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The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which luxury brand retailers use new technologies as a tool for corporate marketing communication.

The authors used a multiple-case study approach consisting of five information-rich cases, with the similar characteristics of large firms selling luxury brands which are aware of the importance of innovation. In each company, the authors interviewed the key person in charge of marketing innovation strategies and collected data from annual reports, press releases and direct observation of all the new technology categories used.

The findings of this paper reveal that this sector is considerably aware of the benefits of using new media as a marketing communication tool, while the effective use of these new media is still limited.

This paper provides an empirical contribution to the emerging topic of innovation and technology management in retailing, with the emphasis being placed on the luxury sector through an in-depth investigation of the usage of new technologies by the firms studied.

This paper is the first one investigating thoroughly the luxury sector usage of new technologies to improve corporate marketing communication.

Through a critical review of the impact of luxury international business, this study aims to contribute to an understanding of business activities that depend on an unequal distribution of income and wealth.

Drawing on a wide range of academic and practitioner literature, this study adopts a critical luxury studies approach to provide an assessment of the economic and social impact of luxury international business.

Luxury is an increasingly important sector of the economy, which contributes to the welfare of increasing numbers of people across the world. Alongside its dependence on an unequal distribution of income and wealth and the negative aspects to which this gives rise, luxury business generates significant benefits to the economy and society through promoting economic growth, innovation, cultural enrichment, improved quality of the built environment and environmentally sustainable business practices. Nevertheless, an appropriate level of regulation and taxation on the excesses of contemporary luxury consumption could improve the welfare of all. Hence, luxury international business warrants investigation by critical scholars who recognize the complexity of the benefits and dark sides arising from luxury.

This study draws on an extensive review of academic and practitioner literature. However, primary research is required to investigate further the key issues identified.

Through an exploration of the impact of the production and consumption of luxury, this study reveals how luxury businesses serving the super-rich can contribute to the welfare of society whilst also giving rise to negative outcomes.

By adopting a critical luxury studies approach, this study offers an original contribution to the field of international business and introduces avenues for future critical international business research.

Employing the qualitative method, this paper sets out to investigate the role and function of flagship stores as a market entry mechanism employed by luxury fashion retailers.

The paper employs an interpretive research position, utilising qualitative techniques in the form of semi‐structured interviews with élite informants. In total, 12 luxury fashion retailers form the empirical focus of the work.

The paper identifies the defining characteristics of luxury retailers' flagship stores. It finds that luxury flagship stores represent a strategic approach to market entry that is employed to support, enhance and develop distribution activities within a foreign market. The interdependence of flagship stores and the wholesaling method of distribution is highlighted. The importance of the flagship store in reinforcing and enhancing the retailer's luxury status and enhancing and maintaining relationships not only with customers but also with distribution partners and the fashion media is found to be significant.

The paper provides practical information to luxury retailers on the role and importance of flagship stores as a method of entering international markets.

Flagship stores are a pivotal aspect of any luxury fashion retailer's internationalisation strategy. For the first time in the literature, the paper provides insights into their form and function and an understanding of why they are crucial to the international development of luxury retailers despite their prohibitively high cost.

This introductory paper aims to provide an overview of the significance of the theme issue.

The article explains why luxury yachting can be considered as a form of tourism which contributes to the well-being of stakeholders in the sector.

Luxury yachting (tourism) can be considered as a meta economic sector because luxury yachting is a representative of the evolution of global finance and economics. Luxury yachting is also a transformative sector of activity which positively spills over to other sectors and stakeholders, contributing to the well-being of a large community.

The value of this paper is that the paper presents luxury yachting as a prism which enables the investigation of other topics. For this reason, the article refers to luxury yachting as a meta-sector of the economy and a field of research.

Luxury and communism are perceived to be ideologically incompatible values. Prior to the end of the Cold War, luxury tourism and socialist economies had an accommodating relationship and were rationalised at the national level for foreign exchange revenues, showcasing national development in some instances and finally promoting leisure and political education. However, contemporary scholarship on political ideology and luxury tourism is limited given changes in the political and tourism domain over the last two decades. The start of luxury travel and increasing private promotion in Vietnam comes at a time where the communist regime is hurriedly developing the economy at a breakneck speed. Key cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have become the forefront of luxury travel for Vietnam. Luxury malls, fine dining and five-star hotel resorts have sprung over the years in tandem with Doi Moi (economic restructuring). Tourism literature has seldom ventured into regime politics and luxury tourism. Using a historical approach, the chapter traces the preamble of luxury tourism in the age of Vietnam's modernity. A critical assessment of contemporary luxury tourism in Vietnam reveals a favourable relationship with socialist principles.

Small retail stores in the luxury market face significant challenges due to fluctuations in market demand. This task turns challenging as it requires effectively coordinating and translating customer needs into specific requirements that align with retail goals and available resources. However, limited empirical research exists investigating how managers can address service value and quality attributes in small retail stores. This article aims to bridge this gap by investigating the role of quality function deployment (QFD) in improving market and quality requirements management in small retail stores.

Based on the case study, a customer survey was initially conducted to gather information on critical characteristics valued in the luxury retail segment. QFD was used to assist the company in identifying and prioritizing key quality attributes to meet customer requirements effectively.

The findings demonstrate that implementing QFD in small luxury retail stores empowers managers to identify previously neglected product and service quality aspects. The article shows that QFD informs organizational adaptations that align with the demands of the retail market, leading to an improved ability to meet customer expectations and enhance customer value through the development of enhanced products and services. The study showcases the efficacy of the tested methodology in effectively capturing and prioritizing both tangible and intangible customer needs in retail.

Findings offer valuable insights to retail managers of small luxury stores, providing actionable market-oriented strategies. By implementing the recommended practices, managers can improve the store’s competitiveness and better cater to the customer base.

This study contributes to bridging persistent knowledge gaps by addressing the unique context of small luxury retail stores and introducing the application of QFD in this setting. The insights gained from this research are relevant to both retailing and quality management literature. Considering the growing prevalence of transformations in the retail industry, the study provides practical implications for retail managers in effectively navigating these changes.

The purpose of this research is to examine response strategies and the change in Michelin-starred chefs' practices to adapt to the global pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis that has strongly affected the foodservice sector.

The authors conducted an exploratory qualitative research that used mixed-method, combining online interviews with 12 French Michelin-starred chefs and archival data. A manual thematic analysis method was used to analyze the data and identify relevant themes following an iterative coding process.

The findings show that Michelin-starred restaurants implement multilevel response strategies by developing dynamic capabilities while playing a social role through the development of new forms of business practices. The results show that Michelin-starred chefs adopt social bricolage entrepreneurial thinking to deal with the extreme situation and use diverse resources and response strategies to tackle social issues and improve the collective and individual well-being. The authors identified three major response strategies implemented by luxury restaurants: philanthropic activities targeting the well-being of the community, socially responsible business practices to support the foodservice actors and initiatives centered on consumer's food well-being.

The limits of this study are related to the small sample size and the elimination of psychographic criteria such as age and gender, which can extend our understanding of response strategies implemented by female and male owners or by age range during crises in the foodservice sector. Also, given that France is the country of Haute gastronomy, the conclusions of this study may not be generalizable to other countries where the gastronomic culture might be different.

Restaurants with high-end or luxury positioning must use multilevel – i.e. individual, sector and societal – response strategies to play a social role while sustaining their businesses during times of crisis. These insights seek to provide a roadmap which can be applied to other sectors to assess response strategies driven by various motives, resources and capabilities.

This research contributes to transformative service research literature by providing insights regarding how service providers can rethink their activities during the crises to play an active social role. Also, the findings point to several ways in which service actors can help customers and the community to improve their well-being.

To our knowledge, no prior research examined both the type of response strategies deployed by companies to survive and the importance of playing a social role and developing socially responsible business practices during times of crisis.

The overall significance of tourism's role in the nation's holistic development is now a common phenomenon world over. That is why the Government of various countries are according top-most priority towards tourism development. The luxury tourism is that niche segment which is growing intense day by day and the craving of luxury traveller is uninfluenced by any economic turmoil or the crises. Tourism is now widely acknowledged as the strategic tool for economic diversification in the Sultanate of Oman. The Government is fully geared towards turning Oman into a prime luxury tourism destination by incorporating tourism in its vision 2040 strategy. The Government is actively tapping Oman's luxury tourism potential with improved tourism product development, increased projects funding, thoughtful marketing and brand promotion to reap benefits from tourism investments. Oman's unparalleled beauty, rich historic grandeur and authentic hospitality complement the desire of luxury travellers to seek unique quality and comfort, exclusivity and less ostentation. With the slogan ‘Beauty has an address’, the laudable effort of Oman has placed its tourism offering as an ideal upscale and luxury destination in the Middle East. The chapter explores the prospects of beautiful attractions and various services and facilities offered by Oman to qualify as a luxury destination. It also identifies the challenges faced by Oman in luxury tourism destination development.

What role do consumers play in constructing their own luxury experiences? Challenging the dominant product-focus in luxury conceptualizations, this research note conceptualizes agentic luxury in the context of luxury services. Drawing on extant luxury research, the purpose of this article is to develop how consumers may take on more active roles in enacting their own luxury services experiences.

This research note is conceptual but builds on managerial insights from the luxury service sector to conceptualize the concept of agentic luxury.

Our research note develops a conceptual definition of agentic luxury and provides seven research propositions for its impact on luxury service encounters. These propositions detail how consumers engage in constructing their luxury experience; the roles of consumers and luxury service providers in the experience; and boundary conditions of agentic luxury. The authors further develop the role of customer-as-designer and highlight similarities and differences for agentic luxury between luxury goods and services.

The authors combine the recognized specificities of the largely goods-dominated luxury sector with service research to show how luxury service providers can engage customers for more complete and engaging luxury service experiences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research note is the first to conceptualize agentic luxury. The authors show how agentic luxury fills a gap in the current literature, and our propositions advance the relevance of agentic luxury for luxury service research.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role that provenance holds within the luxury textiles market. It defines similarities and differences in the perception and acceptance of provenance as a key strategy for luxury textile brands in the USA and the UK. Its purpose is to establish a framework of identifiable communication strategies for future growth of the luxury brand sector.

The study consisted of adopting an ethnographic approach to define the role of provenance within luxury brands in the USA and the UK. Attention was focused on textile heritage labels in the USA and in Scotland, to gain insight into how historic artisanship impacts the perception of luxury and authenticity by the consumer. Interviews with key strategists were conducted, and a comparison of the discussions disseminated.

The narrative behind a product, its authenticity and provenance, are key drivers in luxury textile brands, with the perception of quality of utmost importance. Long-standing companies have interwoven provenances with their spiritual birthplaces, people and environment which can be leveraged in product introductions and branding.

The paper provides a framework of key features of provenance to inform practitioners on dilemmas such as de-localization, re-localization and transcendence within the luxury brand sector.

The paper furthers academic research by investigating contemporary issues in luxury consumer behaviour; specifically in relation to the perception of provenance. While research focuses on Western luxury textile brands and consumers, it provides reference criteria and recommendations to luxury brand strategists that can be adopted and adapted for different fields and geographic locations.