 An investigation of unsustainable luxury: How guilt drives negative word-of-mouthCesare Amatulli, Matteo De Angelis, Giovanni Pino and Gianluigi Guido International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2020, vol. 37, issue 4, 821-836 Abstract: This research investigates consumers' reactions to luxury versus mass-market fashion products that are produced in an unsustainable manner. In particular, this research empirically assesses whether and why third-party information revealing the unsustainable nature of luxury versus mass-market fashion products may increase consumers' intention to engage in negative word-of-mouth about the manufacturing company. The results of four experiments demonstrate that, when confronted with information revealing that a purchased luxury fashion product has been produced in an environmentally or socially unsustainable manner, consumers experience a higher sense of guilt over that product, compared to a purchased mass-market fashion product, due to their lower expectations about luxury fashion products' unsustainability. Guilt, in turn, drives consumers' intention to generate negative word-of-mouth about the producer and such an effect is more pronounced among consumers with a higher versus lower individualistic orientation. Keywords: Luxury goods; Sustainability; Guilt; Negative word-of-mouth; Individualism (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ijrema:v:37:y:2020:i:4:p:821-836 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2020.03.005 Access Statistics for this article International Journal of Research in Marketing is currently edited by Roland Rust More articles in International Journal of Research in Marketing from Elsevier |
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