Fabian Faurholt Csaba — Copenhagen Business School

Fabian Faurholt Csaba is Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School. He holds a PhD in Marketing and Consumer Culture from the University of Southern Denmark. Drawing on Consumer Culture Theory, his research examines how value, meaning, and identity are created and contested across markets, organizations, and cultural industries. He studies the role of communication, narratives, and symbolic practices in shaping brands, markets, and consumer culture, with particular interests in luxury, fashion, advertising, and creative industries. His current research explores how value, legitimacy, and authority are constructed and contested across consumer markets, cultural industries, and luxury systems.

Abstract:

Revaluing Luxury: Value, Authority and the Global Luxury System

Luxury has become one of the most profitable and culturally influential sectors of contemporary capitalism, even as shifting geopolitical centres of wealth and consumption, growing sustainability concerns, and debates over inequality and cultural legitimacy increasingly challenge established understandings of luxury. Yet institutions associated with European luxury continue to occupy remarkably authoritative positions in defining legitimate forms of value, authenticity, and aspiration.

This paper examines how contemporary luxury actors construct, institutionalize, and contest legitimate understandings of value within the global luxury system. Drawing on a corpus of corporate communications, institutional publications, consultancy reports, museum and cultural initiatives, and critical interventions from journalists and NGOs, the study employs qualitative document analysis and thematic coding of textual and visual materials to explore how different actors articulate the social, cultural, economic, and moral worth of luxury. The analysis is informed by the sociology of justification and enrichment.

Rather than treating luxury as a fixed category, the paper approaches it as an ongoing site of valuation in which a variety of actors seek to establish what should count as valuable, authentic, desirable, and worthy. Particular attention is paid to the historical and geographical distribution of authority within the global luxury system and to the institutions that shape legitimate understandings of value, authenticity, and desirability. The study also examines recurring tensions between heritage and innovation, craftsmanship and growth, and timelessness and change, exploring how competing forms of worth are mobilized to sustain and revalue luxury within the contemporary global luxury system.

The paper argues that struggles over luxury are simultaneously struggles over authority: over who possesses the capacity to define legitimate forms of value and shape the standards through which luxury itself is evaluated

Keywords: luxury, valuation, authority, enrichment, justification

Prof Yasmin K Sekhon Dhillon — University of Southampton

Dr Yasmin Sekhon Dhillon works at the University of Southampton as a Professor of Luxury Marketing and Associate Dean (EDI). Yasmin’s research centres on consumer research and the cross-cultural factors that shape the meaning and experience of luxury, exploring how cultural context influences the way luxury is understood, valued, and consumed. Alongside her research, she delivers education in luxury strategy, luxury and marketing, and the history of luxury. Yasmin continues to expand her work on identity, consumption, and children’s relationship with luxury through conference participation and journal publications, and her most recent publication, Luxury and the Senses (Bloomsbury).

Abstract

From Inheritance to Interrogation: Children, Generational Change, and the Decolonisation of Luxury

Luxury has historically depended upon intergenerational transmission. Families, institutions, and brands have reproduced ideas of exclusivity, distinction, and status across generations, embedding luxury consumption within broader systems of social hierarchy and cultural reproduction (Bourdieu, 1984; Lareau, 2011). Yet younger generations are increasingly questioning the legitimacy of these inherited norms. Within a landscape shaped by environmental concerns, widening inequality, and heightened awareness of colonial legacies, children and young consumers are developing alternative understandings of value, aspiration, and identity that challenge the traditional luxury paradigms.

Drawing upon findings from a two-year qualitative study involving over 200 participants aged 11–16 years, the research examined children’s perceptions of the meaning and future of luxury using participatory methods, including visual collages and focus group discussions. Findings reveal a significant shift in how luxury is understood. While luxury remains aspirational, participants increasingly frame it through a moral reality grounded in fairness, authenticity, environmental responsibility, cultural respect, and social contribution. Participants consistently positioned luxury consumption within a moral dilemma, questioning whether the pursuit of exclusivity and display of status can be justified in a world characterised by inequality, environmental degradation, and resource scarcity. These findings challenge dominant luxury theories that privilege scarcity, exclusivity, and distinction (Kapferer and Bastien, 2012), and question the legitimacy of positioning luxury as accessible only to an elite few. Arguably the younger generation of luxury consumers may now become agents of disruption rather than continuity

Drawing upon decolonial theory and critical luxury studies, the paper argues that younger generations are rejecting many of the eurocentric assumptions underpinning contemporary luxury discourse (Joy et al., 2012). Instead, they advocate more inclusive understandings of luxury that recognise indigenous knowledge systems, craft communities, cultural diversity, and non-Western histories of value creation (Mignolo, 2011; Varman and Costa, 2013). The paper contends that the future of luxury may depend less on preserving inherited privilege and more on embracing ethical legitimacy, cultural plurality, and arguably luxury accessibility. Rather than passive recipients of luxury culture, children emerge as active agents reshaping luxury’s meaning, purpose, and future existence.

Monica Macias Bindang — London College of Fashion, UAL

Monica Macias Bindang, AFHEA, is an Associate Lecturer at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, where she teaches and supervises postgraduate research in fashion marketing and global culture. Her research explores the intersections of luxury, symbolic power, postcolonial theory, and international relations – specifically how authority, legitimacy, and cultural value are characterised and constructed within global systems. Monica is also the author of Black Girl from Pyongyang: In Search of My Identity, an acclaimed memoir recounting her childhood in North Korea. Drawing on her interdisciplinary background as a Pyongyang-trained textile engineer and her MA in International Relations and Diplomacy from SOAS, University of London, her work uniquely examines how power shapes narratives of identity, culture, and global inequality across Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Abstract

Who Defines Luxury? Authority, Universality, and the Politics of Change.

In recent years, the luxury industry has increasingly framed itself as being in a state of transformation, responding to environmental pressures, shifting consumer values, and global market rebalancing. Yet despite the visibility of these changes, fundamental questions remain regarding the depth, direction, and intent of luxury’s adaptation. This paper argues that contemporary luxury does not resist change because it lacks the capacity to transform, but because meaningful change would require surrendering the cultural authority and symbolic control that have historically sustained its power.

The paper examines two structural pressures that have unsettled luxury’s traditional position: the rise of fast fashion and the growing centrality of China within the global luxury economy. Rather than treating these forces as external disruptions that compelled innovation, it positions them as revealing moments that exposed the fragility of luxury’s symbolic monopoly. Fast fashion eroded the link between exclusivity and social distinction by replicating aesthetic codes at scale, while Chinese luxury consumption challenged the presumed universality of Western taste-making and cultural authorship.

Drawing on critical cultural analysis, the paper demonstrates how luxury brands have responded through selective adaptation—expanding accessibility, emphasising sustainability, and foregrounding narratives of inclusion—while maintaining control over value distribution, authorship, and legitimacy. These strategies function less as evidence of structural transformation than as mechanisms of containment, designed to absorb pressure without destabilising the hierarchical foundations of luxury.

By foregrounding intent, this paper reframes debates on luxury’s future away from questions of innovation and market responsiveness toward issues of power, authority, and resistance. It argues that the central challenge facing luxury today is not whether it can change, but whether it is willing to relinquish the symbolic privileges that have historically defined it. This perspective contributes to debates on the political, cultural, and ethical limits of transformation within the global luxury system.

Keywords: Luxury; Power; Universality; China; Transformation

Alice Guzzetti is a Reseach Fellow at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. She holds a Bachelor’s in Economics and Management of Cultural Heritage and Entertainment, a Master’s in Markets and Business Strategies, and a PhD in Management and Innovation from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.

Since 2017, she has collaborated with the Master in Luxury Goods Management (EMLUX). Her professional background includes work at the Digital Innovation Observatories (Politecnico di Milano), academic research at the University of Milan, and consultancy in the cosmetics industry.

Her main research interests focus on technological innovation within fashion and luxury, entrepreneurship and startups, and environmental and social sustainability.

Valeria Belvedere
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore / Burgundy School of Business

Valeria Belvedere is an Associate Professor of Business Management at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, specializing in Operations and Supply Chain Management. She holds a degree in Business Administration from Bocconi University, a PhD from the University of Castellanza, and an MBA from MIP-Politecnico di Milano, alongside visiting research experience at the University of Bath.

At Cattolica, Professor Belvedere coordinates the MSc in Innovation and Technology Management and directs the EMLUX Master in Luxury Management. Her research explores performance measurement in production and logistics, manufacturing strategies, technology adoption, and environmental and social sustainability. Widely published in leading academic journals such as the International Journal of Production Economics, she also serves on editorial boards and as a peer reviewer.

Glyn Atwal
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore / Burgundy School of Business

Glyn Atwal is Associate Professor of Marketing at Burgundy School of Business, an international Graduate School of the French network of Grandes Ecoles. His teaching, research, and consultancy expertise focuses on marketing and strategy within the affluent and luxury space. He has presented at leading universities worldwide, including Harvard Business School, and is co-editor of The Luxury Market in India and Luxury Brands in Emerging Markets (Palgrave Macmillan). Prior to academia, Glyn worked for Saatchi & Saatchi, Young & Rubicam, and Publicis.

Abstract

Orchestrating Luxury Innovation: A Network Analysis of Technology Adoption and Supply Chain Dynamics in Fashion-Tech Accelerators

The luxury sector is facing an unprecedented paradox. The structural urgency for digital transformation versus a historical resistance to technology, traditionally perceived as antithetical to craftsmanship and exclusivity. In an era defined by geopolitical shifts and market volatility, open innovation has emerged as a critical paradigm for firm’s survival. However, the mechanisms through which technological innovations diffuse across fragmented supply chains remain deeply complex. This study addresses this gap by investigating fashion-tech accelerators as pivotal strategic intermediaries between tech startups and established luxury corporate entities.

Utilizing a mixed-methods design rooted in Social Network Theory (SNT) and Resource Orchestration Theory (ROT), we map and analyze a comprehensive dataset of three thousand international startups operating within the Italian high-end fashion and luxury technology ecosystem. Through Social Network Analysis (SNA) metrics complemented by qualitative interviews, this research evaluates how accelerator structural configurations and maturity profiles mediate technology adoption outcomes.

Our findings will reveal a profound tension between local and global orchestration dynamics. Mature global accelerators function as hyper-connected innovation brokers. Characterized by high centrality and weak-tie proliferation, they effectively facilitate radical innovation and cross-border scalability, positioning startups within diverse technological clusters. Conversely, nascent local accelerators act as industrial catalysts within specialized manufacturing districts. While their geographically bounded, high-density networks offer strong-tie cohesion and cultural protection, they simultaneously constrain global vision and delay wider technology diffusion. Ultimately, this study unpacks the architectural boundaries of open innovation ecosystems, providing actionable insights for stakeholders navigating the future of exclusivity, resilience, and technological integration in the luxury value chain.