18 pagesInternational audienceUnlike previous studies that examine the direct effect of employees' perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) on affective organizational commitment (AOC), this article examines a mediated link through organizational trust and organizational identification. Social exchange and social identity theory provide the foundation for predictions that the primary outcomes of CSR initiatives are organizational trust and organizational identification, which in turn affect AOC. The test of the research model relies on data collected from 378 employees of local and multinational companies in South Asia, as well as structural equation modeling to test the postulated relationships. Both organizational trust and organizational identification fully mediate the CSR-AOC link. However, the identification mechanism is significantly stronger than the trust mechanism in terms of building AOC from CSR. Out of four CSR components, CSR toward employees is the strongest predictor of employees' trust, identification, and AOC, followed by CSR toward community, whereas CSR toward the environment has no effect. Finally, CSR toward community and employees are more associated with social exchange, whereas CSR toward consumers relates more to the social identity process
Acknowledgements: The first author received a CEFAG grant to fund him as a visiting scholar at The University of Washington Tacoma. He would like to thank the FNEGE (Fondation Nationale pour l'Enseignement de la Gestion des Entreprises) for its financial support in this research.
Purpose
Luxury is a growing sector worldwide. This creates a major managerial challenge: How can luxury brands prevent becoming a victim of their own success? Once objective rarity is lost, what other levers still sustain desire for these luxury brands, nurture their dream and, thus, prevent the dilution of desirability created by their growing penetration and sales?
Design/methodology/approach
Based on 1,286 actual luxury consumers interviewed about 12 highly known and successful luxury brands on 42 experiential and perceptual items, a PLS hierarchical fourth-order latent variables model unveils the paths of luxury dream building.
Findings
The authors have identified how, beyond mere physical rarity and very high quality, eight experiential and perceptual levers fuel luxury desirability through two structural paths: selection and seduction.
Research limitations/implications
The concept of luxury is associated to rarity. But to grow, luxury brands need to abandon mere scarcity and selectivity (value created by limitation of production, highly selective distribution and selection of customers) and switch instead to an “abundant rarity”, where feelings of privilege are attached to the brand itself, seducing through its experiential facets, pricing, prestige and the world it symbolizes.
Practical implications
Luxury executives can use this paper as a compass to manage, sustain and monitor their brand desirability, all along the brand’s growth, as it moves away from being niche and rare.
Social implications
Considering the growing social diffusion of the need for luxury in different strata of the population, this paper reveals the levers of the attractiveness of the mega-brands of luxury.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the main problem of the luxury industry: How to grow yet remain desirable. It is based on 1,286 actual luxury buyers and 12 actual brands. Thanks to PLS modelization, the structure of the levers of brand desirability is revealed.
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