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In today's world, retailers must embrace technological devices to provide fluid, convenient and complete customer experiences. Therefore, combining the offline and online spaces into a single strategy becomes essential, representing a significant opportunity for retailers to improve customer experience. Therefore, this study aims to explore and compare the importance of digital elements in an omnichannel experience by companies in the luxury and non-luxury segments.

The research offers a model to explore and compare the omnichannel strategies that brands use, considering six dimensions that cover recent technological advances, thus offering a complete experience to their customers. A multiple case study was selected based on a sample of six international companies from two different price segments (luxury and non-luxury).

The data collected allowed the authors to verify the presence of some dimensions, even though some had little evidence. Nevertheless, the dimensions connectivity, innovativeness and flexibility (only in luxury segment companies) were not present. Overall, and even though they present just little evidence, the results showed that retailers for the luxury segment invest more in delivering digital experiences within omnichannel strategies than the non-luxury ones.

This study improves the existing knowledge of omnichannel retailing. By analysing and comparing the omnichannel experiences, companies can identify areas for improvement and enhance the overall customer journey. Additionally, the model allows managers to compare and re-evaluate their omnichannel strategies with other competitors to gain competitiveness in an ever-evolving market.

The purpose of this research is to identify the sustainable practices of luxury fashion brands through their communications via official reporting documents to classify practices used for communicating sustainability performance.

This research uses the qualitative content analysis of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-oriented sustainability reports to examine the sustainable practices of 31 companies within the top 100 global luxury brands.

The authors classify the sample into four clusters: sustainability driven, sustainability newcomers, sustainability potential and sustainability passive. Results indicate that companies in this sector are focused on the issue of sustainability even though there is a remarkable fragmentation in terms of practices.

The study contributes to a better understanding of sustainability reporting activities and approaches in the fashion luxury industry by describing best practices and the effect of sustainability in corporate communications.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a luxury brand management (LBM) framework that accounts for the changing luxury environment (i.e. heterogeneous consumer populations, operations within markets of varying maturity, need for seamless customer experiences, and Omni-channel retailing). Framework set within this new luxury business environment and environmental phenomena unique to the fashion industry (i.e. fashion adoption, zeitgeist).

Case study of leading luxury conglomerate, Louis Vuitton Möet Hennessy (LVMH), combined with in-depth historical review of luxury industry. Primary and secondary data sources yielded thick descriptions of brands in LVMH portfolio and larger luxury industry, in which conglomerate is the predominant organizational structure. Content analysis of data-tracked relationships and emergent patterns. Recontextualization techniques were employed to identify key dimensions of brand management operations for sample company and further explicated indicators, sub-variables, and measurements. Macro and micro dimensions were combined for the final framework.

Findings revealed a LBM framework with specific dimensions at the micro or company level that are combined with variables and indicators in the macro-business environment. Strategic management response was also identified as a tool companies can use to synthesize brand management strategies throughout company and remain adaptive to environment.

Contributes to company-based luxury research. Holistic findings; framework was constructed from the micro-company level within a macro-environmental context, increasing its relevancy for firms. Potential to be employed in strategic brand management decisions of luxury companies, regardless of their corporate structure, size, or age.

The purpose of this paper is to develop industry specific operational definitions for marketing dimensions and sub-variables in the luxury goods industry that will contribute to the growing body of company-based research on luxury brand management.

Case study of a leading luxury goods conglomerate provides operational definitions and insight into best practices for management of a luxury goods brand through an in-depth historical review and analysis of variables, measures, relationships, and patterns that emerged throughout the study of the sample company.

Successes and failures of brand management for the sample company for the umbrella variables of brand strategy, growth trade-offs, and strategic planning, and their associated sub-variables, were identified in the review of literature and were analyzed, adapted, and enumerated according to findings from the case study.

Results limited to the study of one sample company. Common themes were identified in the management of a luxury brand that can be used by researchers to study other luxury companies.

Variables and measures for luxury brand management were identified throughout the review of literature and verified throughout the case study as being instrumental in brand management success of a leading luxury goods conglomerate and may be relevant to other luxury companies aiming to hone their brand management strategies.

Luxury goods research is increasing in prominence, but the majority of this research is consumer-based. This research contributes to the growing body of company-based luxury research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the organisation of the quality department and the management of the supply chain (SC) used by luxury companies to achieve quality requirements.

The paper follows an exploratory approach using a case-based methodology. Data are collected through eight case studies with French luxury companies.

The paper offers insights into the management of quality for luxury companies. The paper illustrates the main determinants of the adoption of the specific quality organisations; moreover, the paper identifies the main approaches adopted by luxury companies at the SC level to control the quality along the whole chain. For example, the paper raised that all accessible and aspirational luxury companies present a full-time quality department whereas a part-time approach is identified for high-luxury companies. In high-luxury companies, quality issues are perceived as critical elements to be monitored not just by one specific department but by each and every company employees; on the contrary, in the other companies the approach towards quality is more similar to the one of mass-market companies.

The research provides initial insights into the important role of quality in luxury companies. To date, the analysis is predominantly qualitative and not sufficiently statistically significant to generalise the results.

This paper raises a number of important issues for luxury companies who are not advance yet in structurally managed quality issues into their companies but especially their SCs.

This paper is one of the first attempts to study quality management specifically applied to luxury companies, with a main focus on the organisation of the quality department as well as the SC.

The purpose of this paper is to show how it is possible to take into account the objectives that fashion-luxury companies pursue on the final market (i.e. critical success factors (CSF) – of luxury) and propagate them in the upstream steps of the supply chain (SC) in order to understand how the latter can be aligned to the market.

An extensive literature review allowed the identification of SC objectives. Case studies were used in order to asses choices and practices applied along the SC of luxury companies were assessed through in depth case studies; hence, the relationship between choices/practices, SC objectives and luxury CSF was explored.

The paper documents that success in the luxury market not only depends on branding and marketing but also on the choices made along the SC, to the point that it is possible to identify some SC choices and practices that support the achievement of luxury CSF.

The results presented represent a useful guideline and offer some methodological suggestions; however, the precise set of SC objectives have to be tailored on each specific brand, according to the uniqueness that characterizes luxury companies.

The paper suggests which areas of the SC should be mostly targeted in order to achieve success in the luxury market, also indicating some possible concrete choices.

The main value of this paper consists in shaping a first explicit connection among the world of luxury as it is perceived by the consumers and the world of the SC.

This study aims to examine the moderating role of principle-based entity (PBE) of luxury brands and its effect on perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) motives, consumer situational scepticism and brand resonance.

Structural equation modelling using multigroup analysis was used. Data were collected through a consumer panel.

Values-driven motives lowered consumer situational scepticism (CSS) significantly more in PBE than non-PBE. However, egoistic-driven motives increased CSS significantly more in PBE than non-PBE. Stakeholder-driven motives and strategic-driven motives did not elicit CSS, contrary to prior studies in non-luxury brands. PBE status also weakens the relationship between CSS and brand resonance more than non-PBE status.

This study is the first to provide empirical insights into PBE status and its effects on perceived motives, CSS of CSR initiatives and its influence in consumer and management outcomes in luxury brands.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the defining characteristics of the extreme luxury fashion business model (ELFBM) and the relationship between this business model and the process of firm internationalization. The paper examines the potentially positive outcomes of differences and distances in the internationalization process of extreme luxury fashion companies.

The paper presents and discusses the data collected during a five-year case analysis of an Italian luxury company. The main characteristics of the business model are identified in terms of products, manufacturing and sourcing, distribution channels, marketing communications and overall characteristics of consumers. The internationalization process is described, with a focus on the Russian market as an emblematic case, highlighting the role of distances – geographic, psychic and cultural – and liabilities, namely foreignness and outsidership in the international expansion of the firm.

The findings of this paper highlight the main features and specific traits of the ELFBM characterized by a global and unique approach to the offer. This business model has in its origin the demand from certain foreign markets, and the elements of the country of origin of the firms coexist and are enhanced by the presence of specific characteristics of the destination countries in terms of niche consumers with economic and cultural characteristics and a strong perception of “Made in” and luxury goods.

The paper contributes to previous studies on the relationships between business models and internationalization. It provides a framework for the “ELFBM,” in which internationalization is a constitutive element of a specific business model rather than a strategy for a business model already defined. Examining the positive side of differences and distances in the internationalization process of firms adopting such business model, the paper contributes to the international business theory and practice. It also expands research on luxury fashion defining an international company which is under-investigated, the extreme luxury fashion company, and the elements that constitute its business model.

Globalization and advanced manufacturing capabilities changed industrial dynamics. To this end, not only were new retail concepts developed to broaden the distribution toward larger consumer bases, but alternative ways were also sought to reorganize supply networks for a balance between local and global production. Yet, the choice of supply network configurations must be coherent with a fashion companies’ critical success factors. Hence, it is pivotal to understand how such large brand portfolios and global supply networks could be effectively managed in a united way. In this vein, the purpose of this paper is to explain how the triplet of product, brand, and retail channel could affect SC performance, and how the positioning of a luxury company could depend on managerial attitudes.

Subsequent to an extensive literature review, 30 most frequently quoted key performance indicators (KPIs) were derived. A Delphi study was then employed to reach a consensus and 17 key KPIs were derived considering the key SC performance areas and marketing dimensions. Survey technique was deployed to examine the impact of strategic combinations of product, brand, and retail channel on SC strategy. Survey results were analyzed through factor analysis where five principal components emerged to represent performance areas. ANOVA technique was then employed to explore the dependence between product-brand-retail channel and key performance areas.

Brand, retail channel, and product directly affect operational performance. The positioning of a fashion company would depend on its management attitude toward strategy segmentation and considered stage of the SC. The respondents’ profile analysis further showed a preference to segment the SC based on products. Interestingly, this finding is not aligned with earlier research (Brun and Castelli, 2008) suggesting that the brand was to become the most relevant driver for SC segmentation.

Academic development and empirical testing is rather rare in the luxury fashion context. Undeniably, SC strategies represent a very relevant issue for fashion companies, and the present study could be considered a first statistical step toward SC segmentation for luxury fashion companies.

This paper investigates why and when messages regarding unsustainable luxury products lead to negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) through a focus on the role of guilt, need to warn others and consumers' cultural orientation.

Three experiments test whether messages describing unsustainable versus sustainable luxury manufacturing processes elicit guilt and a need to warn others and whether and how the need to warn others affects consumers' NWOM depending on their cultural orientation.

Consumers experience guilt in response to messages emphasizing the unsustainable (vs sustainable) nature of luxury products. In turn, guilt triggers a need to warn other consumers, which leads to NWOM about the luxury company. Furthermore, the results suggest that two dimensions of Hofstede's model of national culture – namely individualism/collectivism and masculinity/femininity – moderate the effect of the need to warn others on NWOM.

Luxury managers should design appropriate strategies to cope with consumers' different reactions to information regarding luxury brands' unsustainability. Managers should be aware that the risk of NWOM diffusion may be higher in countries characterized by a collectivistic and feminine orientation rather than an individualistic and masculine orientation.

Consumer reaction to unsustainable luxury, especially across different cultural groups, is a neglected area of investigation. This work contributes to this novel area of research by investigating NWOM stemming from unsustainable luxury manufacturing practices in different cultural contexts.