Identifying the Luxury Sustainability Paradox: Three Steps Toward a Solution

In this chapter, we argue about a paradox of sustainability in the context of luxury goods and brands: Intuitively, luxury brands should be more sustainable versus normal brands, since consumer’s willingness to pay is high which should allow for highest standards in quality, including sustainability. However, many of the most expensive luxury products appear to exhibit limited sustainability. Examples include sports cars that typically are gas guzzlers, yachts that often carry only a few people but require a high amount of resources to be operated, or fur products that require animals to give their lives for. For example, the Hermes Birkin bag recently received a lot of negative media due t…

Marketing competition in the 21st century

Toward an understanding of price wars: Their nature and how they erupt

Abstract This paper aims to improve our understanding of the unique phenomenon of market competition, called price wars, as little is known about their nature and how they erupt. More precisely, we offer selected illustrations of the reality of price wars, identify key attributes of price wars, propose a definition of price wars, and offer a conceptual framework in which early warning signals (EWSs) of price wars are distilled and linked to the likelihood and the intensity of such wars. Also, initial empirical findings on some of the effects of price wars are offered, showing that price wars inflict substantial damage on the companies involved. Implications for researchers entail that numer…

Kooperation und Coopetition: Erklärungsperspektive der Spieltheorie

Die Ehrung mit dem Nobelpreis im Jahr 1994 fur die spieltheoretischen Arbeiten von Reinhard Selten, John Nash und John Charles Harsanyi unterstreichen die Relevanz der Spieltheorie in den Wirtschaftswissenschaften. Die Spieltheorie stellt haufig eine mathematische Beschreibung und Analyse von Interaktionen konkurrierender Parteien bereit, in denen neben Spielregeln die einzelnen Strategien den Ausgang des Spiels determinieren (Marschak/Selten 1978; Luce/Raiffa 1957; Shubik 1983). Im Bereich der Wirtschaftswissenschaften erlangen Manager durch die Spieltheorie ein Verstandnis, in welcher Situation sich Marktakteure befinden und welche Auswirkung eine bestimmte Aktion, Reaktion oder Wettbewer…

When Eroticism Makes Luxury Fashion Brands Fly: Introducing the Construct of Eroticism, Providing a First Measurement and Rank of Luxury Fashion Brands Using a Newly Developed “Brand Erotic Index”

Prestige Pricing in Markets for Luxury & Premium Products

Introduction to the Special Issue on Competition and Marketing