The Evolution of Luxury Consumption and Conceptualization: A Synthetic Review

Abstract

This study aims to comprehend the main themes of luxury publications from 1998 to March 2021 through a holistic review of luxury industry-related papers. To face a change in the post-pandemic, the development and limitations of academic research topics and methods in the luxury industry are also observed and discussed. A total of 307 academic papers with the word “luxury” in their title or keywords were collected. This research aims to draw a general picture of the luxury research stream and publications in terms of main themes, major research locations, the level of publication influence, and major affiliations. The study also summarizes research methods used in luxury publications and the network of main themes’ attributes. Bibliometric analysis and content analysis were used for the data analysis utilizing KH Coder 3.0. The results show a change in the research direction toward the luxury industry before and during COVID-19 through three main themes: marketing and management, consumer/customer psychology graphic, and product category. Although the research on the luxury industry is extensive, the systematic review of luxury publications is limited in the literature. This research addresses this gap through research themes on the luxury market. The results provide main themes and their components of research on the luxury industry, present the current trend in research methods, discuss limitations on method and topic, and suggest research agendas for the future direction of the luxury industry in the post-pandemic.