Sustainability has become a pervasive issue for the luxury sector, gaining traction with brand managers, scholars, policy‐makers, the media, and academia. The purpose of this paper is to examine the state of sustainable luxury research in marketing and consumer behaviour by critically reviewing and synthesizing the growing but fragmented body of scholarly work on sustainable‐luxury marketing. The paper critically assesses where, how and by whom research on sustainable luxury is being conducted, and it identifies gaps for future investigation. The paper reviews research published between 2007 and 2018 within major peer‐reviewed English‐language scholarly publications in business, marketing, ethics, fashion, food and tourism journals. The research is identified using the keywords sustainable luxury, green luxury, eco‐luxury and organic luxury. Three core themes emerge from this review: (1) consumer concerns and practices; (2) organizational concerns and practices; and (3) international and cross‐cultural issues. The review confirms that research on sustainable luxury is significantly underdeveloped. This paper provides the first critical and comprehensive assessment and categorization of the emergent literature streams on sustainable luxury. The authors argue for a broader, deeper and more critical research agenda on the relationship between sustainability and luxury. Potential avenues for future research on sustainable luxury are proposed, with calls for theoretical and cross‐cultural reflections that tackle broader systemic and institutional issues within the field.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the social media marketing activities of luxury brands, guided by uses and gratifications theory (UGT). It examines the gratifications sought by millennials, a new core luxury consumer group, and the gratifications obtained when following and connecting with luxury brands. Design/methodology/approach Online data are gathered from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts of five top luxury brands. In addition, 30 in-depth interviews with millennials, the new generation of luxury consumers, were conducted. Thematic analysis strategy was followed to analyze the data and present the findings. Findings Luxury brands remain distant and aloof, which helps them to maintain a sense of exclusivity. User activity, ranging from observations to commenting on and liking luxury brand content, leads to the gratification of two types of need: affective and cognitive. Two affective needs that are satisfied by luxury brands’ social media marketing activities are aesthetic appreciation and entertainment. Cognitive needs are satisfied through the functional use of social media as an information source. Originality/value Several studies have investigated social media from the perspective of UGT, but this study is the first to investigate the implications of luxury brands’ social media usage with the lenses of UGT.

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PurposeBy responding to scholarly calls, this study examines the environmental reports of LVMH and Kering. The study extends legitimacy theory to ascertain the credibility of the aforementioned luxury conglomerates' commitment to environmental sustainability.Design/methodology/approachA corpus-assisted discourse analysis centred upon the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines is used to examine the environmental disclosures of LVMH and Kering.FindingsThe findings show inconsistencies due to the lack of brand-level reporting and reporting quality falls short of comparable sustainability reporting within each conglomerate and with one another. Selective and unbalanced reporting along with symbolic management undermines the legitimacy of sustainability efforts by LVMH and Kering.Originality/valueDespite the increased attention paid to sustainable luxury, few studies critically analyse how luxury brands formally report on sustainability.