Sustainable Luxury Marketing : A synthesis and research agenda

Sustainability has become a pervasive issue for the luxury sector, gaining traction with brand managers, scholars, policy-makers, the media, and academia. The purpose of this paper is to examine the state of sustainable luxury research in marketing and consumer behaviour by critically reviewing and synthesizing the growing but fragmented body of scholarly work on sustainable-luxury marketing. The paper critically assesses where, how and by whom research on sustainable luxury is being conducted, and it identifies gaps for future investigation. The paper reviews research published between 2007 and 2018 within major peer-reviewed English-language scholarly publications in business, marketing, ethics, fashion, food and tourism journals. The research is identified using the keywords sustainable luxury, green luxury, eco-luxury and organic luxury. Three core themes emerge from this review: (1) consumer concerns and practices; (2) organizational concerns and practices; and (3) international and cross-cultural issues. The review confirms that research on sustainable luxury is significantly underdeveloped. This paper provides the first critical and comprehensive assessment and categorization of the emergent literature streams on sustainable luxury. The authors argue for a broader, deeper and more critical research agenda on the relationship between sustainability and luxury. Potential avenues for future research on sustainable luxury are proposed, with calls for theoretical and cross-cultural reflections that tackle broader systemic and institutional issues within the field

The Desire to be Behind the Wheel: Looking at the Preference for Control from a Life History Theory Perspective

Title The Desire to be Behind the Wheel: Looking at the Preference for Control from a Life History Theory Perspective Matthew Majestic and T. Andrew Poehlman Abstract Prior research indicates that the socioeconomic status of a person during their childhood can have an influence on the actions a person makes later on in life. This paper looks to explore the relationship of different levels of childhood SES and effect it will have on preference for control. These studies contribute by demonstrating a difference in preference as a psychological driver of behavior with fast and slow strategies. The studies conducted (pending) demonstrate the preference for slow strategy to have more control while fast strategy preference less control. The implications of these findings provide the ability to provide another frame of reference in order for people to market more effectively in the future

Consciousness and Action Control

The basic nuts and bolts underlying human behavior remain mysterious from a scientific point of view. Everyday acts - naming an object, suppressing the urge to say something, or grabbing a waiter’s attention with a “cappuccino, please” - remain difficult to understand from a mechanistic standpoint. Despite these challenges, research has begun to illuminate, not only the basic processes underlying human action production, but the role of conscious processing in the control of behavior. This Research Topic, “Consciousness and the Control of Action,” is devoted to surveying and synthesizing these developments from disparate fields of study

Sentimental Social Roles and the Objects That Elicit Them: The Effect of Nostalgic Design on Consumers

We examine social identity evoked from vintage product design and its effect on the idealization of gender-stereotypic behavior. Women report greater idealization of traditional behaviors in response to feminine vintage (as opposed to modern or masculine) design. Primed gender roles also lead women, to prefer gender-stereotypic vintage design products

The name-letter-effect in groups: sharing initials with group members increases the quality of group work.

Although the name-letter-effect has been demonstrated reliably in choice contexts, recent research has called into question the existence of the name-letter-effect-the tendency among people to make choices that bear remarkable similarity with the letters in their own name. In this paper, we propose a connection between the name-letter-effect and interpersonal, group-level behavior that has not been previously captured in the literature. Specifically, we suggest that sharing initials with other group members promotes positive feelings toward those group members that in turn affect group outcomes. Using both field and laboratory studies, we found that sharing initials with group members cause groups to perform better by demonstrating greater performance, collective efficacy, adaptive conflict, and accuracy (on a hidden-profile task). Although many studies have investigated the effects of member similarity on various outcomes, our research demonstrates how minimal a degree of similarity among members is sufficient to influence quality of group outcomes

Effect of Endurance Training on Gross Energy Expenditure during Exercise

We compared the effect of endurance exercise training on gross energy expenditure (GEE) during steady-state exercise in 20 younger men (31.2 ± 0.6 years) and 20 middle-aged men (49.2 ±1.1 years). The subjects trained for eight months. The training program consisted of three 45-min walking and jogging exercise sessions per week at an intensity of approximately 60-85% of the heart rate at peak VO2, We administered bicycle ergometer tests at 0, 4, and 8 months into training. Participants exercised at a power output of 100 W for 10 min using a pedaling frequency of 50 rpm. We determined GEE (kcal/min) by measuring the oxygen consumption and respiratory exchange ratio. We found a significant reduction (p \u3c 0.05) in GEE (0.7-1.3 kcal/min) following 4 months of endurance training in both age groups, with a further reduction (p \u3c 0.05) noted in only the middle-aged group at month 8. We found no difference (p \u3e 0.05) in GEE between the younger and middle-aged men. We conclude that chronic exercise may modify GEE during a submaximal exercise bout and that this adaptation is similar in magnitude in younger and middle-aged men

Understanding and Using the Implicit Association Test: III. Meta-Analysis of Predictive Validity.

This review of 122 research reports (184 independent samples, 14,900 subjects) found average r = .274 for prediction of behavioral, judgment, and physiological measures by Implicit Association Test (IAT)measures. Parallel explicit (i.e., self-report) measures, available in 156 of these samples (13,068 subjects), also predicted effectively (average r = .361), but with much greater variability of effect size. Predictive validity of self-report was impaired for socially sensitive topics, for which impression management may distort self-report responses. For 32 samples with criterion measures involving Black–White interracial behavior, predictive validity of IAT measures significantly exceeded that of self-report measures. Both IAT and self-report measures displayed incremental validity, with each measure predicting criterion variance beyond that predicted by the other. The more highly IAT and self-report measures were intercorrelated, the greater was the predictive validity of each.Psycholog

New Directions in Evolutionary Consumer Behavior

In an effort to further reconcile the historically divided research paradigms of the social and natural sciences, two papers are presented to interpret and explain phenomena occurring in consumer behavior through evolutionary theory. The first paper discusses the changing landscape of women’s social roles and how women may pursue resource acquisition via self-focused or others-focused strategies. The second paper addresses the evolutionary reasons underlying the phenomena of heritage signaling in male product branding and implications therein on the modern mating environment