Can green and gold go hand in hand? : the implementation of sustainable development in the Luxury Goods Industry : the case of LVMH and Guerlain

• Autor(a) principal: Heimig, Maximilian Andreas
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/20047
• topic: Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

The present dissertation outlines the incorporation of sustainable development in luxury goods industries and hence, seeks to find an answer as to whether the dimensions of luxury and sustainability have a common ground. In analyzing the luxury industry, this dissertation employs a case study approach in order to critically analyze practical sustainable activities. LVMH, as the world’s largest luxury group, is portrayed as for the macro perspective of the industry and Guerlain, LVMH’s prestige Perfume & Cosmetics brand, is analyzed as for luxury’s micro perspective. Prior to the case study, literature on the fusion of sustainable development and luxury is presented and highlights findings on both, possible contradictions and parallels, between the two concepts. Furthermore, the literature review sketches findings on the sustainable luxury customer and eventually looks at the company respectively industry side, in analyzing the implementation of sustainable development at luxury industries. With the help of the literature findings and case study, the teaching questions eventually present what critical activities and organizational structures enable a luxury group respectively company to act sustainable along its entire value chain accordingly to its business context. Furthermore, this dissertation outlines how a luxury company can adapt the right communication and marketing strategy in order to both, communicate its sustainability approach and at the same time remain its exclusivity. Finally, the concepts of luxury and sustainable development are analyzed in terms of their convergence.