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Redefining Luxury in the Circular Economy
Alalwani, Ulla
Alalwani, Ulla
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Description
A Master of Business Administration (MBA) thesis by Ulla Alalwani entitled, “Redefining Luxury in the Circular Economy”, submitted in December 2024. Thesis advisor is Dr. Mona Mrad. Soft copy is available (Thesis, Approval Signatures, Completion Certificate, and AUS Archives Consent Form).
Abstract
In recent years, the luxury industry has increasingly embraced circular economy practices by shifting toward green alternatives and the emergence of collaborative fashion consumption such as second-hand. Although the second-hand luxury market is witnessing tremendous growth worldwide, research has focused on exploring this sector from the consumer behavior perspective. In contrast, there is a market paucity in the research addressing the seller motivations, barriers, and the related relationship with the brands and luxury items. To investigate this phenomenon, we conducted 26 semi-structured interviews with luxury consumers who engaged in selling personal luxury items in the United Arab Emirates, a significant second-hand luxury market. The findings revealed four drivers to sell (i.e. democratized luxury, economic motivations, altruistic motivation, and practical considerations) and six barriers and concerns that hinder selling (hedonic barrier, platform challenges, perceived risk, practical constraints, economic and market concerns, seller-buyer dynamics). The results also highlighted how perceptions shifted before and after resale behavior uncovering three mainstreams (positive perception, negative perception, and a shift from positive to negative). Furthermore, the outcomes represented positive (e.g. brand loyalty) and negative (e.g. brand switching) seller-brand relationships as well as positive emotions (e.g. emotional detachment), negative emotions (e.g. emotional attachment), and mixed emotions (e.g. relief and sadness) associated with the seller-product relationship. This research contributes to the circular economy emerging literature by exploring the second-hand luxury market from the seller's perspective, shedding light on the motivations, barriers, and relationship dynamics post-sale.