The Paradox of Sustainability and Luxury Consumption: The Role of Value Perceptions and Consumer Income

Abstract

For many years, the concept of sustainability and luxury has been considered a paradox. Despite scholars’ efforts to highlight the compatibility between sustainability and luxury, the limited studies have shown mixed and inconclusive evidence. By adopting the luxury-seeking consumer behavior framework, this study examines the relationship between luxury value perceptions (i.e., conspicuous, unique, social, emotional, and quality values) and sustainable luxury products consumption. It also identifies the value dimensions that most discriminate between heavy and light consumers of sustainable luxury products and examines the moderating effects of consumer income. Using 348 survey responses from actual consumers of luxury goods in Qatar, hierarchical multiple regression and discriminant analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized relationships. The results suggest that all five value perceptions explain a significant amount of variance in sustainable luxury consumption and discriminate between heavy and light sustainable luxury consumers. However, the moderating effects of consumer income in the relationship between values and sustainable luxury consumption revealed mixed results. The findings of this research provide key theoretical and managerial implications.