Purpose

This paper investigates why and when messages regarding unsustainable luxury products lead to negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) through a focus on the role of guilt, need to warn others and consumers' cultural orientation.

Design/methodology/approach

Three experiments test whether messages describing unsustainable versus sustainable luxury manufacturing processes elicit guilt and a need to warn others and whether and how the need to warn others affects consumers' NWOM depending on their cultural orientation.

Findings

Consumers experience guilt in response to messages emphasizing the unsustainable (vs sustainable) nature of luxury products. In turn, guilt triggers a need to warn other consumers, which leads to NWOM about the luxury company. Furthermore, the results suggest that two dimensions of Hofstede's model of national culture – namely individualism/collectivism and masculinity/femininity – moderate the effect of the need to warn others on NWOM.

Practical implications

Luxury managers should design appropriate strategies to cope with consumers' different reactions to information regarding luxury brands' unsustainability. Managers should be aware that the risk of NWOM diffusion may be higher in countries characterized by a collectivistic and feminine orientation rather than an individualistic and masculine orientation.

Originality/value

Consumer reaction to unsustainable luxury, especially across different cultural groups, is a neglected area of investigation. This work contributes to this novel area of research by investigating NWOM stemming from unsustainable luxury manufacturing practices in different cultural contexts.

中文翻译：

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消费者对不可持续的奢侈品的反应：一项跨国分析

目的

本文通过关注内of的作用，需要警告他人和消费者的文化取向，来调查关于不可持续的奢侈品的信息为何以及何时导致负面口碑（NWOM）。

设计/方法/方法

三个实验测试了描述不可持续的与可持续的奢侈品制造过程的信息是否会引起罪恶感，以及是否需要警告他人，以及警告他人的需求是否以及如何影响消费者的NWOM，具体取决于他们的文化取向。

发现

消费者对强调奢侈品不可持续（相对于可持续）的信息感到内。反过来，内感触发了警告其他消费者的需要，这导致NWOM对这家奢侈品公司有所关注。此外，结果表明，霍夫斯泰德民族文化模型的两个维度，即个人主义/集体主义和男子气概/女性气质，减轻了对NWOM发出警告的必要性的影响。

实际影响

奢侈品管理者应设计适当的策略，以应对消费者对有关奢侈品品牌的不可持续性的信息的不同反应。管理人员应该意识到，在以集体主义和女性主义为特征的国家，而不是个人主义和男性主义为特征的国家，NWOM扩散的风险可能更高。

创意/价值

消费者对不可持续的奢侈品，尤其是不同文化群体之间的奢侈品的反应，是被忽视的研究领域。这项工作通过调查源自不同文化背景下不可持续的奢侈品制造实践的NWOM，为这一新颖的研究领域做出了贡献。