Special Session: How the Desire for Unique Products Strengthens the Link between Luxury Attitudes and Sustainability Behaviors: An Abstract

Abstract

The literature is mixed on the role of luxury influencing consumers’ sustainability behaviors. The purpose of this research is to examine the role of value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes on sustainable behaviors, both ecologically consciousness consumer behavior (ECCB) and socially responsible consumer behavior (SRCB). The study also looks at whether the desire for unique products mediates the relationship between value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes and sustainable behaviors, and if culture and brand self-congruence moderate these relationships. The study utilizes survey research collected in the United States with a Qualtrics panel of 359 respondents. The research finds that the desire for unique products mediates the relationship between the value-expressive luxury attitudes and both ECCB and SRCB sustainable behaviors for U.S. consumers. The link between the desire for unique products and ECCB is strengthened by the moderating factors of brand self-congruence and collectivism. The results provide reasoning for the mixed literature on luxury and sustainability and offer a means for how businesses and policy makers can increase the sustainability behaviors of consumers in the United States. The results illustrate that consumers who hold positive luxury social attitudes, particularly in terms of utilizing luxury as a means of self-expression of who they are, whether or not they behave sustainably is mediated by the desire for unique products. These results build on costly signaling theory by explaining how luxury can impact sustainability through value-expressive luxury attitudes and the need for unique products and that sustainability can serve as a signal for luxury consumers. Furthermore, the results help explain the gap between luxury attitudes and sustainable behaviors by demonstrating the importance of the desire for unique products mediating the relationship between value-expressive luxury attitudes and sustainable behaviors. Thus, this research demonstrates that sustainable behaviors, both ecological and socially-responsible, can be encouraged by American luxury consumers through meeting these luxury consumers’ need to express their self-identity through their desire for unique products. Finally, this relationship is strengthened by emphasizing the importance of impacting the group and how luxury and sustainability are compatible in terms of brand self-congruence.