunities. They enable luxury brands with limited resources to reach out to an international clientele and build brand awareness. Moreover, new channels and platforms allow for multifaceted storytelling, interactive communication with customers and data analysis for quick and continuous learning and improvement of strategies. While many luxury brands have long struggled in the digital sphere, which in many cases represents the exact opposite (e.g. openness, accessibility, dynamic change, etc.) of what luxury stands (or stood) for, a growing number of young and daring luxury brands with no legacy and heritage, embraces digital technology as an important, if not vital part of their business model from day one. Given the often high investment needed to start and sustain a company in the luxury segment, “born digital” luxury start-ups need to show a great deal of creativity, pragmatism, flexibility and a good sense for the actual tastes and preferences of their globally dispersed target group in order to be successful and cut out their share of the market in due time and despite fierce competition. By analyzing the case of VAULT, a Swiss luxury watch brand founded in 2014, the present study explores the main challenges of the young luxury brand with regards to positioning, communication, distribution and business development and the role of the Internet and Social Media for the company’s success. By deriving recommendations for similar brands, the study aims at a practical, but also a theoretical contribution.

The role of top managers in firm’s performance is central to strategic management. Trying to identify factors that influence company’s strategy and innovations this study adopts resource-based theory (RBT) and upper echelon theory (UET) and apply them to the Swiss luxury watchmaking companies. This paper presents results of qualitative and quantitative research based on interviews with CEO and Marketing managers among Swiss luxury watchmaking industry. We present a set of conclusions of the connection between top executive’s background and their strategic choices and innovation strategy in Swiss luxury watchmaking industry.

This paper focuses on luxury retail fashion trend imitation. Study 1 explores the effects of firm evaluations between luxury and masstige firms and in the context of imitation. Study 2 examines participant reactions to varied levels of imitation similarity and the effects of imitation on the trend originator.

This study explores how the fashion and product designers of luxury and premium brands envision the direction of product innovation. The findings include valuable support for the luxury brand strategy of moving towards innovation in sustainability, customization, and developing the new concepts of rarity of experience and luxury sports products.

When social media users post their opinion on social media, they might expect to receive a favorable evaluation from others (e.g., ‘like’ on Facebook and ‘heart’ on Instagram). On the contrary, when users read and evaluate other’s posts, they are less likely to care about others. What’s more, if users spend more time on social media, posting would make them more care about others. This research answers the question ‘Does social media interaction alter the way we perceive value and affect different choice? Three studies show 1) how social media interaction affects consumers’ luxury value perception and the mediating role of social media self-view (interdependent vs. independent self), 2) how main effect and mediated relationship are different between two groups divided by participants’ time spent on social media (high vs. low: ±1 SD) and 3) how the type of social media interaction (post vs. “like”) affects handbag choice between social and functional luxury-superior option.

Influencer marketing for the past decade has proven to have a powerful voice for brands in the age of digital marketing. The role of influencer(s) continues to have the ability to motivate social attitudes and behavior within their online community towards the brand(s) endorsed by the influencer. The communities built by these social media influencers continue to gain social acceptance with their authentic voices and aspirational content. There has been much research on the effectiveness of social media influencers for brands the past decade, and in this research, we will look towards virtual influencers (VIs), which are not human but are digital recreations with levels of human likeness. In our study, we want to get a better understanding of whether VIs are capable of achieving comparable success to the traditional influencer, as well as the advantages and shortcomings of both types of influencers hold.