New luxury: defining and evaluating emerging luxury trends through the lenses of consumption and personal values

Abstract

Purpose Given the unclear lines between traditional and newly emerged luxury, this research aims to explore which luxury consumption values are important to young consumers (aged 18–44) in the USA and how such new luxury consumption is driven by their personal values. This research thus has two aims. The first is to define new luxury by examining the consumption values that distinguish it from traditional luxury. The second is to examine the personal values that drive these new luxury consumption values, which affect consumers’ intentions to engage with a new luxury brand. Design/methodology/approach Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, a conceptual framework was developed to define new luxury from the consumption value perspective, based on a comprehensive review of the traditional luxury and emerging or new luxury literature. In Study 2, the framework was further extended to include the driving sources (personal values) and the consequences (intentions to engage with a new luxury brand), which were subsequently examined with empirical model testing. The data were collected via an online survey with consumers recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (n = 318) and examined with exploratory factor analyses and path analyses. Findings The results suggest five major new luxury consumption values that help empirically define new luxury, revealing a trend shift in luxury consumption: inconspicuous consumption, self-directed pleasure, intrinsic experiential value, personal fulfillment and sustainability. Among these five values, three (intrinsic experiential value, personal fulfillment and sustainability) were the most significant factors in directly affecting customer intention to engage with a new luxury brand. The results also found five notable personal values driving new luxury consumption: achievement, benevolence, self-direction, self-esteem and ecocentrism. Originality/value While new luxury concepts have been explored conceptually and qualitatively in previous studies, there is a lack of empirical research that clearly defines what new luxury is and that offers testable constructs. This study’s empirical framework for new luxury expands the line of investigation into new luxury consumers, brands and products.