How consumers relate to luxury brands in the 21st century : the changing concept of sacredness and its importance Daniela Ott To cite this version: Daniela Ott. How consumers relate to luxury brands in the 21st century : the changing concept of sacredness and its importance. Business administration. Université Paris sciences et lettres, 2018. English. NNT : 2018PSLED067. tel-03222729 HAL Id: tel-03222729 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-03222729 Submitted on 10 May 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. 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THÈSE DE DOCTORAT de l’Université de recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres PSL Research University Préparée à l’Université Paris -Dauphine How consumers relate to luxury brands in the 21st century: The changing concept of sacredness and its importance cole Doctorale de Dauphine — ED 543 COMPOSITION DU JURY : Spécialité Sciences de gestion Monsieur Simon NYECK ESSEC Business School Directeur de thèse Monsieur Denis DARPY Paris Dauphine PSL Research University Président du jury Madame Delphine DION ESSEC Business School Rapporteure Monsieur Marc FETSCHERIN Rollins College Rapporteur Soutenue le 10.12.2018 Madame Christel de LASSUS par Daniela OTT Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée Membre du jury Dirigée par Mr Simon NYECK Contents List of tables .................................................................................................................................. 5 List of excerpts .............................................................................................................................. 7 List of figures ................................................................................................................................ 8 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................ 9 Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... 10 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... 34 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 35 Outline of the introduction ...................................................................................................... 35 Conceptual background of this thesis ...................................................................................... 35 Research gaps .......................................................................................................................... 39 Research objectives and research questions ............................................................................ 40 Significance of this thesis ........................................................................................................ 42 Methodology and research design ........................................................................................... 43 Schematic outline of thesis ...................................................................................................... 45 Chapter 1 : The concept of luxury ............................................................................................... 46 1.1 What is luxury? ............................................................................................................. 46 1.1.1 Etymology of the word luxury .............................................................................. 46 1.1.2 Luxury over the centuries ...................................................................................... 47 1.1.3 Luxury versus necessity ........................................................................................ 47 1.1.4 The meaning of luxury .......................................................................................... 48 1.2 Literature review ........................................................................................................... 50 1.2.1 Bibliometric citation analysis ................................................................................ 51 1.2.2 Research objective ................................................................................................. 55 1.2.3 Research design ..................................................................................................... 55 1.2.4 Bibliometric data ................................................................................................... 56 1.2.5 Methodology and software .................................................................................... 56 1.2.6 Analysis and results ............................................................................................... 58 1.2.7 Yearly output ......................................................................................................... 58 1.2.8 Centers of excellence: the most influential universities ........................................ 59 1.2.9 Most influential journals ........................................................................................ 62 1.2.10 Most influential articles ......................................................................................... 66 1.2.11 Title analysis .......................................................................................................... 74 1.2.12 Most influential authors ......................................................................................... 74 1.2.13 Citation mapping ................................................................................................... 77 1.2.14 Summary of the bibliometric analysis ................................................................... 83 1.3 Luxury: the vision of anthropologists and sociologists ................................................ 88 1.3.1 Court society .......................................................................................................... 88 1.3.2 Sumptuary laws ..................................................................................................... 91 1.3.3 Luxury visions of Sombart and Bourdieu .............................................................. 92 1.4 Luxury: the vision of philosophers ............................................................................... 96 1.5 Luxury: the vision of economists.................................................................................. 97 1.5.1 Leibenstein’s bandwagon, snob, and Veblen effects in the theory of consumer demand 98 1.6 Luxury: The vision of consumer research .................................................................... 99 1.7 Summary of the definition of a luxury brand ............................................................. 102 1.8 When did luxury take off? .......................................................................................... 108 1.9 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 108 Chapter 2 : The sacred ............................................................................................................... 110 2.1 The link between the concept of luxury and the sacred .............................................. 110 2.2 Sacredness................................................................................................................... 111 2.2.1 Fourteen properties of sacredness........................................................................ 112 2.2.2 Sacred places ....................................................................................................... 113 2.2.3 Sacred time .......................................................................................................... 115 2.2.4 Hierophany .......................................................................................................... 116 2.2.5 Kratophany .......................................................................................................... 117 2.2.6 Opposition to the profane .................................................................................... 117 2.2.7 Contamination ..................................................................................................... 119 2.2.8 Sacrifice ............................................................................................................... 119 2.2.9 Commitment ........................................................................................................ 120 2.2.10 Objectification ..................................................................................................... 120 2.2.11 Ritual ................................................................................................................... 120 2.2.12 Myth .................................................................................................................... 120 2.2.13 Mystery ...............................................................................................................