Luxury in China

Author(s):  
Qing Wang

Luxury brands embody strong cultural narratives to express their authentic value and to make them more desirable. With globalisation and the democratisation of luxury, the nature of luxury consumption is changing. Emerging economies such as China have become not only the major market but a source of design inspiration for luxury brands. This chapter provides a systematic review of luxury brands in China in three distinct stages, followed by an in-depth analysis of the nature of luxury consumption in China and the transportation mechanism of brand narratives to different cultures. It concludes with several important findings and indicates that good storytelling provides an anchor for a brand’s esteem both at home and abroad. Instead of merely communicating the cultural narratives of their Western origin, luxury brands need to identify with Chinese culture in all elements of their business, from product design to brand communication. Finally, this chapter explores the impact of the global pandemic on luxury brands in China.

2021 ◽  
pp. 193896552110226
Author(s):  
Kawon Kim ◽  
Melissa A. Baker

Some of the luxury consumption literature suggests that luxury consumption is a beneficial social signal for the actor which facilitates social interaction. However, a different stream of recent research suggests that luxury consumption bears social costs to the actor. In the employee–customer interaction context, wearing luxury brands can either benefit or backfire for the employee depending on the situation whether luxury status or warmth is necessary. Based on the gaps in the literature, this study examines the impact of employee conspicuous cues by utilizing luxury consumption and elitism attitude on employee–customer rapport and behavioral intentions. The study results show that employees wearing luxury brands increase customers’ perceived impression management toward the employee. Such perception is strengthened when employees show an elitism attitude. In addition, when employees wear luxury brands, customers are more likely to build rapport with employees when they show a democratic attitude, as they perceive the employees are less likely to involve in impression management than showing an elitism attitude. The results build upon the luxury hospitality literature, aesthetic labor, impression management, and rapport literature.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Younggeun Lee ◽  
Andres Felipe Cortes ◽  
Yiming Zhuang ◽  
Pol Herrmann

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of social capital on organizational ambidexterity in the context of emerging economies. Moreover, this paper aims to study the moderating influence of absorptive capacity on the relationship between social capital and organizational ambidexterity.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted two studies using survey data collected from 97 Ecuadorian and 100 Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).FindingsThe authors found that social capital, the extent to which organizational members interact, collaborate and share knowledge with one another and with external actors, has a positive effect on the simultaneous implementation of exploratory and exploitative innovations (i.e. organizational ambidexterity). Moreover, the authors found that absorptive capacity positively strengthens the impact of social capital on organizational ambidexterity.Originality/valueDrawing on the knowledge-based view and the innovation literature, the authors theoretically argue the importance of social capital and absorptive capacity for SMEs to develop and manage exploratory and exploitative innovations simultaneously in emerging economies of different cultures. The authors empirically test proposed hypotheses in Ecuador and China, two emerging markets with important cultural differences, and show the relevance of social capital in multiple settings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1271-1291
Author(s):  
Changli Zeng ◽  
Lu Zhang ◽  
Jiangtao Li

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of top management’s environmental responsibility audit (ERA) implementation on firms’ investment for environmental protection in China. Design/methodology/approach The sample comprises firms publicly traded on A-Share in China from 2011 to 2017. The authors used the ordinary least squares regression model to test the relation between ERA implementation and corporate environmental investment. Findings Firms’ environmental investment increases significantly after the ERA implementation. Compared to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) are more likely to increase their environmental investment after ERA implementation. Moreover, such change is more likely for non-heavily polluting enterprises (non-HPEs) compared to heavily polluting enterprises (HPEs). Practical implications This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the positive influence of environmental enforcement on corporate behavior, which could serve as reference for regulators on the latest environmental accounting practice in China and other emerging economies. Social implications This paper shows that clear assignment of environmental responsibility and subsequent assessment of environmental performance are contributing factors to effective and efficient implementation of an environmental management system. Originality/value Contributing to accounting and environmental management literature, this paper explains how mandated environmental audit incentivizes firms to deal with environmental issues. Because there is no prior research concerning the mandatory implementation of environmental audit in China, this paper is of high-innovatory value by providing a better understanding of environmental auditing and providing an economic explanation for government intervention as an effective means of mitigating environmental degradation in emerging economies.


Author(s):  
Xinting Wang ◽  
Jihong (Solomon) Zhao ◽  
Hongwei Zhang

This study examines juvenile attitudes toward the police (JATP) from an unconventional angle by examining the possible effect of two different cultures along with more conventional factors typically associated with youth attitude formation. A unique feature of this study is the inclusion of measures of attachment to both the traditional Chinese culture and Western popular culture. The data were collected from 30 minority middle schools with more than 6,500 students in a southern autonomous region in China in 2014. The primary findings indicate that juveniles who are more firmly attached to the traditional Chinese culture and who show respect for parents/teachers tend to hold a more positive view of the police. In contrast, juveniles who endorse Western popular culture and are perceived as a fan of that culture are more likely to hold a negative view of the police, societal actors who are viewed as primary representatives of the mainstream culture.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abir El Telyani ◽  
Panteha Farmanesh ◽  
Pouya Zargar

Upon the spread of the global pandemic of COVID-19, education was transformed online in an abrupt manner. Amid this change, the education sector did not have room for proper decision-making and understanding of psychological effects. This theoretical analysis aims to contribute to the proposed Frontiers Research Topic, through (a) in-depth analysis of the pandemic status and behavioral psychology and (b) examining educational psychology from the perspective of teachers regarding sudden changes. As a result, implications are suggested based on interviews, linking to extant literature. The current research recognizes the difference between online learning and emergency remote education. While the former comprises prepared means of teaching and assessment, the latter is unaccompanied by such preparedness. Thus, there are variations in the outcomes of learning, motivation, and engagement. Scholars, teachers, deans, and educational managers can benefit from current results.


Author(s):  
Thomas Brodie

This chapter analyses the impact exerted on the Catholic Church’s pastoral networks in Germany by the mass evacuation of laypeople from bombed urban areas as of 1941. Drawing on the voluminous correspondence of priests and curates despatched from the Rhineland and Westphalia to Saxony, Thuringia, Silesia, Austria, and elsewhere to minister to Catholic evacuees, this chapter provides in-depth analysis of the social and cultural histories of religious practice in wartime Germany. It demonstrates that the evacuation of laypeople—a topic long neglected within histories of wartime religious practice—exerted a profound influence on pastoral practice by the years 1943–5, placing unprecedented pressures on the Catholic clergy of the dioceses central to this study (Aachen, Cologne and Münster). This chapter therefore also casts new light on regionalism in Germany during the Nazi era.


Author(s):  
Alan Treadgold ◽  
Jonathan Reynolds

The retail industry globally is in an era of profound, perhaps unprecedented, change, change which has been further accelerated for many by the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic and its attendant health and economic crises. This book is intended to serve as a wide-ranging, robust, practical guide to leaders of enterprises tasked with understanding and delivering success in the new landscape of retailing. Part 1 describes the major directions and drivers of change that define the new global landscape of retailing. Accelerating changes in technology, the rise to prominence globally of internet enabled shoppers and the rapid emergence of entirely new retail enterprises and business models are combining to re-shape the very fundamentals of the retail industry. The new landscape of retailing is unforgiving: success can be achieved more quickly than ever before but failure is equally rapid. Opportunities in the new landscape of retailing are profound, but so too are the challenges. Part 2 discusses the structures, skills and capabilities that retail enterprises will need to be successful in this new landscape and the skills and capabilities required of the leaders of retail enterprises. More than 25 detailed case studies of innovative, successful enterprises internationally and more than one hundred smaller examples, all updated and many new since the first edition, are used to illustrate the themes discussed. Frameworks are presented to provide practical guidance for enterprise leaders to understand and contextualize the nature of change re-shaping retail landscapes globally. Clear guidance is given of the capabilities, skills and perspectives needed at both an enterprise and personal leadership level to deliver success in the new landscape of retailing.


Author(s):  
Thomas A Lewis

Abstract As a discipline, the academic study of religion is strikingly fragmented, with little engagement or shared criteria of excellence across subfields. Although important recent developments have expanded the traditions and peoples studied as well as the methods used, the current extent of fragmentation limits the impact of this diversification and pluralization. At a moment when the global pandemic is catalyzing profound pressures on our universities and disciplines, this fragmentation makes it difficult to articulate to the public, to non-religious studies colleagues, and to students why the study of religion matters. We therefore too often fall back on platitudes. I argue for a revitalized methods and theories conversation that connects us even as it bears our arguments and disagreements about what we do and how. Courses in methods and theories in the study of religion represent the most viable basis we have for bringing the academic study of religion into the common conversation or argument that constitutes a discipline without sacrificing our pluralism.


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