Despite its innovative and avant-garde reputation, the luxury industry initially began showing a very low commitment to new online marketing tools and it held a conservative approach to selling when compared to other sectors. Nowadays, the context has dramatically changed and luxury brands are approaching with an increasing interest social networks as well as the online selling. This research aims to clarify the current strategic approaches of the players in the different luxury markets towards the social commerce phenomenon, from both a theoretical and an empirical point of view. The purpose is to test a framework that can be used to classify luxury companies’ strategies regarding social media adoptions based on actual theories on social media. Four strategies related to the social media adoption by luxury brands have been identified: the Social brand ambassadors strategy class (low promotional content percentage and low social commerce score) includes those brands that use social media for entertainment and user engagement; the Social showcases strategy (high promotional content percentage and low social commerce score) includes those brands that use their social accounts as online catalogues; the Social infotainers strategy (low promotional content percentage and high social commerce score) includes those brands that scored high in social commerce, mainly because of the provision of informative content and brand–consumer interactions, but they were linked to more entertainment-oriented actions rather than product-related ones. Finally, the Social sellers strategy (high promotional content percentage and high social commerce score) includes those brands that have integrated social commerce into their online strategies and have subsequently exploited the potential of social media to drive online and offline sales. The database is built using original data from a content analysis of 100 luxury brands’ postings on five different social media platforms – namely Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest. The total final sample included 12,132 Facebook posts, 21,216 tweets on Twitter, 1,105 YouTube videos, 10,138 Instagram pictures/videos, and 117,359 Pinterest pictures. The main findings are the following: luxury brands adopt at this stage the Social brand ambassadors and Social showcases approaches; brands belonging to the perfumery, cosmetics, jewelry and watches markets show a more developed attitude towards the social commerce; in other luxury markets, such as wine and spirits, brands still adopt a Social Brand Ambassador strategy, while managers should increase the promotional content in order develop the social commerce. The Fashion & Accessories brands show a positive relationship between the percentage of promotional content and social commerce score. This means that social commerce adoptions depend on the single brand’s strategic choices, ranging from low adoption to best practices. In general, social commerce is still not widespread; many luxury fashion brands, while presenting new collections during fashion weeks, focused on fashion shows, backstage events, and celebrities, rather than really promoting the new product lines with materials, availability, and purchasing indications. This social media approach is mainly focused on increasing brand awareness rather than increasing social commerce. If managers aim at increasing social commerce they should add direct call to action and link the contents to e-commerce market place. Automotive brands are concentrated in the Social showcases area; This sector encounters natural limitations in the introduction of social commerce due to the difficulty of selling products through the digital channel; many brands have, however, devised strategies to approach their users during the purchasing process prior to the actual transaction to take advantage of the increasing ROPO phenomenon. Conversely, the Perfumes & Cosmetics sector shows a highly fragmented approach to social commerce. The content analysis based on single post contents has shown that actually the contents are based on pictures of the products, or the brand, information on events, and a large and increasing presence of video posts based storytelling about the history of the product and the brand heritage; the most social commerce oriented posts are picture or video focused on the product. The commercial contents that aim at developing the see now, buy now approach are mainly based on video shows.

In the world of SNS, once ordinary users get recognized for discriminated fashion taste, they affect other users’ choice of fashion products. Fashion companies capture the importance of these influencers and tries to take advantage of their ability. However, the benefits offered to influencers such as financial compensation may provoke negative consumer reactions. The purpose of this study is to identify what aspects of SNS influencers and how they influence other fashion consumers. We suggest that influencers’ self-disclosure and authenticity of posts are important factors which elicit positive response from consumers. We also investigate the psychological mechanism of envy which can mediate the impact of self-disclosure and authenticity on consumer response. This study was conducted by an online survey of 120 Korean women in their 20s and 30s with a 2 x 2 between-group experimental design. The data was collected from 28 November to 5 December 2016. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 23.0 for ANOVA analysis and regression analysis. The results were as follows. The main effect of authenticity was confirmed, while self-disclosure did not play a significant role, which indicates authenticity is the main factor in exercising influence on consumer response. The interaction of authenticity and self-disclosure was also observed. The participants of high in both self-disclosure and authenticity showed the strongest consumer reaction. However, the participants of high self-disclosure and low authenticity induced the weakest consumer response. For the impacts of self-disclosure and authenticity on envy, the participants exposed to the condition of both high self-disclosure and authenticity showed benign envy. On the other hand, malicious envy was aroused when both self-disclosure and authenticity were low. In relations between authenticity and consumer response, partial mediating effect of benign envy and malicious envy was confirmed. But, there was no mediating effect between self-disclosure and consumer response. This research on consumer response to influencers’ posts will provide key implications to fashion companies in building marketing strategies. In order for influencers' posts displaying their daily lives to have a positive impact on consumer response, not only self-disclosure but authenticity has to be considered. Such posts can induce benign envy and subsequently impact consumers indirectly. Influencers’ posts which narrow the gap between daily lives and products and raise the authenticity are important keys to successful marketing.

In the fashion industry, online opinion leaders (e.g. fashion blogs) that may be a source of advice for other consumers have emerged since the beginning of the century. Nowadays, among the several social networking sites (SNS) available, Instagram is also experiencing a steady increase in the amount of active users related to the fashion industry. Taking into account the relevant role of social influencers in the fashion industry (Wiedman et al., 2010) and the increasing use of Instagram by influencers and their followers, this study is thus designed to identify some of the antecedents and consequences of opinion leadership in a fashion Instagram account. First, we consider the perceived characteristics of the account (originality [H1a], uniqueness [H1b], quality [H1c] and quantity [H1d] of the contents posted) as the main antecedent factors of opinion leadership. Second, since opinion leaders are thought to have a great understanding of a specific product category (Thakur et al., 2007), we propose that opinion leadership may influence consumer behavioral intentions (Park, 2013). Specifically, opinion leadership will influence the intention to interact with the Instagram account (H2a), the intention to recommend it (H2b) and the intention to follow the advices obtained there (H2c). Finally, online interaction propensity will reinforce the influence of opinion leadership on interaction (H3a) and recommendation intentions (H3b), and the influence of opinion leadership on the intention to follow the advice will be reinforced when the contents of the account match the consumer personality and interests (i.e. personal fit) (H3c). Data to test these hypotheses was collected from an Instagram account focused on fashion in which a potential influencer posts pictures related to new trends in the fashion industry and that could be imitated by the followers of the account. Specifically, this account has more than 62.000 followers, who were invited to participate in the research. Finally, 808 participants answered a questionnaire including measurement scales adapted from previous literature, using seven-point Likert-type response formats, which respondents rated from 1 (“strongly disagree”) to 7 (“strongly agree”). Partial Least Square was used as the estimation procedure. First, we analysed data to check validity of measures in order to confirm the factor structure, guarantee its internal consistency, and check both convergent and discriminant validity. After that, results of the proposed model reveal that opinion leadership is positively affected by perceived originality (β=.380, p<.01) and uniqueness (β=.298, p<.01), supporting H1a and H1b. However the influence of both perceived quality and quantity is non-significant. In turn, opinion leadership has a significant influence on the intention to continue interacting in the account (β=.558, p<.01), the intention to recommend the account online (β=.482, p<.01), and the consumer intention to follow the advice received in the Instagram account (β=.232, p<.01). As a result H2a, H2b and H2c are supported. Finally, while the interaction effects of online interaction propensity and opinion leadership are not significant, the interaction effect of perceived fit with personal interests and opinion leadership on the consumer intention to follow the advice received in the Instagram account (β=.078, p<.01) is significant. Therefore, H3c is supported. In sum, this study confirms that opinion leadership in the Instagram context may influence consumers and finds that originality and uniqueness are the key variables to develop this leadership and become influential, which suggests several implications for management.

The marketing scholars and practitioners start to consider a new concept, which pay attention to the government policies and company methods would cause a deep influence to develop a sustainable marketing. Because of the customer equity take a more and more importance place in consumer research, companies have become aware of the importance of sustainability, but customers may not realize the significance of this factor. When companies cannot obtain the feedback from the customers, they can not meet the needs as well. Nevertheless, researchers have attempted to determine whether sustainable marketing customer equity, both in positive and negative ways. Using algorithms of configurations of antecedent condition s to refine the shortcomings of symmetric variable hypotheses (McClelland, 1998; Woodside, 2015). Sustainable marketing includes environmental, economic, and social dimensions, in addition to the ethical management dimensions that guide sustainable marketing strategies through CSR (Lii et al., 2013).The environmental dimension requires to build a eco-friendly image, the economic dimension requires to achieve short- and long-term economic goals(bansal 2005); The social dimension requires that companies enhance social and human wellbeing (Kim et al, 2015; Sun et al., 2016). When marketing research has turned to customer lifetime value (CLV) (Rust et al.,2004), they find the future profit is value equity, brand equity, and relation equity has been accepted by most researchers as major drivers. This study bases on models of which factors can influence value of customers and which are not. Structural equation modeling (SEM) has been used to show that sustainable marketing has positive effects on customer equity drivers (Sun, Garrett, & Kim, 2016). However, it has shortage in most empirical behavioral science and business research, in order to lessen influence of the method limitation; a subset of qualitative comparative analysis called faQCA is applied to study. This study make a general conclusion that in the cross-culture, customers can not accept companies lose anyone dimension, even though they perform at normal level in others. Nevertheless if a company achieve a high goal in one dimension, it is also can be admitted by consumers. This research adapts two different countries as the sample to define their value and motivations. And the Adidas as the sample brand to be used in the study. Using the fuzzyset Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) attempts to find a new point to explain configural antecedents, to verify the finding and to overcome the shortages. The result of this study is aimed to find the way to narrow the gap between companies, customers and sustainable concepts.

Purpose: While many consumers claim to include ethical considerations in their consumption behavior, only a small fraction adheres to these self-made standards. For example, although two thirds of consumers polled by Nielsen in 2015 in thirteen countries stated to be willing to pay more for sustainable brands only ten percent actually purchased this type of product. Even if responsibly produced products still only account for a small share of the market they represent a pervasive marketing phenomenon that merits further scientific research. The so-called attitude-behavior-gap has received a considerable amount of attention not only in the business context, but also in scientific marketing research. Nevertheless, previous studies commonly discussed responsible consumption from an information-processing perspective concentrating on the rational and goal-directed side of responsible consumption. What is still largely missing, though, is the consideration of emotions as drivers or influencing factors for consumer responsibility, even though the few existing studies suggest a positive influence. This holds especially true for the self-conscious emotions of guilt and pride. Furthermore, the few studies at hand generally focus on non-durable goods like tea, coffee or juice and leave a research gap with regard to durable products like fashion items. Thus, the aim of this study is to further investigate the influence of self-conscious emotions on responsible consumption in the context of the fashion industry. Specifically, the influence of the two emotions guilt and pride as well as the influence of social visibility on the consumer’s decision-making and purchasing process shall be investigated. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed method approach containing qualitative and quantitative methods is applied. While in-depth interviews and focus groups with fashion consumers shed light on potential influencing factors and outcomes of self-conscious emotions, a scenario-based experiment further validates these results on influence of guilt and pride in the context of responsible consumption. The experiment follows a 2 (negative vs. positive responsibility outcome) x 2 (social vs. no social visibility) design and is conducted via online questionnaires. Findings: Experiences of self-conscious emotions provide feedback on past behavior that ultimately leads to a revised behavior linked to consumer responsibility in the future. Specifically, pride (guilt) can potentially lead to increased (diminished) word-of-mouth and purchase intentions. Research limitations/implications: Limitations lie in the type of research design as a scenario-based experiment was chosen for the quantitative study. Future research should investigate the topic at hand with a field study, ideally with a suitable partner from the industry. Another limitation lies in the examination of only one industry that strongly differs from other industries. Further investigations should compare the self-conscious emotions’ impacts on different types of industries. Practical implications: The current research provides suggestions on the adequate use of communications to promote sustainable fashion brands and to develop according campaigns that elicit emotional reactions from consumers. Furthermore, although guilt and pride refer to past behavior, they can nevertheless be used by management to influence future consumer actions, e.g. choice of responsibly produced garments as opposed to conventional ones. Incentives for successful word-of-mouth of sustainable fashion brands could strengthen this effect. Additionally, the final results deliver insights on whether social visibility should be increased (e.g. through offerings in offline channels) or rather reduced (e.g. through promotions in online channels). Originality/value: This study closes a research gap by investigating consumer responsibility not from an information-processing, but an emotion-based perspective. It furthermore complements research on emotions in the context of responsible consumption by investigating durable products, namely fashion items, that differ strongly from previously examined product groups like tea or coffee.

Consumers’ perception of advertisements can affect brand attitudes, brand trust, and brand image (Meenaghan, 1995; Sheinin, Varki, & Ashley, 2011). Therefore, strategic selection of elements in advertisements becomes important, especially for luxury brands. Luxury brands tend to position themselves as artisans of a particular category or a product and highlight exclusivity (Fionda & Moore, 2008). When a luxury brand is known for a specific product, a less-known product of the brand in an advertisement would be perceived differently. The present study focused on exploring the different effects of iconic products and less-associated products of a luxury brand in the context of advertisements. Categorization theory, typicality effects, and conceptual fluency provided theoretical foundation in understanding the relationships. Typicality effects, simply put, occur when members in a category are graded, “with members ranging from very good (typical) members of a category to very poor (atypical) members of a category” (Loken, Barsalou, & Joiner, 2008, p. 153). In consumer studies, typicality had been examined in various dimensions and showed to effect consumer attitude (Goedertier, Dawar, Geuens, & Weijters, 2015; Loken & Ward, 1990; Ward & Loken, 1988). However, to our knowledge, the subject had not been covered in the luxury brand advertisement context. To test the effects of typicality, the study examined whether typical products in luxury advertising have a higher level of advertisement liking, pleasantness, and novelty than atypical products (H1), whether consumers’ advertisement attitude from luxury advertising have a positive effect on brand attitude (H2), and whether consumers’ product involvement moderated the relationship between product typicality and advertisement attitude. Before the main test, two pretests were performed; the first to select the luxury brand and products to be used in the main test; the second to ensure the brand-product association of the advertisements. A total of 123 undergraduate students participated in the experiment, a (typical vs. atypical) between-subjects design. Participants were exposed to one of the two experimental conditions and were asked to complete a questionnaire. They were provided with questions measuring advertisement liking, pleasantness, novelty, brand attitude, demographical questions, and manipulation checks. All questions, apart from the demographics and certain questions in the manipulation checks, were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. Reliability analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, and multiple regression analysis were used in hypothesis testing. Results of the study revealed that typical brand products in luxury brand advertisements have a higher level of advertisement liking, pleasantness, and novelty. Additionally, advertisement liking and novelty have a positive effect on brand attitude but pleasantness had no effect. Finally, product involvement did not moderate the effects of product typicality on advertisement attitude. The study shows significance in that it supports the typicality effect in categorization theory by showing that there are certain products that consumers link with brands, and the closer the link, the more positive advertisement attitude becomes. Based on the results, it is recommended that luxury brands take caution in product placement and include iconic products in advertisements. There should also be focus on which products are in the advertisement, not the individual consumer’s involvement in a product. For future research, experiments exploring whether presenting typical products with atypical products in advertisements would strengthen the relationships between brands and atypical products is suggested. Also, studies on how luxury brands can elevate the status of atypical products to typical products by educating consumers would provide practical strategies for luxury brand marketers.

“Today I was persuaded to spend more than $200 on a lotion in Barneys. The price difference (between online and store) is $75. However, the store salesman told me that it is only few dollars way! I felt humiliated by the upscale society.” Lawrence, a 22 years old male Chinese who is an international undergraduate student studying marketing in a public U.S. university, posted the above status on his WeChat moments. With its fast growing economy and huge population, China has become one of the most lucrative markets for luxury brands (Zhan and He 2012). In fact, China has surpassed Japan and become the No.1 luxury products’ spender in the world, accounting more than one-quarter of the global luxury brand expenditure (Yousuf 2012). According to Bian & Company’s study (2016), $ 17.6 billion were spent on Chinese luxury market in 2015. In the past, the core Chinese luxury consumers are female middle-class and up-class consumers (Zhan and He 2012). In recent years, the faces of Chinese luxury consumers have gradually changed: more and more Chinese luxury goods buyers are males, and they actually spend more money on average than women do (Chen, 2016). In addition, the Chinese culture is different from the Western culture (Li, Li and Kambelle 2012). Accordingly, Chinese luxury consumption follows its own patterns and trends, which may not always resemble those of the Western world (Li, Li and Kambelle 2012). Previous studies have revealed unique characteristics of Chinese luxury consumers, in terms of motivations, for example, Mianzi (prestigious face) (Li and Su 2007; Wang and Ahuvia 1998), subcultures (Wang, Sun and Song 2011), public meaning (Wang, Sun and Song 2011), gift giving (Li and Su 2007), and reference groups (Li and Su 2007). All of those studies emphasized the cultural and social dimensions of luxury brands’ consumption. Given these distinctive characteristics of the Chinese market, Western luxury brands have made use of all possible communication methods to connect with Chinese consumers. One of the seemingly promising channels is the Internet. The Internet breaks down geographical and temporal boundaries (Kozinets 1999), and enables Western luxury brands to connect with overseas markets. Among all the digital advertising tools, social media have become increasingly important in the Chinese market (Kim and Ko 2012). In 2015 alone, there were 574 million active mobile social media users in China (Kemp 2015). Due to the large number of social media users, Western luxury brands, like Burberry (Phan, Thomas, and Heine 2011), have started practicing social media advertising (Okonkwo 2009). Accordingly, several challenges emerge. With the rising popularity of social media, Chinese consumers increasingly demand Western luxury brands’ social presence online. Looking at the bright side, social media allows Western luxury brands to show a desirable brand image (Okonkwo 2009; Tynan, McKechnie, and Chhoun 2010) and maintain customer relationship (Kim and Ko 2012). However, concerns about negative consumer comments and their potential impact on brand images (Britten 2013; Macnamara and Zerfass 2012; Singer 2014) loom large. Thus, it remains a question whether and to what extent Western luxury brands embrace the interactive media. Moreover, it is unclear how Chinese consumers perceive their social media advertising effort. In particular, how Chinese young males, the new market segment, interpret luxury brands’ social media advertising presence is an untapped research field. Thus, the purpose of this study is to fill the research gap by exploring how Chinese young male consumers understand and interpret luxury brands’ social media advertising. Given the exploratory nature of the study, a qualitative research approach is adopted (Creswell 2013).

Accepting that luxury stands for timeless, my contribution sets out to address and clarify the issue by analysing three questions from the semiotic perspective of luxury branding. The first is, from where does luxury speak in Bulgarian context of so-called "Bulgarian rose" product? The second is, what is the luxury branding mechanism whereby philistine's culture change? The third is, how might we conceptualise the relationship between the timeless in production of luxury discourse and transformative role of philistine's culture? To celebrate the uniqueness of Bulgarian product in luxury, it is almost as dangerous a concept as intention. It belongs to many disciplines, including psychology, sociology, and semiotics. Drawing upon the works of standpoint Greek philosophers (Plato "The Republic", 380 BCE) and semioticians (Algirdas J. Greimas, On Meaning, 1987), the discussion of implementing luxury advertising in every corner of the business world is confronted by quite serious challenges. After an introduction to the topic, the discussion will be followed by analyses of concrete examples focusing on the cultural heritage resistance. Although the inquiry is conducted from one particular standpoint — luxury branding, the observations and suggestions it makes regarding education, cultural heritage and luxury advertising campaigns will lead us to conclusions at theoretical level of interpretation on renegotiating the future direction of acquiring knowledge in the ambiguous significance of luxury.

Advertising increasingly relies on images to persuade viewers. Some viewers engage with ads as works of art. The current research develops a valid and reliable measure of advertising immersion (AdImm). As luxury branding and art consumption often intersect, a better understanding of how AdImm affects advertising persuasion is needed. Introduction As consumers become more visually savvy and sophisticated, it brings to light the increasing importance of visual consumption in advertising. Consumers engage with ads in different ways. Previous research focused on the product (Petty, Cacioppo, & Schumann, 1983), identity negotiation (Thompson & Haytko, 1997), or mood (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). Phillips and McQuarrie (2010) proposed an “engage to immerse” mode where the focus is on the image itself (i.e. aesthetic elements). The viewer undergoes an embodied experience (Joy and Sherry 2003) similar to flow (Csikszentmihalyi & Robinson, 1990) whereby the viewer processes the ad as a work of art. While Phillips and McQuarrie (2010) provide the conceptual framework through phenomenological interviews, there is no scale to measure the advertising immersion (AdImm) construct. The research objective is to develop a valid and reliable scale. Aesthetics in Luxury Advertising Previous studies have examined the effects of white space (Pracejus, Olsen, & O’Guinn, 2006), prototypically (Veryzer & Hutchinson, 1998), camera angles (Meyers-Levy & Peracchio, 1992), and cropped objects (Peracchio & Meyers-Levy, 1994). While these studies follow the experimental aesthetic tradition of Berlyne (1971), they fail to examine advertising aesthetics holistically, as images depend on context and stylization to communicate, because an “experience only happens by virtue of those elements being placed together in a particular pattern of relationships to each other (Scott, 1994 pg. 270).” Art often carries the social connotation of luxury (Scott, 1994) via art infusion (Hagtvedt & Patrick, 2008). Advertisers have appropriated art techniques, mediums, producers (Dion & Arnould, 2011), and aesthetic elements (Schroeder, 2002) to elevate the status of luxury brands in order to divorce them from their commercial orientation. Analogous to works of art, luxury brands possess an aura of high-brow authenticity. Due to the strong relationship between art and luxury consumption, it is important to measure AdImm. Research Design & Preliminary Findings The methodology for scale development will follow the recommendation of Churchill (1979) and Gerbing and Anderson (1988). As a result of an extensive literature review, a set of 12 – items were generated. Expert judges were invited to examine their clarity and the extent to which they represent the construct to establish face validity. At the end of this stage, some items were rewritten or dropped while others were added. 10 items on a seven- point Likert scale anchored from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7) remained (Table 1). A convenience sample of 143 business, fashion, and art female students at a southwestern U.S. university were invited to participate in a 30 minute questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to refine the AdImm scale. The maximum likelihood extraction method with promax rotation was used in EFA. Entries with missing values were deleted. Two factors emerged from the 10 items. A total of 7 items from factor 1 emerged after items with factor loadings below 0.4 were deleted. Although item 3 cross-loaded with another factor, the cross-loading difference was greater than .2, and thus, was kept. Factor 1 explained 32.80 % of the variance. The reliability for the seven-item scale was .574, which was very low. Therefore, item 7 was deleted, which improved reliability to .832. Six items were finalized for further structural testing through confirmatory factor analysis. Amos was used to estimate a series of confirmatory models. The method of estimation used was maximum likelihood. The initial measurement model fit poorly as evidenced by the following fit statistics: chi-square = 58.34, df = 9, CMIN/DF = 6.48; CFI = .878, GFI = .877, and RMSEA = .196. After the initial model fit, item 4 was deleted as it had a low loadings of .45 As a result, the model fit improved. The chi-square in the revised model is 12.86 with 5 degrees of freedom. The ratio of the chi-square and degrees of freedom (CMIN/ DF) is less than 3 (2.571), which indicates an acceptable fit of the model to the data. CFI and NFI are 0.977 and 0.963, respectively. CFI and NFI are above the acceptable of .90 as suggested by Hair et al. (2006). IFI is 0.977 and GFI is 0.968, exceeding the necessary 0.95 threshold (Byrne 2010). Although the RMSEA is over the 0.08 threshold, the other fit statistics supported the model Overall, all the model statistics imply a good fit of the model. Table 2 indicates the remaining scale items and their corresponding factor loadings and critical ratio values. Discussion Consistent with previous research, aesthetics can serve as casual agents in shaping advertising persuasion. Because ads have a commercial orientation, viewers resist them inherently. However, advertisers can combat resistance by eliciting AdImm whereby the artfulness of the image as a whole (Joy & Sherry, 2003) rather than some stylistic property triggers an intense brand experience; similar to viewers of art at a gallery or museum. As a route of persuasion, AdImm intensifies brand experience rather than boosting brand evaluation (Phillips & McQuarrie, 2010). Previous research has examined the relationship between brand experience and brand attitude as well as purchase intention (Zarantonello & Schmitt, 2010). Future research will assess predictive validity to determine how AdImm influences advertising persuasion. Since luxury branding and art consumption intersect, luxury advertisers will better understand how AdImm affects advertising persuasion. Additionally, the valid and reliable AdImm scale will provide the opportunity for scholars to study aesthetics from an interdisciplinary perspective.

This paper presents how guilt statements can affect luxury Fairtrade chocolate products. Specifically, the study will examine how willingness to pay more can affect Fairtrade through guilt advertising. Fairtrade is a labelling certification aimed at helping farmers in marginalised countries (Méndez et al., 2010). Huhmann and Brotherton (1997) explained that ‘informative statements’ can help evoke guilt and these statements are used on the packaging to investigate consumers’ perceptions of ad credibility, inferences of manipulative intent, guilt arousal, attitudes towards the ad, purchase intention and willingness to pay more for Fairtrade chocolate products. A combination of statements and logos were used as stimuli. The results of this study has shown that guilt statements may be too intense and may have caused inferences of manipulative intent in a Fairtrade context, resulting in lower purchase intention and willingness to pay more. This study is the first study to explore how guilt statements and logos influence consumers’ purchases for Fairtrade products. This study has managerial applications in developing marketing strategies to promote Fairtrade products and other charitable co-branding schemes.

This research investigates the influence of age in luxury counterfeit consumption in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. More specifically, a pilot quantitative survey conducted in the United Arab Emirates demonstrates that GCC consumers’ age has a positive influence on counterfeit luxury consumption, which runs counter the general consensus observed in the counterfeiting literature. Based on 25 in-depth interviews, a follow-up qualitative study explores this unexpected result using the functional theory of attitudes. It shows that the experience of the region’s major socio-economic changes in the last 40 years may explain the shift on how consumers understand the value of things, and therefore the existence of a positive correlation between age and counterfeit consumption in the GCC countries. This article contributes to the field of luxury counterfeit research and expands theoretical understanding on consumer responses of different age groups to counterfeit consumption. Our analyses corroborate the relevance of the functional theories of attitudes in explaining both luxury and counterfeit consumptions. Social-adjustive function is dominant for young people, however, the attitudes, which serve the social-adjustive function, are less likely to drive counterfeit consumption. Further, the research refines the existing model, suggesting that the value-expressive function served by different attitudes was relevant on both age groups, but depending on the values which are expressed, it influences the counterfeit consumption. The findings are of significant interest for public policy makers, luxury brand managers fighting counterfeiting, and more generally to any managers dealing with GCC nationals.

Consumers around the world are increasingly categorized by parallel needs and similar longings which lead to an ever-more homogeneous global market (Chan, Li, Diehl & Terlutter, 2007; van Ittersum & Wong, 2010). The acceleration of global consumer assemblies has concurred with the occurrence and upsurge of global citizens and consumer cultures (Gao, Mittal & Zhang, 2015). Yet, many researchers still claim that cultural differences have to be considered to grasp buying customs of global (fashion) consumers (Tahmid, 2012). The rationale of this paper is to balance out this research gap and to contribute to the current debate of global vs. local (Cleveland, Papadopoulos & Laroche, 2011; Askegaard, Arnould & Kjelgaard, 2005; Arnett, 2002) fashion consumer lifestyle segments with joint or divergent dominant apparel purchase motivations. Motivational factors influencing apparel purchase behavior can be separated into rational, emotional (perceptional) and patronage motives (Diamond, 2005). In the main, Sproles & Kendall´s consumer characteristics approach (1986) provided the conceptual foundation of the present study of fashion consumption motivations (fashion referred to as apparel & clothing), partially modified to suit the peculiarities that mold fashion consumption. The total of 23 motivations is made up of 15 multi-item scales and 8 single items that complement the fashion-specific range of motivational drivers. Especially referring to fashion purchase motivations, countries like Germany and Austria (despite their prosperous market economies) have so far been markedly neglected and even for France, although universally recognized as the leading country for fashion, in-depth research on motivational parameters shaping individual shopping activities is scarce. Likewise, investigations on American (a nation with intense spending capacity) fashion purchase motivations are extremely seldom. The objective of this paper is threefold and expressed through the following three research questions: (1) What are important lifestyle cluster characterized by central fashion motivations? (2) Can representatives for each cluster be found in all countries? (3) Are there country specific differences which point to either global or local fashion consumer segments? The predefined set of fashion consumption motivations was put to test via an online quantitative consumer survey. The questionnaire was delineated in three languages, using a translation-back translation procedure and was thoroughly pre-tested. Altogether, 693 non-student individuals (482 females, 211 males; from 18 to 87 years of age) participated in the survey, equally distributed across countries, ages and gender among the four nations (despite the fact that quota sampling was used). Subjects were asked to evaluate the total of 23 fashion consumption motivations on a 7-point Likert scale. A factor analysis was conducted for each of the established multi-item scales (with a CA value of mostly above .70). Measurement Invariance (Steenkamp & Baumgartner 1998) across the four countries was assessed. Subsequently, a cluster analysis was carried out using the Ward algorithm, incorporating all 23 fashion consumption motivations to acquire a more detailed description of the consumer segments. Five consumer clusters were extracted through Elbow criteria: (1) pragmatic, socially-conscious, brand loyals (n= 195), (2) sustainable fashion shoppers (n=127), (3) detached fashion disinterested (n=128), (4) passionate, luxury-status fashion-leaders (n= 107), and (5) experiential fashion adventure-seekers (n=136). Country-wise, significant differences are manifested between the consumer segments, X²(12, 693) = 69.12, p=.000. Findings portend that consumers in all research countries can be allocated to one of the five clusters. This condition leads to the clear presumption that global consumer fashion consumer segments do exist. Nonetheless, some national divergences become evident. Particularly if a fashion brand or company intends to address a target group affiliating to the consumer cluster 1: pragmatic, socially-conscious, brand loyals, cluster 2: sustainable fashion shoppers or cluster 3: experiential fashion adventure-seekers, national differences need to be taken into consideration. Markedly, a pragmatic positioning appears to be most auspicious to target American and also French consumers whereas a sustainability and ethnocentric orientation seems to be substantially promising to reach German and also Austrian consumers, demonstrating that a complete standardization of a fashion firm´s positioning through the transnational appeal of dominant consumption motivations seems not yet to be advisable. Further implications, limitations and directions for future research are available upon request and will be addressed more thoroughly at the conference.

The New Product Development (NPD) in the textile industry is peculiar, as it follows constraints that are particular to the fashion business. A qualitative study comprising 45 interviews were conducted in a South American textile industry and results showcase that fashion forecast, pressure for newness, and cost reduction are relevant matters. Introduction The textile industry follows a particular cycle for New Product Development (NPD) as it answers the demand from the fashion industry. Fashion supply chain is fragmented, as the production process is fragmented with companies playing different roles in the production cycle. There are companies that uses the raw material to produce yarns that will be transformed into fabrics, which then it is transformed into clothes, through process that may be a single sewing to complex process that demands intermediate process such as industrial washes. These clothes are sold to consumers through various selling channels, such as stores, retailers, e-commerce, and even door-to-door. Usually one company plays only one of these roles in the supply chain, what makes the production plan to be fragmented amongst several different companies in the supply chain (Şen, 2008). After globalization, this supply chain became even more complex as each chain may be located in different parts of the world, due to production costs and optimization. This scenario results in a supply chain that demands several planning skills, that works, sometimes, with extensive production cycles. (Thomassey, 2014). But, as Christopher, Lowson, & Peck (2004) noted, the supply chain in the fashion business must be agile to respond to changes in demand from consumers, which often occurs, and it can be also very complex as clothing is a way for consumers to either differentiate or fit in society, and the rules to be in or out of society patterns changes fast (Cholachatpinyo, Fletcher, Padgett, & Crocker, 2002a, 2002b). Due to this complexity and richness of information, the production cycle in fashion business has been extensively studied in the literature (Alexander & Contreras, 2016; Aung & Sha, 2016; Oxborrow & Brindley, 2014) but authors often use a wide perspective to grasp an overview of the supply chain they are studying, using market data and information, or gathering general information from companies that are present in the fashion supply chain. Authors focused their analysis in the supply chain itself, and we could not find studies that focused on the perspective of the product development task in the challenging context of fashion business. There are some characteristics from the fashion business that differentiate New Product Development (NPD) from a classical Business to Business (B2B) scenario. In a brief description of the fashion business production system, we see that it starts with the production of raw materials that varies from natural fibers (e.g. cotton, silk, linen) or artificial fibers (e.g. polyester, nylon, elastane) that are then spinning into threads that may contain one or more different fibers. These threads are then transformed into fabrics through several different weaving techniques, and then it may go through some finishing treatments (e.g. dying, washing), and then it goes to garment manufacturing where garment makers produce clothes for their own brands or for third-parties brands. These clothes are then sold to consumers through various channels (e.g. retail stores, electronic stores). If we analyze this brief description we can see that fashion may influence in all parts of the production cycle, including the demand for raw materials: if denim products are in vogue, then there is a growing demand for cotton products, if sportswear is in vogue, then the demand improves for artificial fibers, and so on. One other thing that should be noted is that usually each part of the production cycle is performed by a different company: the most common scenario we see in the textile industry includes companies that produce only threads, and sell these threads to textile companies that produce fabrics to sell to garment makers that produces clothes to sell to brands to sell them to consumers. There are some companies that integrates two or more parts of the production cycles but they are the exception, not the rule. This fragmented production process combined with the fashion influence result in long production cycles: a designer’s idea may take from three to eighteen months to be available to consumers, depending on the production channels assessed by the designer. These characteristics showcase how NPD in the fashion business may be complex and therefore it should be investigated further in the literature, and this is the objective of this study. In order to do that, we researched the specific literature in NPD that is vastly discussed in literature as it is responsible for creating, managing and releasing products that are both appealing to customers and profitable to the company. (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1995). Understanding what makes an NP succeed in the market has been on the marketing agenda for a long time, including the fashion business (Alexander & Contreras, 2016; Clarke, 2012; Thompson & Haytko, 1997). One interesting point of view is to understand the predecessors of NP success in the market. Henard & Szymanski (2001) conducted a meta-analysis of 60 studies focused on the antecedents of NP success and proposed a list of 24 predictors of NP performance, which they grouped into four categories: (i) product characteristics, (ii) firm strategy characteristics, (iii) firm process characteristics and (iv) marketplace characteristics. We selected the most relevant predecessors discussed by Henard & Szymanski (2001) and Song & Xie (2000) to use as a basis for a script for interviews with NPD professionals. Methodology We conducted in-depth interviews with 45 professionals from different areas that participate in, or are impacted by, NPD process in a South American textile industry. From now on we will call this company “Southex”. These interviews offered a deep understanding of the perspective of NPD professionals, both insiders (professional that work in the NPD team) or outsiders (professional from departments that work as an internal supplier or client for the NPD team). Southex is one of the biggest textile producers in the world, with producing units in Latin America, commercial offices in Europe, Asia, and America. Sales are over U$ 1 bi/year, and the company employed more than 8,000 people in 2012, when this study was performed. Their main market is Latin America where fashion seasons are in opposition to the ones in the North part of the globe, home of the fashion trendsetters for global macro trends (Europe, USA, and Japan). This leads to a one-year postponement of fashion trends, so when something is released as a fashion trend for summer in Europe, it will be considered a trend for summer one year later in Latin America. Southex NPD team had 12 exclusively dedicated professionals as of 2012. Southex launches products in the market with the concept of collections, when the company releases a group of NPs in the market. Every year, the company releases two collections in the market. It usually takes up to six months for NPD team to complete and launch a new collection. Research into fashion trends, commercial needs and technological improvements available in the market are the main sources the company uses to develop NP. Prior to launching a product in the market, the NPD team needs to test its production process in order to guarantee that the product can be produced on a large scale at competitive costs. Every collection is launched as a sample of fabrics that will be produced 4-6 months in the future. If a collection is released in January, the products that Southex is launching will start to be produced in June. So their clients, mainly garment makers and fashion brands, need to coordinate their production chain to start receiving these fabrics after June. Considering the production cycle in these garment makers, it is estimated that the clothing produced with the fabric launched by Southex in January will be delivered to retail stores (and then available to the consumer) in November, almost one year after Southex has launched the fabric in the market. In order to gather a deep perspective of all matters related to NPD we interview 45 professionals, totaling over 1,600 hours of recorded interviews. 12 insiders, comprising 100% of the team available at that moment, and 33 outsiders from departments such as Marketing, Sales, and Technical Support. Their positions ranged from analysts to directors.. All interviews followed a predefined script of topics. Interviews were transcribed and sent to the corresponding professional for validation, during which they could ask for adjustments. 12 professionals asked for changes in the transcription and we used the changed and approved text, together with the 33 unchanged texts in this analysis. Results and Discussion All texts were then codified according to content, which involved identifying similar topics and applying codes to facilitate analysis of the interviews. Using the predecessors of NP success has facilitated our understanding of the matters related to NPD at Southex. By formatting the presentation of information gathered in the interviews with the predecessors we were able to see the main issues found in NPD. In total, there were 421 mentions codified. After analyzing the codification of the interviews, we can see that Cross function is the main topic addressed by respondents. This is due to the relationship that the flow of NPD activities in the company. As we can see, there were several issues related to the relationship of NP team with the outsiders and that communication amongst insiders and outsiders needs to be improved. There are some context-specific content that appeared as relevant in the analysis of these interviews: insiders are worried with the pressure they feel to forecast fashion preference for products. They say that fashion industry is constantly demanding new technologies, new products, and this has been creating a pressure to accelerate product development they think it is not healthy to the system. Also there is a general worry (insiders and outsiders) with the pressure for price reduction in basic products. Some products are considered basic and are included for several collections (interviewees mentioned that some products are included in more than 15 successive collections) and for these products instead of demanding for innovation, there is a demand for price reduction which leads outsiders to perform tests to substitute materials or changes in the production to reduce costs without prior knowledge from NPD team, which causes several problems in the organization. It is important to point out that even though we used only one company in this study, it was a complete and deep perspective, as we were able to collect high quality data with all 45 professionals that are directly or indirectly related to NPD in the company. Also, as Southex works as a thread and fabric producer, it showed us an insider perspective about the textile supply chain in the fashion business. Even though the exploratory study presented the reality of a firm in an extensive and very detailed way, it may not reflect the full complexity of other organizations in the market; thus, caution is advised if applied in a market that differs deeply from the scenario presented in this study. However, it is also important to remember that this is a qualitative approach where generalization is not expected, and the attention for details is important.

This preliminary qualitative research investigates how stylistic innovation affects sales performance of small arts and crafts firms in business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets in Taiwan. Specifically this research examines entrepreneurial cognitive complexity, which is the cognitive structure of an entrepreneur on his or her social world, and its interplay with stylistic innovation, particularly the changes of design in appearance or symbolic meaning of products, and strategic decisions of five Taiwanese small arts and crafts firms. Applying cognitive mapping to determine the cognitive contents, structures and also their relations of the entrepreneurs in making decision related to stylistic innovation, this research examines how owners of small Taiwanese arts and crafts firms specifically seek, interpret and internalize information and knowledge on style and design in the new product development and innovation processes. Research results show that the domain specific cognitive complexity of the entrepreneur influences the selection of relevant and appropriate dimensions in stylistic innovation. Entrepreneurs’ strategic decision to target at the business-to-consumer (customer-oriented or designer-driven) or business-to-business (mainly designer-driven) markets and also the buyer-seller relationship will affect the seeking, interpretation and internalization of information and knowledge in the process of stylistic innovation. Respondents targeting at business-to-business markets tend to have a higher level of cognitive complexity, compared with those targeting at business-to-consumer markets. Research results tend to suggest that the higher level of cognitive complexity, the greater the sales turnover. Future research should determine the relationship between cognitive complexity and marketing performance.

This study employs the resource-based view to understand how product strategy influence export performance. According to the organizational learning perspective, moreover, the ability to manage existing assets and capabilities and the development of new capabilities are arguably among the most relevant innovation success factors. Based on these theoretical backgrounds, a model is proposed to analyze the effects of cost leadership and differentiation strategy on export performance, as well as the moderating effects of exploitative and exploratory innovation capability. Using survey data from Korean exporters, the findings indicate that the cost leadership and differentiation strategy enhance export performance. While exploitative innovation capability strengthens the relationship between cost leadership strategy and export performance, exploratory innovation capability enhances the link between differentiation strategy and export performance. Introduction The trade-off between cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy is of importance and presents a key challenge to exporters because it is intrinsically related to innovation (Gebauer, 2008; O’Cass et al., 2014). Nevertheless, resources are limited, and firms must make choices in their allocation and determine the extent to which they will emphasize one strategy over another (Danneels, 2007; Lant, Milliken, & Batra, 1992). Although the individual roles of product strategies or innovation capabilities on export performance have attracted considerable attention (e.g., Hortinha, Lages, & Lages, 2011; Lages, Silva, & Styles, 2009; Molina-Castillo, Jimenez-Jimenez, & Munuera-Aleman, 2011), few studies have assessed their integrating impact - that is, the difference in the strengths of the relationships between cost leadership or differentiation strategy and innovation. Drawing on resource based view, we examine how innovation capabilities related with the relationship between cost leadership and differentiation strategies and exporters’ performance. Thus, we consider the moderating role of two distinct capabilities - exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation - on the relationships between product strategies and export performance. Exploratory innovation includes activities aimed to enter new product-market domains, while exploitative innovation activities improve existing product-market domains (He &Wong, 2004). The objectives of this study are to explore (1) impacts of cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy on export performance, (2) moderating effects of exploitative and exploratory innovation capability on the relationship between product strategy and export performance, and (3) these relationships in the context of Korean exporters. The Korean exporting firms are more concentrated on international markets because of limited size of domestic market (Nugent & Yhee, 2002). These characteristics of Korean exporters are more useful to examine the effect of product strategy and product innovation capability of firms on export performance in international markets. Conceptual Background Product Strategy and Competitive Advantage Porter (1980) argues that a firm can achieve a higher level of performance over a rival in one of two ways: either it can supply an identical product or service at a lower cost, or it can supply a product or service that is differentiated in such a way that the customer is willing to pay a price premium that exceeds the additional cost of the differentiation. A cost leadership strategy is designed to produce goods or services more cheaply than competitors by stressing efficient scale of operation. When a firm designs, produces, and sells a comparable product more efficiently than its competitors as well as its market scope is industry-wide, it means that the firm is carrying out the cost leadership strategy successfully (Campbell-Hunt, 2000). Thus, the primary thing for a firm seeking competitively valuable way by reducing cost is to concentrate on maintaining efficiency through all activities in order to effectively control every expense and find new sources of potential cost reduction (Dess & Davis, 1984). The differentiation strategy provides value to customers with the unique attributes or perceptions of uniqueness, and characteristics of a firm’s product other than cost. The firm pursuing differentiation seeks to be unique in its industry along some dimension that is valued by customers, which means investing in product R&D and marketing (Porter, 1980). Rather than cost reduction, a firm using the differentiation needs to concentrate on investing in and developing such things that are distinguishable and customers will perceive (Gebauer, 2008). Overall, the essential success factor of differentiation in terms of strategy implementation is to develop and maintain innovativeness, creativeness, and organizational learning within a firm (Dess & Davis, 1984; O’Cass et al., 2014; Porter, 1985). Innovation Capability in International Markets A firm’s ability to compete in the long term may lie in its ability to integrate product strategy and its existing capabilities, while at the same time developing fundamentally new ones (Lavie & Rosenkopf, 2006). Simultaneous investments in the exploitation of existing product innovation capabilities and the exploration of new ones may help create a competitive advantage (Soosay & Hyland, 2008). Organizational learning represents the development of knowledge that influences behavioral changes and leads to enhanced performance (Crossan, Lane, & White, 1999; Fiol & Lyles, 1985). Product innovation is a tool for organizational learning and, thus, a primary means of achieving its strategic renewal (Danneels, 2002; Dougherty, 1992; O’Cass et al., 2014). Exploration pertains more to new knowledge - such as the search for new products, ideas, markets, or relationships; experimentation; risk taking; and discovery - while exploitation pertains more to using the existing knowledge and refining what already exists; it includes adaptation, efficiency, and execution (March, 1991). Exploration and exploitation compete for the same resources and efforts in the firm. With a focus on exploring potentially valuable future opportunities, the firm decreases activities linked to improving existing competences (Levinthal & March, 1993; March, 1991). In contrast, with a focus on exploiting existing products and processes, the firm reduces development of new opportunities. However, firms must develop both exploratory and exploitative capabilities because returns from exploration are uncertain, often negative, and attained over the long run, while exploitation generates more positive, proximate, and predictable returns (Levinthal & March, 1993; March, 1991; Özsomer & Gençtürk, 2003). Researchers have shown that both types of learning are essential to enhancing firm performance (Leonard-Barton, 1992; March, 1991). In this study, we use exploration and exploitation to describe two innovation-related capabilities that are critical elements on the relationship between product strategies and export performance. International markets are turbulent and diverse with respect to customer needs, cultures, and competitiveness; therefore, innovation assumes a primary role (Kleinschmidt, De Brentani, & Salomo, 2007). Firms can leverage their innovations by securing business opportunities in those markets and thus increase their innovative capabilities (Knight & Cavusgil, 2004). Through exploratory innovation, firms develop new competences and thus enhance superior export performance by product strategies (Teece, Pisano, & Shuen, 1997). Exploitation activities are also important to exporters because they facilitate the lower-risk extension of export operations. By searching for solutions in the existent competence base, exploitative innovation increases efficiency and productivity. Accordingly, this study based on organizational learning perspective to support the idea that innovation capabilities are a vehicle for a product strategy, and achieving superior export performance. We advance the literature by allowing for a role of product strategies while also considering moderating effects of innovation capabilities. Moreover, we provide insights into how choices about emphasizing one product strategy over another relates the balance between exploration and exploitation. Hypotheses Product Strategy and Export Performance Porter’s cost leadership and differentiation strategies have been linked to the achievement of superior performance by many studies (Campbell-Hunt, 2000; Dess & Davis, 1984). A firm that successfully pursues a cost leadership strategy emphasizes “aggressive construction of efficient-scale facilities, vigorous pursuit of cost reductions from experience, tight cost and overhead control, avoidance of marginal customer accounts, and cost minimization in areas like R&D, service, sales force, advertising, and so on” (Porter, 1980: 35). A firm can, therefore, gain a competitive advantage over its rivals by having significantly lower cost structures in an industry without ignoring other areas such as product and service quality (Amoako-Gyampah & Acquaah, 2008). Thus, the maintenance of a strong competitive position for an organization pursuing a cost leadership strategy places a premium on efficiency of operations and scale economies that enable them to achieve and sustain their performance for a considerable period of time. In addition, with a cost leadership strategy, firms focus on reducing costs through operational efficiency. For example, they might exploit existing facilities and learn how to reduce costs through automation, modernization, capacity utilization, or economies of scale. Efficiency, control, planning, and variance reduction represent the key elements of a cost leadership strategy, and a typical example of a cost leadership strategy involves the implementation of an experience curve, on which cumulative production determines reductions in unit production costs. Firms engage in economies of scale and/or scope when they apply their knowledge and facilities from existing product lines to product line extensions. The associated positional advantage is a cost advantage pertaining to the firms’ value offering and is based on the product’s price–perceived value proposition in the export market. Hypothesis 1: Cost leadership strategy is positively associated with export performance. A firm that pursues a differentiation strategy may attempt to create a unique image in the minds of customers that its products are superior to those of its competitors (Miller, 1988). A firm creates these perceptions through advertising programs, marketing techniques and methods, and charging premium prices. Moreover, a firm may pursue a differentiation strategy by creating a perception in the minds of customers that its products possess characteristics that are unique from those of its competitors in terms of differences in design, physical attributes/features, and durability (Gebauer, 2008). Differentiation strategy aims to generate more outwardly focused product innovations that offer customers product differences that shape a distinctive value offering that is more responsive to their needs (Hughes, Martin, Morgan, & Robson, 2010; O’Cass et al., 2014). The associated positional advantage is a product or market differentiation advantage pertaining to the superior brand, quality, design, and product features that differentiate the firms’ value proposition from its competitors in the export market. Hypothesis 2: Differentiation strategy is positively associated with export performance. Moderating Effects of Innovation Capability From the generation of new ideas through to the launch of a new product, exploration and exploitation play a vital role in product innovation (Rothaermel & Deeds, 2004). Organizations can decide to use existing organizational competences to realize short-term results, or create new competences that may foster the development of innovations in the longer term (Atuahene-Gima, 2005). Both types of capabilities are considered to be dynamic in nature (Winter, 2003), given that their purpose is to transform existing resources into new functional competences that provide a better match for the firm's environment (Voss, Sirdeshmukh, & Voss, 2008). Although both exploitative and exploratory capabilities related to cost leadership and differentiation strategies, because of those different roles of capabilities in innovation process, the effects of those innovation capabilities on the relationship between product strategy and export performance might be different. In case of cost leadership strategy, firms focus on using and developing existing capabilities, promoting improvements in existing components and building on existing technological elements (Benner & Tushman, 2003; Rust et al., 2002). Similarly, exploitative innovation is aimed at improving existing product-market domains. The cost leadership strategy creates value through existing competences or competences that have been slightly modified (Voss et al., 2008). It promotes a routine-based and repetitive approach to organizational changes (Rust et al., 2002). Because exploitative innovation builds on existing knowledge and extends existing products and services for existing customers (Soosay & Hyland, 2008), exploitative capabilities helps firms pursuing cost leadership strategy to reap the benefits of improvement they make to their products and to continue making incremental improvements (Brucks, Zeithaml, & Naylor, 2000), which are designed to allow the firm to continue its superior performance (Griffin, 1997). Hypothesis 3: Exploitative innovation capability moderates the relationship between cost leadership strategy and export performance positively. Compared to cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy is characterized by radical change, risk and experimentation and that allows for the creation of new methods, relationships, and products. Because exploration focuses mainly on trying to create variety, to adapt and hence exploit ever-decreasing windows of opportunity (Soosay & Hyland, 2008), this capability is more beneficial to the kind of product innovativeness to the firm (Augusto & Coelho, 2009). When exporters pursue differentiation strategy for acquiring new knowledge and developing new products and services, exploratory capability helps to engage new insight into the design of new features and benefits of a given product, that product is guaranteed to contain new ideas (Cho & Pucik, 2005; Yalcinkaya et al., 2007). In contrast with exploitation aimed at improving existing product-market domains, explorative innovation requires fundamental changes in the way an organization operates and represents a clear departure from existing practices (Menguc &Auh, 2006). Hypothesis 4: Exploratory innovation capability moderates the relationship between differentiation strategy and export performance positively. Discussion Focusing on product strategy through the application of the RBV has provided theoretical insights as well as empirical evidence as to which capabilities are required to achieve these critical product strategy outcomes. The support from this study provides further evidence of the usefulness of applying the RBV to the export setting and should encourage researchers to examine the other aspects of export strategy. Based on organizational learning perspective, in addition, this study found that exploratory and exploitative innovation capability are essential to the firm because they act as vehicles for renewing product strategy to achieve superior export performance. By considering product strategy with exploration and exploitation simultaneously, we present a new perspective of the roles of these product strategies in the development of firms’ innovation capabilities. Our results indicate that cost leadership and differentiation strategy are pivotal in ensuring a proper balance between exploratory and exploitative innovations. One of the main implications for managers is that both exploratory and exploitative product competences should consider in parallel when developing product strategy. The findings underscore the need for managers to invest in cost leadership and differentiation strategy to ensure the development of exploration and exploitation. Therefore, resource allocation decisions should, consider the firm's needs for innovation capabilities and, on the other hand, be guided by the firm’s product strategy. Exporters operate in highly complex environments, characterized by high levels of technological and market uncertainties and highly diverse and dispersed customers (Kleinschmidt et al., 2007; Mohr & Sarin, 2009). Therefore, in addition to the product strategy toward the development of innovations using state-of-the-art technologies, managers of these firms need a similarly strong focus on understanding both current and potential exporting markets. By acknowledging the need for product strategy, managers can ensure the balanced innovation capabilities.

This study examines how small weaving manufacturers in Japan managed to successfully transform their cotton kimono businesses during the phenomenon of the growing popularity of Western clothing in the 1970s, and develop within the Sanbi industrial cluster to become global leaders in the production of high-quality denim and jeans worldwide. Introduction Japanese denim companies are very small but remain competitive due to their quality, compared with Chinese, Mexican, and Turkish companies. Some of these Japanese companies have won the Premier Vision Fabrics Handle Prize, while others have created new denim fabrics, such as soft denim, for luxury brands. According to the data of the Office of Textile and Apparel (OTEXA), as a proportion of sales in 2015 the United States imported most of its blue denim fabric from Japan (28.9 percent), with China in second place (26.2 percent), and Mexico third (17.3 percent); in terms of volume, the United States imported blue denim fabric from China (36.3 percent), with Mexico in second place (24.8 percent), and Japan third (13.5 percent). How was it that Japanese denim companies developed to become such prominent leaders in the field? Most of these companies are clustered geographically, with jeans companies sitting side-by-side with dyeing, processing, and finishing factories. These clusters were originally set up for the production of Kasuri cotton kimono clusters, and only shifted into denim and jeans production in the 1970s. This study will shed light on the development process of the denim industry in Japan – focusing on the Sanbi district, the largest denim and jeans cluster – and will examine the success factors in the global market from a historical perspective using primary sources. The Westernization of Clothing One success factor is the social and culture background in Japan (Fujioka and Wubs, forthcoming). Before the Second World War most people in Japan – male and female, old and young – wore kimonos. A kimono is a traditional Japanese robe that is tied at the waist by a wide belt called an ‘obi’. It has no buttons, zippers, or any other kinds of fastening. The shape of the garment is very simple and it has little decoration. A kimono is made from many different types of fabric, including silk, cotton, wool, and linen. The type of fabric defined the kimono’s suitability for different occasions, such as a high-quality silk kimono for ceremonial events and a cotton one for casual wear. The type of fabric also reflected a person’s social position, until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. During this time only the Samurai class could wear silk kimonos, while other social classes wore cotton kimonos. After 1868 people had freedom of choice in clothing, meaning that anyone could wear silk kimonos for weddings and funerals. Although Western-style clothing had already been introduced to the upper classes by the Japanese government during the Meiji Restoration, after the Second World War, the Japanese lifestyle began to be westernized at an ever-faster pace, particularly in the area of clothing. Along with the high economic growth in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the kimono market shrank and Western fashion became a mass phenomenon in Japan. First came tailor-made clothes for upper-class and upper-middle-class customers; after this, clothing companies rapidly increased their sales, and ready-to-wear clothing soon became common among every generation and income group in the 1970s. Jeans were one example of the clothing that was introduced at this time, and a niche market formed of mainly young customers who lived in urban areas. These young consumers had first seen jeans being worn by Americans from the General Headquarters (GHQ) during the recovery period, and they soon began to identify jeans as a symbol of freedom and individuality. With the increasing demand for jeans, several jeans and denim companies were established in the 1970s to capture this niche market. Since then the denim and jeans market in Japan has developed to specialize in high-quality premium denim and jeans. The Sanbi Industrial Cluster The main factor in the success of the Japanese denim and jeans industry is the effective transformation of the whole cluster. Cotton kimonos have a variety of styles based on various dyeing and weaving methods. The ‘Kasuri’ kimono, for example, is a type of cotton kimono that is dyed with indigo, requiring great skill in dyeing and weaving; as a result, it can be very expensive, although this type of cotton kimono is still regarded as casual, everyday clothing. There were three main industrial clusters for Kasuri kimonos in Japan, namely Kurume, Iyo, and Bingo, which had been established in around 1800. Among these, Bingo became the largest cluster and produced more mass products than the others in the 1960s. While Kurume and Iyo were striving to innovate a new Kasuri fabric and shifted to the high-end market to cover the decreasing demands of kimonos, the Bingo cluster created mass products more efficiently than before. It continued to increase its sales until 1960 with the improvement of technology, although in the 1970s sales began to decrease rapidly with the huge growth in demand for Western clothing (Shinichi Choshi Hensan Iinkai, 2002). Many manufacturers therefore suffered from the introduction of the new Western clothing. Some silk kimono manufacturers were able to shift their focus to the high-end market for ceremonial occasions due to their special place in Japanese society (Hashino, 2015). However, many cotton kimono manufacturers, particularly those in the Bingo cluster who focused on mass customers, were unable to do so, because of the shrinking casual kimono market. This industrial cluster was therefore forced by changing consumer demands to transform the whole nature of its business from the production of traditional cotton Kasuri kimonos to a brand new industry. The neighboring clusters of Bingo are Bizen and Bicchu, which were also cotton kimono clusters that used Kasuri fabric. Some manufacturers in Bizen who made kimono accessories started to produce ‘tabi’ (Japanese-style socks) in 1877 and then began sewing Western-style work clothes in the 1910s. In the 1920s many manufactures in the Bizen cluster started to produce Western-style school uniforms, which became increasingly popular (Fujii et al., 2007). This was a natural transition in terms of finding different uses for the same relevant technology: from the production of cotton fabric to tabi, and from tabi to school uniforms. All these products were made for daily use, and the same cutting and sewing skills for thick textiles that were used to make tabi were directly transferable to the production of work uniforms and school uniforms; by 1937 the Bizen cluster had become the largest producer of school uniforms in Japan. However, between 1965 and 1970 the demand for school uniforms fell, because the early generation of baby boomers had passed through school, and competition within each cluster became more intensive with the emergence of newcomers. In order to manage the distribution channel and build a stable production system, large cotton-spinning companies controlled the weaving mills and sewing factories and organized retailers to maintain retail prices. This was a well-known form of management in Japan at the time called ‘Keiretsu’. As a result, those manufacturers who were not working in partnership with any large spinning manufacturers found it very difficult to secure orders, and were eventually pushed out of the industry and forced to change the nature of their business. One of these small manufacturers in Bizen was called Big John, which had been established in 1940 to produce school uniforms. After transforming its business, it started to sew the first ‘made in Japan’ jeans using imported American denim in 1967, and later using Japanese denim in 1972 (Sugiyama, 2009). Its great success encouraged many of its surrounding manufacturers to join this emerging field, which resulted in the establishment of a whole new denim and jeans industry that spread across Bizen, Bingo, and Bicchu to the point where these three districts became collectively known as ‘Sanbi’ in Japanese. The Successful Transformation of Industrial Clusters New technology for producing denim and jeans was brought to Japan from the United States. Many denim companies started out as producers of Kasuri fabric and shifted to denim production in the 1960s and 1970s, using their existing skills and technology to make this transition. Although it was a natural path to take considering the change in consumer demand and the fact that both Kasuri fabric and jeans were dyed by indigo, there were many challenges involved in adapting to this change. Rope dyeing was the biggest hurdle that these manufacturers had to face, but they managed to learn the technique by reverse engineering American-made jeans and relying on their skills in indigo dyeing and sewing thick textiles. Making a success of this transition from a cotton kimono cluster into a denim and jeans cluster was the only way that these businesses could survive the huge growth in popularity of Western clothing in Japan. This whole transformational process was led by small, lesser-known manufacturers rather than by larger ones. As one of the major businesses in the Kasuri cluster in Japan, Bingo catered for the mass market, but was hardest hit by the introduction of Western clothing, as it was more difficult for its business model to adjust to westernization. Bizen, however, managed to shift to the production of Western clothing at an early stage, focusing on uniforms – and it was the dropout factories from the uniform industry that eventually became the driving force behind the emergence of the jeans industry. The resulting success of the Japanese denim business model then spread out across the cluster, which today enjoys an enhanced competitive advantage in the global market.

The advanced information technology leads to network age, making existing competitive advantages such as differentiation and cost leadership powerless in B2B context. The competitiveness of individual firm plays a significant role in enhancing the competitive advantage of a business network that a firm belongs to. The competitiveness of a business network depends on value co-creation, the interaction among firms in a network. Value co-creation has desirable and risky aspects. The increases in profits, brand reputation, and time and cost efficiency, client and supplier learning, etc. are positive aspects. But role conflicts, role ambiguity, and tension, etc. are negative outcomes. How can the industrial firm succeed in value co-creation with its partners in B2B context? The study focuses on the firm’s strategic marketing orientations as an antecedent of value co-creation. Strategic marketing orientations as the values and beliefs of the firm affect the collaboration with other firms during value co-creation. Previous literature assumes that a firm pursues one single strategic orientation. However, the study assumes that an industrial firm has entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, long-term orientation, and relationship orientation. The study mostly focused on the relationships among those strategic marketing orientations. Based on these inter-relationships, the study proposed a set of value co-creation activity criteria such as information seeking, information sharing, personal interaction, responsible behavior, feedback, helping, advocacy, tolerance. Value co-creation has been evaluated by relationship performance such as trust and commitment. The study examined the relationships between strategic marketing orientations and value co-creation. Data was collected from 159 Korean manufacturers in B2B context and analyzed through structural equation modeling. The study provides evidence that entrepreneurial orientation affects market orientation positively and market orientation has positive effects on long-term orientation and relationship orientation, and long-term orientation and relationship orientation influence value co-creation directly. Value co-creation has a positive effect on relationship performance. The results of the study provide valuable implications to the mangers of industrial firms in B2B context. To succeed the value co-creation, the firm first has to look at the difference between strategic marketing orientations that the value co-creation partners pursue. In terms of selecting value co-creation partner, industrial firm with long-term orientation and relationship orientation will be more effective. Six activities of interactions during value co-creation play an important role in enhancing trust and commitment. The study contributes to the value co-creation literature by identifying strategic marketing orientations as independent variable influencing the value co-creation in B2B context. The study has several limitations that call for future research.

This conceptual paper discusses the influence of brand knowledge through various components of personal luxury products’ towards the purchase intention. Rapid shifts in luxury consumers’ behaviours is one of the predominant drivers contributing to the growth of the modern luxury market. In response to this, luxury consumers’ characteristics and profiles need to be reexamined. In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in global luxury consumption with the rise in number of luxury consumers from 140 million to 350 million globally (Bain & Company, 2015). Such a phenomenal growth in the luxury market leads to a widely increased interests among researchers across all disciplines (Truong et al., 2008; 2009, Tynan et al., 2010; Kapferer & Valette-Florence, 2016). In particular, personal luxury goods market is forecast to continue to grow between 2-3 percent through 2020 (Bain & Company, 2016). Despite the fact that personal luxury goods is a major driver of the entire market, there is a limited research in this product category. Two factors of this fast-growing trend stimulate the need for additional research into consumers’ behaviours. First, there has been a shift in luxury consumers’ profile (Hanna, 2004; Fionda & Moore, 2009) and purchasing patterns (Bain & Company, 2015; 2016) where social influences (Dubois et al., 2001; Berthon et al., 2009; Cheah et al., 2015; Yang and Mattila, 2014; Kapferer & Valette-Florence, 2016) and people’s needs for materialism, appearances to enhance their ego and self-concept (Phau & Prendergast, 2000; Kapferer, 2006) are having greater impact on how consumers make their luxury purchase decisions. Second, it appears that the characteristics of the traditional luxury consumers as well as old marketing models from many decades ago need to be redefined (Bain & Company, 2015). Danziger (2005) indicates that the changes in luxury consumers’ purchase decision has created a dramatic shift in the purchase behaviour as a whole, making it difficult for luxury marketers to recognise the trend. To date, existing literature on luxury purchase intention focuses mainly from the cultural, economic, psychological perspectives (Leibenstein, 1950; Veblen, 1899; Bian & Forsythe, 2012; Liu et al., 2012; Wong & Ahuvia, 1998; Vigneron & Johnson, 2004; Shukla, 2012; Cheah et al., 2015) but remains limited on investigating luxury consumers’ behaviours through the integration of brand knowledge domain. Major works from marketing scholars on luxury value perceptions (Wiedmann et al., 2007 and 2009; Vigneron & Johnson, 2004; Shukla, 2012; Shukla & Purani, 2013; De Barnier et al., 2006; Hennigs et al., 2012 and 2013) suggest that they are important in explaining the whole picture of luxury consumption but insufficient in explaining purchase intentions (Shukla, 2012). Kapferer (2006) discusses that it is typical for consumers to identify which brand belongs to the luxury category, however, it could be more complex for the precise definition of luxury to be identified and understood. Therefore, this study seeks to incorporate the branding aspects into the investigation on the significance of brand knowledge towards the intention to purchase personal luxury products. Literature Review The concept of luxury is first explained by Veblen (1899) that the consumption of luxury goods is primarily considered by the affluent consumers with the desire to display their wealth to the relevant significant others. Even though the concept of luxury remains obscure, the clearer definition of luxury is given by Nueno & Quelch (1998) as the “ratio of functional utility to price is low while the ratio of intangible and situational utility to price is high” and that luxury products are beyond an ordinary expensive goods but “an ephemeral status symbol”. Shukla (2010) also defines luxury as the consumption that is not for just oneself but a socially-oriented type of consumption that fulfils the consumers’ own indulgence as well as to serve the “socially directed motives”. The aforementioned definitions of luxury show it is an “elusive concept” (Kapferer, 1998) with “fuzzy frontiers” (Kapferer, 2006). The luxury concept is describes as “incredibly fluid, and changes dramatically” over time and varied among different cultures (Yeoman and McMahon-Beattie 2006). As consumers become richer (Fionda & Moore, 2009) and are able to afford more luxury brands (Nueno & Quelch, 1998), luxury is no longer reserved for the rich but also includes the rising number of aspiring middle-class consumers (Shukla, 2012) who enjoy material comfort (Yeoman & McMahon-Beattie, 2006; Yeoman, 2011: Granot et al., 2013). This change makes the term luxury even more difficult to define (Shukla, 2010) and will continue as an ongoing debate among research scholars (Kapferer & Valette-Florence, 2016). Dubois & Paternault (1995) mention that “luxury items are bought for what they mean, beyond what they are”, this statement defines the nature of luxury brands where consumers often purchase luxury products not merely because of their outstanding quality but because of the name and the symbolic identity the brand provides. Kapferer (1998) recognises the importance in exploring the perception of luxury brands from the end-users themselves because they know best. This also adds to the ongoing complexity and difficulties in giving luxury a discreet definition (Kapferer, 1997 and 1998). The work of Grotts & Johnson (2013) investigates the status consumption of millennial consumers and indicates that it is highly possible that the consumers may not express any interest on the quality of the products but are placing greater emphasis on the ability of the handbags to be recognised and generate attention from their reference groups. With regard to marketing strategy, luxury marketers react to the rapid increase in demand to maintain their position of exclusivity by increasing the price every year in order to secure their clientele (Kapferer, 2015b). Louis Vuitton, Rolex, and Christian Dior increase the price of their products every year to sustain the dream value of the consumers (Kapferer, 2015a; 2015b). It is apparent that most luxury companies are managing the dilemma of maintaining the exclusivity of its products while increasing brand awareness as well as focusing on securing more market share and revenue (Kastanakis & Balabanis, 2012; Berthon et al., 2009). Despite the recognisable shifts in luxury consumption pattern, the sector will continue to grow with the majority of affluent consumers as discussed by Steve Kraus of Ipsos (King, 2015). The most recognisable shift in luxury marketing strategy is on the increasing number of luxury companies offering lower-price products in response to the rising level of demand for luxury consumption by the enthusiastic middle class consumers (Truong et al., 2008; Kastanakis & Balabanis, 2012). Luxury was once reserved for the “happy few” (Veblen, 1899) but this notion is no longer practical for today’s luxury environment where luxury products are “consumed by a larger aspirational segment” (Granot et al., 2013). Democratisation of luxury refers to when luxury brands create a lower-priced accessory items in order to appeal to the broader market, making luxury accessible to those “who could never afford to purchase the principal items in the line” (Nueno & Quelch, 1998) or the new luxury consumers who seeks recognition from luxury purchase. Han et al. (2010) discusses that different classes of consumers can now be distinguished by the brands of purses, watches, or shoes that they own. They let the brands speak for them, whether they prefer the loud Gucci logo or displaying the consumption of a “‘no logo’ strategy” by carrying a Bottega Veneta bag (Han et al., 2010). As Husic & Cicic (2009) state, an important question on today’s luxury consumption that if it is possible for everyone to obtain luxury items, are the brands still considered luxury? This is one of the important agendas concerning luxury consumption that prompts researchers to investigate this changing behaviours and perceptions of luxury consumers. It is also significance to note that the increase in global demand in luxury market is not necessarily positive but could be negative if the demand is not being managed efficiently (Hennigs et al., 2015). Despite frequent changes in luxury consumption patterns, Kapferer & Valette-Florence (2016) argues that it is vital to understand how consumers behave in order for the brands to create and maintain trust and reputation among its consumers. Danziger (2005) argues that the notion of “past behaviour predicts future behavior” may not be applicable to the luxury market. However, the foundation remains where the marketers need to understand the basics about the past and present behaviours in order to offer the products and services at the price that luxury consumers are willing to pay. It is partly due to the minimisation of the possible risks that might occur in purchasing luxury products as stated by Kapferer & Valette-Florence (2016) that “in luxury, no one wants to buy the wrong brand”. In light of these changes in the demand and strategies, a new framework of luxury purchase intention will be presented. This framework integrates brand knowledge in order to accommodate the traditional consumer, who appreciates the brand and its exclusivity, as well as the new buyer who wants recognition. This attempt in merging the two groups of luxury consumers together will highlights how traditional and new luxury consumers make their purchase decisions based on different components of luxury product characteristics as well as different value perception, or that is to say, based on a different levels of brand knowledge. Conceptual Framework Over several decades scholars attempted to agree on a single comprehensive definition for the term ‘luxury’ but have not yet reached that goal because the concept of luxury is highly individual and the market itself is heterogeneous (Hennigs et al., 2013). The definition of luxury, therefore, is very complex to define (Vigneron & Johnson, 1999; Dubois & Duquesne, 1993) due to its “subjective character” (De Barnier et al., 2012) with many diverse facets (Phau & Prendergast, 2000). This study provides a new perspective by looking at the factors that influence luxury purchase intention. Based on the original work of Keller (1993), it is important to understand the structure and content of brand knowledge because these dictate what comes into the consumer’s mind when they think about a brand and what they know about the brand (Keller, 2003). Consumer brand knowledge is defined as the “personal meaning about a brand stored in consumer memory, that is, all descriptive and evaluative brand-related information” (Keller, 2003). Strong, unique, and favorable brand associations must be created with consumers (Kotler & Keller, 2012 and 2016). In luxury consumption, different consumers seek different emotional and functional benefits from luxury brands (Kapferer, 1998), which makes it relevant and significant to investigate the level of influences of brand knowledge and value perceptions on the intention to purchase luxury products. The proposed conceptual framework for this study is presented in Figure 1 in the Appendix section. Managerial Implications This study provides both theoretical and managerial implications. On theoretical grounds, this study provides an enhanced model in investigating the influence of luxury brand knowledge towards luxury purchase intention considering luxury brand characteristics and luxury value perceptions. On managerial perspective, this study provides an update in the modern luxury consumers consumption pattern in terms of what specific characteristics of luxury products they would consider when they intend to purchase. At the same time, this study analyses the types of luxury value perceptions acknowledge by modern luxury consumers towards their purchase decision. In addition, the proposed conceptual framework will take into account the behaviours of traditional luxury consumers, who seems to have been lost due to the increased demand among the new luxury consumers. According to Keller et al. (2012), the marketers of the brand needs to acknowledge the insights to how brand knowledge exists in consumer memory. From the model, marketers can plan and execute efficient marketing and communication strategies for modern luxury consumers given their fast-changing preference in luxury consumption. Following the suggestion from Kapferer & Valette-Florence (2016) which indicates that “luxury is made by brands” and apart from selling luxurious products, the dream is what is attached to the brand logo and name. Therefore, by investigating the relationship between luxury products characteristics along with luxury value perceptions, this study aims to provide a refreshing analysis of today’s luxury consumers and what stimulates them to buy personal luxury products. Further Research A questionnaire will be developed by the integration of the established measurements and scales from the existing luxury consumption and branding literature. A draft of the questionnaire will be reviewed against the literature and the practical insights obtained from the sales associates and experts in the luxury industry for the suitability and clarity of the questions. The final draft of the questionnaire will be pre-test on a small number of respondents from the target audience. The target population for the study is among general luxury consumers. The data collected from the survey will be analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach to model decision process and validate the proposed conceptual framework. Cluster analysis will be used to identify segments of consumers as recommended by Aaker et al. (2013). The anticipated research findings will expand on the degree of influences of the brand knowledge towards the willingness to purchase of personal luxury goods. It is also expected that the research findings will be useful in redefining the existing types of luxury consumers to represent today’s luxury consumers.

This paper attempts to bring the rather dated concept of Cultural Capital (CC) from the sociology literature to luxury retailing; it argues that Visual Merchandise Display (VMD) can enhance the consumers’ intentions to purchase luxury brands but this influence is stronger for consumers with higher CC than for those with lower CC. In particular, we develop a psychometric scale to measure CC and empirically and quantitatively investigate in two experiments the impact of VMD on consumer purchase intentions and the moderating role of CC. Walking first into TK Maxx and then into Harvey Nichols, one could assume that brand perceptions are affected not by the merchandise but rather by the store environment and particularly the way in which the products are visually presented to the consumers. In 2013, Karen Miller announced a substantial remodelling of its stores, including a change in their look to communicate ‘affordable luxury’ (Felsted, 2013). Although the luxury marketers seem to understand the importance of the display in influencing consumer perceptions, academics yet admit to knowing very little about the role of visual merchandising and display on the mechanisms of luxury brand consumption (Joy, Wang, Chan, Sherry, & Cui, 2014). Emerging research in the luxury retailing literature focuses on and explores qualitatively the role of ‘museological’ product presentation techniques in building and sustaining a luxury brand image (Dion & Arnould, 2011; Joy et al., 2014). However, till now, it has not considered that people can differ in their ability (i.e., ‘connoisseurship’) to decode and appreciate such display techniques, which often require substantial investment in fixtures, expensive materials, or complicated designs or architecture. This paper argues that the success of many newly introduced marketing communication techniques, including the tendency of contemporary branding to ‘subtly’ communicate the understated cleverness of a brand, can be subject to the consumers’ level of CC. CC refers to human culture and constitutes an individual characteristic that encompasses consumer’s intangible cultural assets and resources, such as knowledge, personality traits, and values, which manifest via consumers’ lifestyle choices and affect the way they think and act (Bourdieu, 1984; Blackwell, Miniard, & Engel, 2001). We argue that in luxury retailing, where ‘brand museums’ (Hollenbeck, 2008), ‘museological’ product presentation techniques or simply ‘museum like displays’ (Joy et al., 2014) and collaboration with contemporary artists and creative directors (Dion and Arnould, 2011) have been pointed out as new formats of in-store communication, CC can play a crucial role in explaining whether and how much consumers’ purchases can be actually affected. The marketing literature, to date, however, misses a contemporary continuous measure to assess consumers’ CC. In their effort to avoid limitations embedded in prior conceptualisations of CC— which mostly concern its supposed static and inherited nature (McQuarrie, Miller, & Phillips, 2013) —, many studies of consumer behaviour tend to assess CC qualitatively and set criteria to dichotomise a sample into two groups who are somewhat arbitrarily classified as people with either high or low CC; or, they only approximate CC by assessing the participants’ knowledge in a specific field of consumption, which is often a crude proxy for CC and pre-supposes the consumers’ interest-involvement in the investigated field of consumption (McQuarrie et al., 2013). For example, the literature on luxury brands tends to replace CC with fashion knowledge (e.g., Berger & Ward, 2010). Nevertheless, the researchers recognise this replacement as a limitation of their studies and a poor operationalisation of the concept of CC (Berger & Ward, 2010). The present research has three objectives. First, rather than dichotomising people into high and low CC groups, it acknowledges CC as a continuous variable and develops a contemporary psychometric scale to measure the extent to which people within the same culture differ in it. Second, it aims to provide a conceptual framework for understanding a set of mechanisms that explain how consumers’ purchase intentions for a luxury brand can be affected by specific VMD cues which are used for displaying it. Last and more importantly, we want to validate the newly introduced scale in a final experiment that tests whether the process whereby VMD indirectly increases the purchase intentions for luxury brands, depends positively on the consumer’s CC. The first study, which incorporates a qualitative inquiry as well as a purification and a validation study and uses multiple samples, succeeds in developing and validating a psychometric CC scale. In the second study, by conducting an experiment, we develop a model which explains how a combination of specific high-image VMD cues that form a museum-like display affects the consumers’ luxury brand purchase intentions by increasing consumers’ perceptions of luxury and by decreasing their perceived personal risk. This study’s model is, then, re-estimated in the final study after introducing into it the measure of CC. In this experiment, the strength of the basic relationships was found to be contingent on CC, suggesting that consumers with higher CC tend to be more strongly influenced by the store environment cues. Although we recognise that for many consumer behaviour studies in the marketing literature, consumers’ knowledge in fashion represents sufficiently well the concept of CC (e.g., Berger & Ward, 2010; McQuarrie et al., 2013; Parmentier, Fischer, & Reuber, 2013), we show that this might not be the case in the context of store atmospherics. In particular, we test the influence of both CC and fashion knowledge by introducing them together into the same model. Interestingly, CC is found to behave differently and to some extent oppositely to fashion knowledge in influencing consumers’ store-induced perceptions and purchase intentions for the luxury brand on display. The identification of specific VMD cues that form what the luxury retailing literature rather vaguely describes as a ‘museological presentation’ and the measurement of their combined effect as a ‘museum-like display’ on the consumer’s perceptions and behavioural intentions can have important implications for both the offline and online retailers. Our findings can also inform the contemporary brand communication methods, such as the brand’s representation in social media (e.g., in pinterest). Moreover, the measurement of consumer’s level of CC can allow brand managers and retailers to identify receptive segments and make more efficient resource commitments to VMD. Investment in VMD elements can then be better matched to the anticipated target market to avoid either over- or under spending on it. Sales forecasts can also become more accurate if CC could be assessed and considered along with the employed in-store and digital product presentation methods.

The act of gift-giving is one of the most significant consumption rituals that individuals perform world-wide (Antón, Camarero, and Gil, 2014) and represents a substantial industry and a major source of revenue for retailers (Segev, Shoham, and Ruvio, 2013). In addition to its economic significance, gift giving is instrumental in maintaining social bonds and functions as symbolic communication in relationships (Belk, 1979; Belk and Coon, 1993). Various researchers (e.g., Belk and Coon, 1993; Fischer and Arnold 1990; Lowrey, Otnes, and Ruth 2004; Ruth, Otnes, and Brunel 1999; Sherry and McGrath 1989) explore reasons for giving and receiving gifts. Although these studies offer valuable insights into gift giving, research on luxury brands as gifts is scarce (Reyneke, Berthon, Pitt, and Parent, 2011). Similarly, research on luxury concentrates on consumer perceptions of luxury brands and motivations behind luxury consumption (Dubois and Duquesne, 1993; Zhan and He, 2012; Roux, Tafani, and Vigneron, 2017). There is a lack of research on consumer resistance to luxury brands. This paper attempts to address these gaps from a conceptual perspective. Drawing on gift giving, consumer resistance and luxury brand literature, this study will examine consumer resistance to luxury brands as gifts. Consumer resistance is “the way in which individuals or groups practise a strategy of appropriation in response to structures of domination” (Poster, 1992, p.1). Consumer resistance can be generic (toward all forms of consumption), or specific (toward a brand or product) (Nepomuceno, Rohani, and Grégoire, 2017). Moisio and Askegaard (2002) suggested three factors that trigger resistance: market conditions that are deemed unacceptable; products or brands that do not conform to the consumer’s self-image; and dominant cultural values that are rejected due to their hegemonic nature. Key motives for luxury brand consumption include impressing others or interpersonal aspects (Berry, 1994; Kastanakis and Balabanis, 2014), and personal or hedonic reasons (Dubois, Czellar, and Laurent, 2005; Wiedmann, Hennigs, & Siebels, 2009). The reasons for resistance to consumption are not merely the opposite of motives for consumption. Hence, to gain a comprehensive understanding of consumption, it is essential to examine resistance to consumption as an alternative consumption (Roux, 2007; Close and Zinkhan, 2009). This study will contribute theoretically to work on gift giving, consumer resistance and luxury brands. Managerial implications will be relevant to brand managers and how they can develop strategies to prevent consumer resistance to their brands.