What does new luxury entail : an empirical study on the dimensions of new luxury and their impact on consumer happiness

Thesis submitted in the fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Rubal Rathi Under the supervision of Dr. Ruchi Garg, Dr. Ritu Chhikara Doctor of Philosophy 2023

The luxury industry is witnessing a paradigm shift with evolving consumer understanding of what luxury means to them at a fundamental level. This is primarily due to newer demographics of consumers who are educated, aware, and well-travelled and are present across newer geographies. With phenomenal growth in the last few years and forecasts of further gaining colossal traction in the years to come, India has become a hotspot for luxury brands. While literature argues that the notion of luxury is ever-evolving, there exists little research on what it means to contemporary luxury consumers, especially in the era where experiences are enjoyed more than material products.
In this line, the purpose of this thesis is twofold. First, to explore the dimensions that explain New Luxury from a consumer behaviour perspective and capture what luxury means to contemporary consumers. Second, to empirically test the impact of these newly explored dimensions on hedonic and eudemonic consumer happiness. This is achieved through conceptualizing a theoretical framework encompassing New Luxury dimensions, namely green conspicuousness, low-key conspicuousness, hedonic escapism, and self-directed pleasure; the mediating variables- social elevation and self-extension tendency; the outcome variables- hedonic happiness and eudemonic happiness, along with the moderating effect of consumer involvement. This study is contextualized in India among luxury fashion and accessories shoppers for products and high-end experience enthusiasts for the service category. Although researchers have studied fashion and service as separate categories, there is no similar multigroup study either in luxury or in Indian parlance. Grounding in the goal content theory, this research classifies the emerging New Luxury dimensions from the qualitative study into extrinsic and intrinsic goals.