Paul Gibson and Silvia Seibold
The purpose of this paper is to explain how the role of marketing for luxury brands can be re-thought in order to ensure that such brands establish a strong connection between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain how the role of marketing for luxury brands can be re-thought in order to ensure that such brands establish a strong connection between their luxury image and positive social and environmental values.
Design/methodology/approach
The findings are based upon qualitative empirical research which informed a new categorisation of consumer motivations, through the application of self-determination theory which shows how concerns for environmental and social sustainability can be integrated with individual psychological needs.
Findings
The findings provide a deep understanding of consumers of luxury-eco products which could be used by marketing practitioners to shape socially responsible purchasing decisions.
Research limitations/implications
The research was designed for theory building, not theory-testing, so future research would be needed to study the efficacy of the recommended strategies for encouraging eco-luxury behaviour.
Practical implications
To increase the likelihood of practical applications, the authors follow the presentation of their findings with suggestions and examples for marketing to each of the consumer types identified by their research.
Social implications
The findings of this research have implications of a global, environmental and social kind. The societal adoption of eco-luxury consumption is about educating consumer desire, shifting it from its current focus on personal satisfaction, to a higher level of personal and social flourishing.
Originality/value
The findings effectively support the claims of self-determination theory by demonstrating how and why consumer motivations differ and how an improved sense of well-being can be achieved through internalised levels of self-determination.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct the development of industrial relations (IR) in Germany since the end of the Second World War and discusses the current challenges…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct the development of industrial relations (IR) in Germany since the end of the Second World War and discusses the current challenges posed by economic globalisation und European integration.
Design/methodology/approach
Combining a political economy, identifying Germany as a coordinated market economy (social market economy), and actor-centred historical institutionalism approach, outlining the formation and strategies of the main social actors within a particular institutional setting, the paper draws on the broad range of research on IR in Germany and its theoretical debates, including own research in the field.
Findings
The legacy of the key institutional settings in the post-war era – primarily the social market economy, co-determination at supervisory boards, works councils and sector-based non-ideological unions with their analogously organised employer counterparts, as well as the dual system of interest representation – has shaped the German IR and still underlie the bargaining processes and joint learning processes although trade unions and employers’ associations have been weakened because of loss of membership. In consequence the coverage scope of collective agreements is now somewhat reduced. Despite being declared dead many times, the “German model” of a “conflictual partnership” of capital and labour has survived many turbulent changes affecting it to the core.
Originality/value
The paper presents an original, theoretical informed reconstruction of the German IR and allows an understanding of the current institutional changes and challenges in the light of historical legacies. Additionally the theoretical debates on path dependence and learning processes of collectivities are enriched through its application to the German case.