The concept of luxury, a managerial approach. Concept and State of the Art

Abstract

[ES] The present work is a study about the concept of luxury and its relationship to strategic management. Motivations. The driver behind the elaboration of this study is to explore the state of the art in the field of luxury and to evaluate the likelihood of additional managerial contributions. The research has ben extensive in the case of the state of the art. Nevertheless, the author acknowledges that his experience both as a business lecturer (postgraduate level) and as a private consultant has influenced the ability to gather further insights into this research. An additional motivation for this work is to set the basis for a philosophical dissertation (thesis) in this subject. Structure. This work is divided into four main chapters. The first three chapters depict the different aspects of the state of the art. The last chapter provides an introduction to a managerial framework to be further evaluated with a philosophical dissertation. The first chapter is an introduction to the concept of luxury. It also provides the first part of the state of the art with a short view on the historical evolution of such concept. The second chapter deals with the luxury market. It provides an overall view to understand the different industries of the luxury market. It also shows the second part of the state of the art with the review of consumer behavior literature. The third chapter shows the last part of the state of the art with the analysis of the relationship between luxury and management. This chapter does not only show the publications related to the management of luxury companies, but also deals with the need of a managerial approach to the field of luxury. The fourth chapter builds on the lessons of the previous three chapters (state of the art) to propose the hypothesis of a management framework for luxury companies. This chapter provides the rationale behind the framework, the main risks that it faces and the further analysis to be conducted. The last chapter summarizes this work and also provides the initial guidelines for the next steps to be conducted in the thesis. Objectives. Two are the main goals of this study: To evaluate the state of the art in the field of luxury and particularly its relationship with business management. To explore the room for additional managerial contributions to be considered as the basis for a philosophical dissertation.