Authenticity is an important topic in business activities and society at large. Sustainability management and marketing activities are required as consumers become more interested in society. The consumer evaluation of brand authenticity is a crucial factor in a brand’s reputation and long-term growth, which affects brand loyalty, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and purchase behavior. With this latest trend, luxury brands are paying attention to sustainability activities, but consumer confidence in the sustainability of luxury brands is still low. Experts emphasize that building trust with customers by promising authenticity is a key challenge. Meanwhile, luxury brands are actively communicating with consumers through SNS, such as Instagram. Social media marketing directly and indirectly influences brand authenticity, as well as purchase intentions and eWOM. Nevertheless, there is little exposure to sustainability activities in the social media accounts of luxury brands. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the sustainability activities on the social media of luxury brands and brand authenticity, as well as the effects of brand authenticity on eWOM and purchase intention. For this study, we conducted an online survey targeting individuals with ages of 20–30 years and who are highly interested in society while actively using social media. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 software package. The main finding of this study reveals that consumers are more aware of brand authenticity when they see an Instagram post that includes messages about sustainability rather than a post without any such messages. In addition, brand authenticity has positive effects on eWOM and purchase intention. These findings suggest that sustainability marketing by luxury brands leads to positive consumer response, and the broadcasting of messages about sustainability via social media is effective for the marketing strategy of luxury brands.

It is certainly not possible to analyse the evolution of the global luxury consumers orientations for the new luxury Chinese brands without considering the essence and the impact of the “brandscape”. In the last decade, China has assisted to the surge of the “luxury lifestyle” for a multiplicity of consumer segments living in those coastal areas – and not only - filled with luxury and fashion brands, that invaded every city area from streets to airports from clinics to hotels where concept stores, luxury flagship stores, sponsorships for events and urban artefacts “add value to the symbolic production of an urban lived space” (Bellini and Pasquinelli, 2015). Luxury product brands are enriched by the synergy with the city brand and the diverse fashion and art city locations, activities and events. In the new luxury perspective that sees luxury in its experiential dimension and no longer only in desire of an exclusive object, the relation of luxury brands and city brand requires a specific focus, in particular in the new fast growing economies as China that sees the rise of the new experiential luxury lifestyle and new local luxury brands. In the fast growing luxury Chinese luxury market where new Chinese luxury brands are striving to acquire a brand identity and image first in the local market and then in the international one, city branding may be a conductive solutions for brand value and identity creation. Authentic luxury experiences in significant city contexts appear added value activities for luxury brands in particular for those with no consolidated heritage and identity as the new Chinese luxury brands. New retail formats such as pop-up stores, concept stores located in specific high value artistic or fashion related locations adds value (Bellaiche et al, 2012). For Chinese luxury brands with a very limited identity, a almost absent heritage and a ongoing value creation of the brand, in-store experience is increasingly important (Atsmon et al, 2012) and the shopping location certainly represent an important factor for the increasingly diverse and demanding luxury customers by being not only the instrument towards the desired subjects but also a value-adding experience on its own (Rintamaki et al, 2007, p. 628). The emergence of the Chinese luxury consumer did not mean the presence on a market where the consumers are gathered by the same tastes, desires and purchasing patterns. Reference to the global consumer culture and paradigm evidenced that consumers in diverse geographical contexts may have different and sometimes even conflicting opinions or shared desires and values expressed in similar behaviours or symbols towards a brand. Global brands sets the international standards and convey shared symbols (Holt, Quelch and Taylor 2004) and a myth of cosmopolitanism to which many consumers world-wide appreciate (Strizhacova, Coulter and Price 2008).Brands represent a form of culture and they relate to the way people live, think, eat and choose to wear as well, a form of seeing life and the world (Askegaard, Kjeldgaard and Arnould, 2009) . Luxury brands have become increasingly present in the Chinese consumer market and lifestyle and the role of purchasing luxury goods experiencing a luxury lifestyle has taken an unexpected importance and meaning in the Chinese social context. China has started to experience the consumer culture only after China's opening up to the market economy as a result of the economic reforms post-1979 that have given to "aspirational" consumers more freedom to develop a consumer culture partially away from political limitations but still permeated in the Chinese culture and its characteristics. Those reforms have also given rise to the private businesses and the birth of a consumer middle class, "the new rich", in China. The birth of the Chinese middle class has fuelled the emergence of a highly diversified consumer class with different purchasing attitudes (Latham, 2006) and a new way to express their taste, their motivation for purchasing (Gillette, 2000) and in particular an increasing brand awareness, mode of purchasing and conceptualisation of luxury (Rambourg, 2014; Rovai, 2016). Distinctive aspects of luxury consumer culture have started to emerge in the late years, evidencing new desires for Chinese luxury consumers with respect to luxury brands, accompanied by the entrance in the market of Chinese luxury brands aspiring the capitalise on the increasing "Chinese luxury desire" but limited by their lack of specific characteristics of authentic luxury brands - heritage, identity and prestige amongst others. As a result, this research focuses on the analysis of Chinese luxury brands presence in the local Chinese urban context; specifically, it focuses on how the Chinese urban fashion context can help to support the creation of a luxury brand value and also reinforce a luxury brand identity and image in a Chinese luxury consumer culture that does not possess a luxury heritage. An analysis of two luxury Chinese brands and a local luxury and fashion concept store has been initiated together with further evidence from the Shanghai urban context, its activities, events and cultural specifics together with the following a qualitative method and in particular Yin (1989) case study approach. A series of 15 interviews have been held in late 2016 in Shanghai with the two Chinese luxury brands creative designers, owners and staff during one month together with observation and consulting of documents. Literature review has focused on the role of individual brands that, being somehow associated with the city become a collective brand (Pasquinelli, 2014), framing "the complex network of associations, linking products, spaces, organizations and people (Bellini and Pasquinelli, 2015). Initially, an important attention has been oriented towards the geographical associations to the country-of-origin effect (Bilkey and Nes, 1982; Johansson et al, 1985) later on evidencing that a defragmentation into of smaller geographical units may be appropriate at urban level (Bellini and Pasquinelli, 2015) to highlight the relevance of the "origin" not simply in relation to a broad geographical context where the brand manufactures a product but also „the place, region or country where a brand is perceived to belong‟ (Thakor and Kohli, 1996, p. 26). The origin being not only a matter of product production but more of product conceptualisation, perception or consumption going towards the "brand product usage context" (Gerr et al, 1999). Brand product usage happen in those spatial circuits whose cities are part of and whose role may be conductive to the „local origination‟ of product brands, adding value to the birth and internationalisation of locally originated brands (Pike, 2011). Those local brands are developed from an ecosystem composed by relations and ownerships involving a multiplicity of stakeholders whose customers are an integral part (Power and Hauge, 2008). In the literature, Fashion capitals is a unique case of those ecosystems with a specific relationship between industry and spacial circuits is based on the urban context instrumental to fashion creation and also to consumption (Breward and Gilbert, 2006). The city as a part of the consumer culture and in particular as part of the brand product experience (Thrift, 2004). As a result of the literature review and the conceptualisation of fashion capitals as ecosystems conductive to the fashion creation and consumption, an exploratory study of: Which context related variables affect new Chinese luxury brands identity and value and how the China fashion capital ecosystem affects Chinese luxury consumers brand perception. The paper will show an insight of the instrumental relation of the "brandscape" Shanghai and the impact on the Chinese luxury brands value and identity acquisition with respect to Chinese consumers.

The personal luxury goods market in the Middle-East is the 10th largest in the world, right before Hong-Kong and Russia, which are both well-established markets for luxury products (D’Arpizio, Levato, Zito & Montgolfier, 2015). However, luxury consumer behavior consumption in the Middle-East and its influencing factors have largely been left unexplored. This paper builds on previous research among German luxury consumers and investigates the formation of brand love and its impact on willingness-to-pay among Arab luxury consumers. Compared with the German study, it is found that Arab luxury consumers show weaker brand love tendencies. In addition, materialistic characteristics and tendencies for conspicuous consumption among Arab consumers strongly influence brand love in the context of luxury fashion and accessories, which confirms previous findings. Results further document that for Arab luxury consumers neither conspicuous consumption tendencies nor brand love can be interpreted as a predictor for an increase in willingness to pay. Hence, for those consumers, long-lasting emotional consumer-brand relationships are not responsible for generating additional profits and do not explain why the willingness to pay for luxury goods was significantly higher among Arab consumers. Finally, results indicate that though some elements of luxury consumption are shared among German and Arab luxury consumers (e.g. fashion involvement, the evaluation of particular brands, gender and brand love tendencies) there are significant differences in terms of e.g. brand preferences, general willingness to pay for luxury fashion and accessories and willingness to pay for conspicuous luxury goods. This research provides insights into the formation of brand love among Arab luxury consumers and how it informs luxury consumption. Moreover, it sheds light on similarities and differences across the two samples and increases the understanding of luxury consumption in a broader geographic context.

On the one hand, organic food consumption has emerged as a rapidly growing consumption trend, juxtaposed against the unsustainability of industrialized food provisions. On the other hand, recent reports highlight that premium food consumption is one of the fastest growing luxury market segments worldwide. This paper draws on the theory of social practices in order investigate how organic food consumption can be understood as an emerging luxury fashion trend, comprised of multiple interrelated ‘nexuses of doings and sayings’ that represent the elements of, and situated within the broader context of consumer culture. In this endeavour, we have conducted a situated investigation of organic food consumption in South Korea. Our findings illustrate that Korean consumers engage in organic food consumption not merely for their superior health benefits or sustainability concerns. Instead, organic consumption conveys three distinct consumption value types – namely, functional (e.g., superior quality), experiential (e.g., feeling better about themselves because they purchase eco-friendly produce), and symbolic (e.g., allows them to convey their social status). Importantly, when these value types are taken together, they closely resemble the value derived from luxury fashion, which lead us to the conclusion that organic food consumption can be conceived as a particular type of luxury fashion trend. The paper concludes with the discussion of theoretical contributions and managerial implications.

Price has always had a key role in the luxury fashion market, because high prices are linked to the prestige of luxury products. Because of this, scholars have neglected the possible existence of unintuitive and controversial pricing strategies followed by luxury firms. This article deals with this literature gap, analysing the odd even price strategy. With the direct observation of physical and digital store windows of 20 luxury brands, this research examines the relationship between odd even price strategy and the luxury level of fashion brands considering both offline and online channels

State of the Art: Sustainability Integration in the Luxury Fashion Industry Introduction to Luxury Fashion ‘Luxury’, which comes from the Latin word ‘luxus’, refers to exaggerated life, glamour, comfort and wealth (Dubois, Czellar & Laurent, 2005). In the ancient world, luxury was associated with wealth, exclusivity, and power. After the 17th century, European countries’ economic democratization contributed to the reduction of existing sumptuary laws. Trade increased and larger segments of the population began to afford luxury products. Consequently, luxury moved from being limited to serve the common good to being a satisfaction of private needs. At the end of the 19th century, following the second industrial revolution, luxury earned its modern meaning of being enjoyable beyond the necessities of life (Fionda and Moore, 2009). The democratization of luxury resulted in mass luxury in which luxury brands have extended themselves to affordable offerings (Cristini et al., 2017). Luxury was long associated with the premium quality (Brun and Castelli, 2013), whereas today the technical reproduction of luxury is indulged by mass-produced brands (Cristini et al, 2017). Thus, one could argue that commercial drivers have taken over the industry whereby executives are increasingly seeking ways to transform creativity into profitability. Accordingly, the luxury market has experienced noticeable growth. The global luxury goods market reached a value of € 1.081B, with a growth rate of 4%, in 2016 (Bain & Company, 2016). Nevertheless, despite growth and high profit margins, the global fashion market is affected by macroeconomic, socio-political and natural events. For example, the short-term doubling in cotton prices brought many problems in 2011. Furthermore, scarce natural resources and rising commodity prices greatly challenge the ability of luxury fashion companies to remain profitable. The new luxury paradigm of being more accessible challenges not only sustainability but also operational aspects. The reputation of the luxury industry suffers from consumer concerns over poor labour standards in production, blood diamonds, irresponsible gold-mining practices and animal cruelty in global production networks (Hennigs et al, 2013; Moore, 2011). We therefore question how and to what extent luxury could play a positive role in our mass-consuming generation to slow down the pace for materialism and to better implement sustainability in globally dispersed production networks. Whilst sociologists, marketing and branding experts, have shown interest in luxury management, researchers in the field of operations and supply chain management have paid little attention to the topic: the first paper in the field appeared less than a decade ago (Brun et al., 2008), and furthermore, as of January 2017, there appear to be only 87 papers published in Scopus-indexed journals with ‘‘supply chain OR oper*’’ AND ‘’luxury’’ in the keywords. Henceforth, the current financial, environmental, economic and cultural crises could be considered significant drivers for how luxury operations could be advanced in the move toward sustainability. The focus of this paper is luxury personal goods such as fashion and accessories. The Relevance of Sustainability for Luxury Fashion Following the supply chain revolution of the 1990’s (Mohanty and Prakash, 2013) and the removal of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement in 2005, the fashion industry has become a global force in production and distribution. Globalisation has led to increasing outsourcing of production by fashion companies to a network of suppliers and subcontractors. The industry is characterized by shorter product life cycles and highly volatile market demand (Choi, 2013) alongside downward price pressure, international sourcing, high product variety and low predictability (Perry and Towers, 2013). To this end, fashion companies rely on sophisticated information and logistics systems to remain competitive in the market. Nonetheless, the fashion industry is somewhat inflexible toward major external changes outside the organizations’ direct control (Kozlowski et al., 2015). There is also a potential conflict between corporate responsibility and overarching commercial pressures in the fashion industry (Perry et al., 2015). According to the definition of sustainable development by The United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987), current needs should be met without endangering future generations’ rights to satisfy theirs. Luxury fashion companies must therefore acknowledging resource scarcity and other sustainability issues, and take collective actions for an authentic shift to create unique and sustainable businesses. To be profitable and sustainable, “luxury companies must adjust their definition of excellence that is no longer associated with shallow glamour but with positive engagement and deeper values” (Hennigs et al, 2013, p.33). An Overview of Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) Sustainability in SCM has captured academics’ interest since the early 1990s. Despite the growing interest, some fundamental issues still need to be addressed to provide novel models. The majority of the practices that make up green supply chain management (GSCM) models are modifications of existing practices (Pagell and Wu, 2009). However, earlier studies also stress that these programs might not be sufficient to become sustainable. Hence, it would be insightful to examine which components and which practices are required to make ‘sustainable’ chains. Social sustainability also requires deeper consideration. Wu and Pagell (2011) investigated how organizations deal with short-term pressures to remain economically viable during sustainability implementation, but did not consider social aspects of sustainability. Lee and Klassen (2008) identified the important drivers and enablers which promote environmental management capabilities in SME suppliers, but did not address social sustainability or specific measures for suppliers’ environmental management capabilities. Zhu and Cote (2004) and Vachon and Klassen (2006) demonstrated how to extend green practices, but again social aspects were not encompassed. Similarly, Caniato et al (2012) identified drivers that push companies to adopt green practices, various practices that could be used to advance environmental sustainability and environmental performance indicators measured by fashion companies. However, the social component was excluded. The recognition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a business activity is highlighted by the launch of ISO 26000; nonetheless, as illustrated earlier, extant SCM literature has mostly neglected the social aspects of sustainability. Despite a number of studies on aspects including social responsibility and consumer trust (Castaldo et al., 2008), sustainability reporting (Lozano and Huisingh, 2011), sustainable supply management (Ageron, Gunasekaran, & Spalanzani, 2012), and supplier selection problems (Jia et al., 2015), social issues demand more investigation (Perry and Towers, 2013). Sustaining an efficient global supply chain without compromising social responsibility (Perry et al., 2015). Embedding social and environmental management into SCM is needed yet challenging. Significant progress has been made in studies of the buyer-supplier relationship over the past decades, however despite some notable exceptions on green SCM (Zhu and Cote 2004; Zhu et al. 2008; Yu et al. 2014), the development of SSCM literature appears to focus on a single entity rather than the entire chain or network. Social and environmental performance of suppliers is an area of mounting concern, and collectively, sufficient coordination between supply chain partners is greatly needed. Many small and medium-sized suppliers encounter challenges in responding to environmental pressures due to limited capabilities and available resources (Lee and Klassen, 2008), and the most critical environmental and social issues in supply chains are generated by suppliers located in the second tier or further upstream (Tachizawa and Wong, 2014). Therefore, a holistic examination of the entire chain is required. In this vein, Pagell and Wu (2009) examined the chain as an entirety by explicitly addressing both environmental and social outcomes and by asking what unique behavioural patterns are needed for SSCM. However, the adoption of some of the practices is quite limited, which suggests the existence of additional contingencies. Their study called for future studies to explore the role of specific industries e.g. textiles. To this end, Ho and Choi (2012) investigated why fashion companies go green and evaluated sustainable supply chains. Nevertheless, the study was a single case study and did not consider potential differences in terms of antecedents affecting small and large companies. Curwen et al. (2013), interestingly, sought to document current challenges the fashion and apparel industry faces while developing sustainable apparel. Yet again, an imperative need arises to further explore the connections among product design, production processes and supply chain stages through a multidisciplinary approach. On the whole, the phenomena of sustainability has been interpreted in a variety of ways, ranging from a philosophical perspective to business management approaches (Ahi and Searcy, 2013), but more research is needed to show more than how to be ‘less unsustainable’. Traditional business research must go beyond studies focusing on profit with a rather short-term orientation and instead embrace components of how to create truly sustainable businesses. Considering the aforementioned gaps observed in the extant literature, the following research questions were formulated to investigate the phenomena of social and environmental sustainability at supply chain level within the luxury context, where ethical aspects are becoming increasingly critical for success (Brun and Castelli, 2013). RQ1: How do luxury fashion companies integrate sustainability into their supply networks? RQ2: How do contingent factors impact sustainability integration in luxury fashion supply networks? RQ3: Which behavioural patterns could be used to develop a sustainable supply chain configuration for the luxury fashion industry? Research Methodology Data was drawn from case studies of two Italian supply chains producing luxury silk and leather goods, encompassing 10 companies, with a focus on the individual supply chain as the level of analysis. These two supply chain were theoretically sampled to provide diversity in organizational characteristics and supply network relationships that could explain different approaches to the integration of sustainability into the entire chain. The research design followed Yin (1994) and previous studies in operations and SCM. Face to face interviews were conducted with senior managers of different functions in each supply chain during 2015-16. In most of the companies, responsibility for sustainability was divided and integrated into the jobs of multiple managers, meaning that there was no single individual assigned to sustainability. Additionally, the managers interviewed were often in charge of one or more functions, which helped reduce the number of interviews but increased interview content. The interview topic guide was developed from the literature review, and the theoretical constructs underpinning the interview protocol were then used to create an initial coding scheme for data. Data analysis was done inductively, by developing a framework from the cases while exploiting the theoretical concepts in the categorization of codes. The coding process was followed for all cases as an iterative process to assure consistency. Coding was not considered complete until a consensus was reached on each construct. Data analysis involved within and cross-case analysis. Results: Toward a Framework for Sustainable Luxury Supply Chains This study explored the luxury fashion industry from supply chain and operations management standpoint. Findings revealed seven key categories by which luxury fashion companies integrated environmental and social sustainability into their operations: Category 1: Sustainable product design, Category 2: Operations management, Category 3: Performance measurement, Category 4: Sourcing management, Category 5: Decent work and labour management, Category 6: Commitment to sustainability and organisational perceptions and Category 7: Longevity of suppliers. Firstly, natural resource scarcity was acknowledged by all 10 companies. To this end, some practices, including use of eco-friendly materials, hazardous chemical elimination, textile waste reuse, were applied to the fashion design stage with an attempt to mitigate the environmental impact of subsequent operations. Life cycle assessment (LCA was observed to be a significant tool among sample companies. Nonetheless, higher investment costs to employ more innovative solutions and to advance laboratory tests, higher prices for more ecological materials, and lack of knowledge in terms of fibre and textile components due to supply chain complexity prevented companies from advancing product stewardship. Regarding operations management, water emerged as a significant area where sample companies implemented incremental techniques, including natural tanning, on-site wastewater treatment, water purification and water reuse. Nevertheless, vertical integration, which was getting weaker in the luxury fashion industry, resulted in fashion companies having difficulties in the execution of their suppliers’ environmental performance. Practices implemented in this category were individual company attempts rather than collective action plans. It was not quite feasible to mitigate the environmental impact of independent networks where the buying firm outsourced its business functions to third party suppliers. In order to deal with lack of control and monitoring, sustainability must be understood as a concept to be integrated into the core business strategy with measurable indicators. Furthermore, traceability emerged as a pivotal topic. However, the complexity of global luxury fashion supply chains brought complications. Both supply chains showed that there was lack of knowledge about products’ production history. Due to globalization, countries with low operational costs appeared to leverage their competitive advantage. Changing market conditions resulted in the loss of, for example, silk production in Italy. Silkworm cultivation did not take place in Italy any longer, resulting in confusion regarding outsourced materials’ environmental and social records. High product variety and fragmentation of the production network made it difficult for companies to ensure full traceability. To this end, trust and knowledge transfer were weak, which could be improved to link non-economic goals with financial objectives. Another interesting result was that supplier audits were mostly made within first tier direct suppliers’ facilities. In some cases suppliers were provided with online self-assessment tools that were monitored by buying firms. Yet, buying firms and manufacturers required more efficient inspection methods and more realistic mitigation strategies. Ensuring social sustainability is hindered by complications such as lack of visibility and financial burdens. Consequently, technical and motivational dynamic capability development needed to be proactively initiated by focal companies. As stressed by earlier studies, sustainability must be a shared effort within all functions of a company and across its supply network. Sustainability could be disseminated across the chain only when all supply chain actors, including retailers, suppliers and sub-contractors, connect, understand and collaborate with each other. Correspondingly, it became clear that sustainability management required strong organizational commitment for which an alignment between financial and non-financial goals was greatly required. Hence, education and training activities received growing attention. In conclusion, the sample companies asked their supply chain partners to become sustainable for two main reasons, (i) to make the chain stronger, and (ii) to jointly learn and improve performance. Long-term relationships and supplier stability, as evidenced in the leather supply chains, could cultivate trust, which would result in advanced organizational and operational performance improvements. Supplier engagement and collaboration associated with knowledge dissemination could further enable companies to improve sustainability, and lastly innovation capabilities were imperative.

Luxury goods are characterised by a series of traits such as exclusivity, rarity, premium price, high quality and aesthetic value, but also to specific methods of production that focus on notions of excellent workmanship carried out by expert craftspeople. This paper focuses on the problematic relationship between craftsmanship and the luxury fashion industry by examining how representations of craftsmanship are employed by luxury fashion labels in their communication strategies. In particular, the strategies employed by Dolce&Gabbana will be examined. It will be argued that the label has emphasised in its online communication the craftsmanship involved in the creation of its products, but it will be observed how that element is presented only in association to limited categories of goods, and not to the totality of products that are associated to the name of the fashion brand. The case study of Dolce&Gabbana will be explored with regards to the role that the label's online communication strategies attributes to notions of Italian handmade craftsmanship, and in this sense those practices will be examined in terms of national identity. This phenomenon will also be contextualised in terms of the contemporary marketing strategies employed by luxury fashion labels and the relationship they hold with regards to traditional conceptualisations of luxury.

Some clothing manufacturers and retailers use attractive endorsers on their advertising. However, according to recent research, consumers with low body esteem evaluate the clothing items more negatively when they try them on in the fitting room and find that they are inferior to the attractive advertising endorser wearing the same items (Dahl, Argo, & Morales, 2012). Is it always true? Should clothing companies not use attractive endorsers? When Dahl, et al. (2012) emphasized the negative impact of an attractive endorser and discussed body esteem, they implicitly assumed body-related consumption, in which consumers wear clothing items to enrich their physical appearance. However, other research on fashion has suggested that consumers often wear clothing items for self-expression (e.g., Piacentiti & Malier, 2004). Luxury fashion brands have been particularly regarded as symbols of wealth, so consumers wear luxury fashion clothing items to show off their high status (Shavitt, 1989; Wilcox, Kim & Sen, 2009). Thus, status-related consumption should be considered in addition to body-related consumption. Considering status-related consumption, this research introduces another kind of self-esteem, i.e., status esteem, which refers to how confident consumers are in their status. Assuming that there are two types of self-esteem, body esteem (or external esteem) and status esteem (or internal esteem), both of which are related to clothing, we hypothesize that consumers low in status esteem will evaluate a status-related product more positively than consumers high in status esteem when their consumption aligns (vs. when it does not align) with an attractive endorser even though they are low in body esteem. To test the hypothesis, we conducted three laboratory experiments. The result of multiple regression analysis showed that our hypothesis was supported. By suggesting that even consumers with low body and status esteem can evaluate status-related product positively, when finding that they are inferior to the advertising endorser in terms of body, this research expands our understanding on how attractive advertising endorsers affect consumer evaluation of clothing items focusing on two kinds of selfesteem, body and status esteem.

Despite the positive outcomes of brand-consumer interactions on social media documented in the literature, an important question still remains: Are active brand-consumer interactions always beneficial to luxury fashion brands? This study argues that such interactions may undermine the core perceptions of the brands by making consumers feel too close to the brands. Drawing upon construal level theory of psychological distance, the purpose of this study is to examine the negative effects of brand-consumer interactions on perceptions of luxury fashion brands (i.e., social perception, uniqueness perception, quality perception) in a social media context. Two experimental studies were conducted. The purpose of Study 1 was to test the hypothesis that luxury brands, compared to mainstream brands, will be perceived as more psychologically distant and abstract. Study 1 used a 2 (brand category: luxury vs. mainstream) x 2 (brand replicates) mixed-model design in which the brand category was a between-subject factor and the brand replicates were a within-subject factor. Fifty-nine subjects recruited from Amazon MTurk participated in the study. The results of Study 1 revealed that luxury brands are inherently psychologically distant than mainstream brands. The purpose of Study 2 was to test the impact of brand-consumer interactions (i.e., high vs. low) and the mediating role of psychological distance on the three perceptions of luxury brands (i.e., social perception, uniqueness perception, quality perception) on social media. A single factor between-subjects design was used, and a total of 74 participants were recruited from Amazon MTurk. To manipulate the level of consumer-brand interaction (high vs. low), two versions of a luxury brand’s mock Facebook pages were created. For the high interaction condition, the brand responded to consumers’ posts in a friendly way and displayed the images of user photos. For the low interaction condition, the brand did not respond to consumers’ posts and displayed no images of users. As predicted, the results showed that participants indicated lower brand perceptions when the brand’s social media page displayed a high level of interactions than a low level of interactions. Moreover, formality, a measure of psychological distance, partially mediated the relationship between brand-consumer interactions and all the three brand perceptions. The findings of this study provide empirical evidence that active consumer-brand interactions on social media do not necessarily benefit luxury fashion brands, rather they can damage consumer perceptions of the brands. This study provides important implications that luxury fashion brands should maintain a sacred distance on social media; otherwise it will undermine important perceptions of the brands such as status signaling, exclusivity, and quality.

Starting from the analysis of possible antecedents, the study aims at investigating the luxury fashion vintage purchasing drivers. Luxury fashion vintage market is a specific sub-segment of the vintage sector which is currently the protagonist of an overwhelming trend which is still unexplored and neglected by recent academic research.

Given the recent modest growth of the personal luxury good market and the urge to face difficulties through innovative brands’ marketing communication strategies, this paper examines the potentialities of tactical associations between luxury fashion brands and furniture design. Results indicate that there can be positive repercussions deriving from luxury fashion brands and furniture design interconnections. In particular, associations with collectable furniture design may help to define and enhance brands’ luxury values whilst providing consumers with innovative and creative luxury brand experiences. Future expectations in this market show a compound annual rate (CAGR) of 3% to 4% through 2020, to just about €280 billion. This is dramatically slower than the past fast growth experienced from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s. In this scenario, luxury fashion managers and marketers must envision new strategies to succeed and surpass competition. In order to be competitive and successful, luxury brand managers must take into account current market dynamics and find pertinent and substantial solutions. This paper shifts its attention to the identification of how in such a difficult scenario different cultural industries can meet in order to mutually enhance their circuits of value. Some studies have demonstrated that in order to meet such new global challenges, luxury fashion firms may discover strategic opportunities in art (Codignola, 2016). Given their symbolic connotation and aesthetic value, high-end furniture design items are more and more perceived as art works exchanged in art auctions or fairs, collected and purchased by collectors, exhibited in galleries or museums. At the same time, furniture design goods show some divergences from conventional art works (i.e. functionality, reproducibility, etc.) and some correspondences with fashion goods. By observing the luxury fashion sector, one may then find--for different sets of reasons--more than one interesting intersection with the furniture design sector. By taking into account the furniture design sector within its specific market features and goods, this paper argues that through furniture design LFBs can develop engaging creative and innovative brands’ marketing communication strategies. Compared to art, such strategies would be able to add value and strengthen LFBs’ luxury features even in a more effective way.

The willingness to actively contribute to more sustainability bares important challenges for managers who must take strategic decisions. The literature about corporate social responsibility has developed in many directions, with often a divide in focus, between society (Acquier & Aggeri, 2015) or corporate sustainability and responsibility (Bansal & Song, 2017). The paper sits at the intersection of these fields by focusing on the question of ethical dilemmas. The objective is to approach the question of ethics in context, through the trade-offs that managers are facing when taking strategic decisions to build sustainable business models, to discuss the contours of the ethical competences at work. The paper focuses on a specific context, the one of successful pure players of sustainability in the luxury fashion industry. It means first that we leave aside the question of organizational change to analyze the core dilemmas that even new actors that start from scratch must face. These pure players could also be named “social entrepreneurs” (Elkington & Hartigan, 2008) or “elegant disrupters” (Bendell & Thomas, 2013). Second, by focusing on luxury fashion we locate our analysis in an industry where the nature of the activity is both a source of salient controversies and of exemplary practices (Kapferer, 2010; Godart & Seong, 2014), two aspects that have the potential to make visible some dilemmas. We focus on a small number of cases of organizations that we selected per criteria of similarities and differences, to allow for an inductive in-depth comparative case study (Yin, 2009). The four organizations are: a producer of yak products, a fur recycling company, a fur auction house and a digital platform for emerging designers. The cases are similar in that each organization is a successful promoter of sustainable practices. The four cases however differ in that each puts at the core of the business model different types of sustainability issues and is based at a different level of the value chain (sourcing, fabrication, intermediation and market access). Also, the four organizations differ in the degree to which they aim to disrupt existing practices in the luxury fashion industry. Data were collected through a series of interviews and complementary press articles, websites and reports. Data analysis proceeds in two steps. We start by narrating each case through the voice of the organization, to describe and understand the rationale behind each business model. We then further our interpretation of the cases through a comparative analysis by systematically recording the tensions or contradictions. Each firm organizes the activity around key engaging choices that promote sustainability but do not lift some inbuilt dilemmas–labelled as: sustainability vs. luxury fashion, sustainability vs. sustainability, and sustainability today vs. tomorrow. The paper highlights how innovative players can openly discuss some dilemmas, approaching sustainability as a story they care about but also as a debate. Yet, the paper also points to the fact that some dilemmas may remain harder to reflect upon, especially the ones that can counter in the long-run the objectives that were at the base of the business. Some questions as the one of growth, in time and scale, might push far the reflexive ability but it is also where ethical competences might be the most needed.

Consumers nowadays are looking for luxury brands that are able to fulfil their values. Luxury fashion marketers have spent enormously on advertising and adopted sex appeal extensively as their major selling technique. Little empirical evidence, however, has been presented with regards to the effectiveness of using sex appeal in luxury fashion advertising. Consumer responses to sex appeal in luxury brand advertisements are also poorly understood and under-investigated. The massive use of sex appeal in luxury brand advertising suggests the strong need for empirical research to determine the relationship between sex appeal and perceived luxury values. Based on the luxury value framework and adopting a quasi-experimental design, this study examines the influence of sex appeal in advertising on the relationships between attitude towards the advertisement and luxury value perceptions. Results show that the increase of sex appeal level increases the favourability of the advertisement which results in significant changes in luxury value perceptions. The influence of gender is found to be prominent in this study, which highlights the importance of gender consideration when adopting sex appeal strategy for any luxury brand advertising. Implications for luxury brand marketers and advertisers are discussed.

One of the most significant challenges of modern strategic marketers refers to the ability of expressing the authentic value of fashion brand. This is particularly important for luxury goods, which are able to effectively impact on customers’ social attitude and behavior. Hence, pertinent literature is progressively focusing on the role of authenticity as a strategic element for marketing theory. Specifically, three elements have been associated with brand’s authenticity, namely quality commitment, heritage, and sincerity. In the present research we apply a validated empirical instrument concerning brand authenticity and its aforementioned three elements. Precisely, we will present and discuss the results of a survey implemented in the Tuscany region (Italy), thus aiming at investigating possible differences and/or similarities characterizing Tuscan customers’ perception of luxury brand authenticity. A structural equation model will be conceptualized and assessed in order to analyze the existing relationships between brand’s authenticity elements, namely quality commitment, heritage, and sincerity. The results confirm the hypothesized significance of these relationships among variables. Further, we will introduce the notion of mythopoiesis, which will be interpreted as a strategic vehicle able to appropriately communicate the traditional values, culture, and historical symbolic meanings of luxury fashion brand. Actually, marketing mythopoiesis results in being an effective element for translating a historical ‘stock’ of heritage into a strategic ‘flow’ of narrative capabilities by marketing managers.

Consumers and sources are embedded in cultural contexts that influence how those sources are read. We examine how consumers stigmatized for being fat collectively read advertisements for luxury fashion brands featuring plus-sized sources. We unveil individual and cultural resources stigmatized consumers rely on to collectively develop readings of advertising sources.

Luxury consumption is intrinsically related to unusual expectations from the consumers, among which some are equally shared around the globe. For instance, Europeans, Americans and Asians claim that luxury products should be flawless and their producers (i.e. the luxury brands) should have some history and heritage (Wiedmann et al., 2007). What they put behind these two last notions can fluctuate, but they are systematically stressed out in studies, be they academic or applied, qualitative or quantitative. Therefore, it sounds fundamental for the luxury Maisons to communicate on their heritage and history (Wiedmann et al., 2012). While until the end of the XXth century brands could rely upon different message content and copy to do so, due to localized options of communication, the Internet has implied to complete revision of their approach. The Maisons’ websites, even if available in different languages, are unique platforms to showcase the brand’s history, ambience and offering to a worldwide audience. They should be able to reach consumers, both cognitively and emotionally, recreate the store atmosphere, while simultaneously stimulating some desire to discover new collections. They stand for an open-window on a boundary-free world, be it from the geographical or from the time point of view. However, as pointed out by academics and professionals from the very beginning, the road is paved with risks, especially in terms of brand image management (Geerts & Veg-Sala, 2012). This comes from the apparent non-compatibility between luxury and the online environment. However, such discrepancies have led to a complete redefinition of the luxury concept, with its new semiotics economy (Maman & Kourdoughli, 2014). Part of it is ‘heritage and history’, with little surprise. We can therefore raise the issue of a lack of academic research regarding how such Maisons communicate about their history (even if short) and heritage on their website, be it an institutional or a transactional one. The only studies we have found deal with the automotive sector (Wiedmann et al., 2011) or watch one (Baum, 2011), the second one being a Master’s thesis. It is the objective of the present study to fill in this gap, and to uncover the various ‘signs’ used by luxury brands to communicate their heritage and heritage to their worldwide audience. Besides, we wanted to understand whether different semiotic systems were used by French vs. Italian luxury brands, and whether other variables such as the place of origin or the ‘age’ of the Maison would lead to different signs. To reach this goal, we used a two-pronged approach. First we gathered data from 56 websites of fashion luxury brands, using an inductive approach of content analysis (Kim & Kuljis, 2007). A coding grid was thus built while data was collected, with a back and forth coding process. We also built upon the Gestalt principles to ‘judge’ whether the websites were more focused on 1) current fashion trends, 2) the brand itself or its designer(s), 3) the products offered, or 4) the past of the brand. A first researcher built the grid and filled it in, while a second one directly used the grid for coding. The two coding outcomes were confronted and discrepancies discussed until agreement was reached. Then, major trends and clusters were identified from the data, leading us to understand the various sign-systems used by the Maisons, using Peircian semiotics. We end-up our study with theoretical conclusions regarding the online communication of luxury fashion brands, and with practical recommendations for luxury brand managers.

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

Storytelling has become increasingly of interest for marketing and management in the last years and promises both aesthetic design and effecting consumers’ perception of fashion brands positively. Nevertheless, the complexity of story design, still being rather focussed by the humanities, and its effective adaption for luxury fashion brands regarding value perception and related behavioural consequences are still poorly understood and have not been explored so far. We seek to fill this research gap. In our study, we chose a luxury brand’s existing story and applied story concepts of narratology to rearrange plot, characters, and style first. In a second step, we examined the effect of applying the story concepts by testing the perception of three different groups (no story, original story, and rearranged story). Using PLS path modelling, we proved our hypotheses empirically. Our examination suggests that an application of narrative concepts for creating fashion brand stories has a measurable impact on consumer’s reception and behavioural outcome. On the one hand, this involves dimensions of luxury value, such as financial, functional, individual, and social consumer perceptions as well as an overall likability perception of the brand. On the other hand, this perception obviously impacts consumption habits regarding luxury fashion as much as it is related to recommendation behaviour, willingness to pay a premium price, and purchase intentions. Our findings strongly advice to consult established theories, concepts, and models of the humanities for storytelling in marketing and management. While measuring specific elements already proves their applicability, it will be a major task for theoretical and qualitative research to discuss existing material for the demands of marketing and management as well as (fashion) brands. Even for professionals in brand management, our study advices to have a closer look on traditional storytelling concepts to create effective campaigns. The particular value of our study is to present and empirically verify design elements of storytelling with respect to theoretical narrative approaches, which may have specific impact on certain luxury values and their causal effects on luxury fashion consumption. Our results reflect remarkable implications for luxury brand management as well as future research in luxury fashion, brand management, and marketing storytelling. A luxury company may stimulate purchase behaviour with a storytelling campaign. Nevertheless our study proved that a rather appropriate design, respecting research approaches of narratology, is able to increase the impact on consumers’ perception and behavioural outcome.

The purpose of this paper is to examine affluent consumers’ emotions and loyalty toward luxury fashion brands’ flagship stores. A total of 138 participants were recruited. The results show product quality and other customers’ behaviors are the two factors that can affect affluent customers’ positive and negative emotions.