Despite important theoretical implications seldom research exist regarding the impact of luxury parent brand status signaling on the evaluation of horizontal line extension through the moderating role of extension authenticity, quality and fit. The luxury literature review revealed that despite important theoretical implications seldom research exist regarding the impact of luxury parent brand status signaling on the evaluation of horizontal line extension through the moderating role of extension authenticity, quality and fit. Research has examined how consumers use luxury goods to signal their status or relative position in social hierarchies (Berger & Ward 2010; Dubois et al., 2012; Geiger-Oneto et al., 2013; Kastanakis, & Balabanis, 2014) but until the current study the luxury literature could not support the extent to which status signaling impact line extension’s evaluation through the moderating role of extension authenticity (Spiggle, Nguyen, & Caravella, 2012; Beverland & Farrelly, 2010; Morhart et al., 2015; Guèvremont & Grohmann, 2016). Previous studies have found that authenticity can be to emotional attachment (Morhart et al., 2015), help pursue personal goals (Beverland & Farrelli, 2010), or relevant to brand identity, status and equity (Guevremont & Grohmann, 2016). Surprisingly, none of these studies has empirically tested this important relationship. This study’s contribution to the literature is important as it empirically confirms that in launching a new line extension, a luxury parent brand’s status signaling will directly impact the extension’s evaluation. In the process, the perceived authenticity of the extension proves to affect the evaluation significantly if the perceived quality and fit of the extension are taken into consideration in the measurement framework.

This research explored how experiencing a country’s cultural heritage influences consumers’ authenticity evaluation of its luxury brands. It showed authenticity was culturally constructed and perception was influenced by marketing means selectively exposing the consumers to different brand attributes. It contributes to transcultural research by linking cultural attributes to brand authenticity attributes.

This study targets Korean culture theme park in Yeongju-Zone and World confucian scholar culture park in Bonghwa-Zone among the Three Major Cultural Areas Projects supervised by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The study analyzes the Historical and Cultural Authenticity of each project on the basis of the reports and the report materials for meeting with related organizations. The results of the study are drawn as follows. First, through the theoretical consideration, this study drew the types of authenticity: originality, identity, specificity and visibility, which are evaluation items on the Historical and Cultural Authenticity. Second, Bonghwa-Zone succeeded in acquiring originality with tangible cultural properties but Yeongju-Zone chose a project site without it. Third, with originality, Bonghwa-zone was evaluated as having resources and concept with high traditional culture connectivity and fulfilled identity. It led the feature showing the high affinity between originality and identity. Fourth, compared to the projects of Andong-Zone in the Three Major Cultural Areas Projects, these two projects failed to acquire the distinctions since the primary and the secondary influence area and major facilities & programs coincided with those of the projects of Andong-Zone. Fifth, compared to Bonghwa-Zone, Yeongju-Zone realized visibility faithfully by the conceptual flexibility of "Korean Culture" and a large-scale development. Sixth, in terms of the Historical and Cultural Authenticity of project plan, it is evaluated that Yeongju-Zone and Bonghwa-Zone only fulfilled visibility and specificity respectively.