En av de mest efterfrågade lyxvarorna på dagens marknad är lyxväskor, allt fler väljer attkomplettera sin outfit med denna accessoar. Förr i tiden hade handväskan en merfunktionell roll då den enbart användes för att bära tillhörigheter i. Idag har handväskanen helt annan roll då den framförallt återspeglar en bild av den person som äger väskan.Konsumenter kan med hjälp av denna produkt utge sig för att ha bättre ekonomiskaförutsättningar än vad de i själva verket har.Prognoser visar att efterfrågan på lyxväskor ökar trots att vi befinner oss mitt i vad sombeskrivs som en av de största ekonomiska kriserna i världshistorian. Den svenskamarknaden för lyxväskor växer sig allt större och några bland de främsta varumärkenasom återfinns på marknaden är Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Mulberry, Hermes etc.Eftersom vårt syfte är att undersöka vad motivationen är hos konsumenter som väljer attköpa lyxväskor har vi valt att genomföra en kvalitativ studie på tio personer, varför vivalde att genomföra en studie av kvalitativ karaktär var med anledning av att vi hadebehov av mycket information som berörde respondenterna på ett personligt plan.Respondenterna som vi har valt att genomföra denna studie på är alla unga kvinnor ochmän, större delen av de jobbar inom handel samt restaurangbranschen.Vi har funnit att respondenterna i denna undersökning inför köpet av sin lyxväska befannsig i ett spänningstillstånd orsakat av en konflikt mellan deras lustfyllda begär ochansvarskänsla kring deras ekonomiska situation. Resultatet påvisar att främstaanledningen till varför respondenterna köper lyxväskor är för att bli bekräftade av sinsociala omgivning. Behovet av konformitet är överordnat andra behov som exempelvisfunktionalitet. Status anses vara ett utav de viktigaste värdena som respondenterna kanerhålla igenom köpet av en lyxväska, exempelvis använder vissa av respondenternalyxväskan som en symbol för att öka sin status vid anställningsintervjuer.Utifrån det empiriska utfallet kunde vi se ett mönster där majoriteten av respondenternasom köper lyxväskor prioriterar sitt självförverkligande framför kvaliteten på mergrundläggande behov som till exempel mat och boende. Detta gör att vi funderar på omMaslows behovshierarki är användbar i sin nuvarande form i ett land med västerländskkultur.Respondenternas strävan samt önskan efter att erhålla de värden som köpet av enlyxväska innebär gör att de inte tar hänsyn till hållbarhetstrenden. Bland annat ser vi atten stor del av respondenterna köper lyxväskor som överstiger deras ekonomiskaförutsättningar.

<p>Should economists depart from the neoclassical assumption of independent preferences and admit that people do not only care about absolute consumption, but also about relative consumption? Three different motives for relative preferences are explored, an instrumental perspective most often grounded in signalling incentives, a view where people care about identity and self-image and finally a theory based on the information content in consumption. The central concern is positional goods, typically seen as status-goods, of particular relevance in signalling contexts. The consumption patterns arrived at give rise to wasteful competitive consumption; the desire to advertise wealth produce a pareto-inferior outcome with an overconsumption of positional goods. In relation to this, we briefly discuss some policy implications as well as survey the available empirical evidence.</p>

Should economists depart from the neoclassical assumption of independent preferences and admit that people do not only care about absolute consumption, but also about relative consumption? Three different motives for relative preferences are explored, an instrumental perspective most often grounded in signalling incentives, a view where people care about identity and self-image and finally a theory based on the information content in consumption. The central concern is positional goods, typically seen as status-goods, of particular relevance in signalling contexts. The consumption patterns arrived at give rise to wasteful competitive consumption; the desire to advertise wealth produce a pareto-inferior outcome with an overconsumption of positional goods. In relation to this, we briefly discuss some policy implications as well as survey the available empirical evidence.

This research includes a cross-cultural study between Scandinavia and eastern Asia that are considered to be one individualist (Scandinavia) and one collectivist (east Asia) culture. The purpose is to study the effects of conspicuous consumption regarding counterfeits and luxury products amongst two different cultures. This has not been done in previous research; however, aspects such as conspicuous consumption regarding different cultures have been examined before. In those studies it became clear that there was a noticeable difference between the cultures regarding consumption. In this study, a survey has been carried out to collect data from the two cultures. This research questions previous theories and examines a new aspect of how conspicuous consumption behavior differs between cultures – the consumption of counterfeit and luxury goods.

This dissertation examines the relationship between women and economics in American Progressive Era through the discussion of selected works by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Kate Chopin, and Edith Wharton. The authors and texts included in the study together demonstrate how women responded to the economic development and the concept of the separate spheres at the-turn-into-the-twentieth-century America. Based on Thorstein Veblen¡¦s socio-psychological theory of the leisure class and the institutional economics and Gilman¡¦s analysis on the sexual-economic relationship in marriage, my discussion aims to investigate the interconnection between human relationships, women¡¦s economic values, and economic exchanges in business, focusing on the methods the three women writers employ to re/present how middle/upper-class women redefine womanhood and construct female subjectivity in an economic system that favors men. In my introductory chapter, I explain the historical background of the period, general concepts in Veblen¡¦s economic theory, and the motivation, methodology, and organization of the dissertation. Chapter Two, ¡§Veblenian Workmanship and Gilman¡¦s Woman-Made Land,¡¨ purports to cross-examine Gilman¡¦s Women and Economics and her utopian fiction Herland, aiming to show Gilman¡¦s optimistic view on women¡¦s emancipation from the private to the public. In Chapter Three, ¡§Barbarian Status of Women and Chopin¡¦s Feminism,¡¨ I discuss by Chopin¡¦s The Awakening the tension between women¡¦s growing sense of an autonomous self and men¡¦s adherence to the institutionalized habits of thought. My fourth chapter, ¡§Conspicuous Consumption and Society Women in Edith Wharton,¡¨ is a study on the relationship between the display culture in the consumer society and woman¡¦s role as the non-productive consumer in Edith Wharton¡¦s The House of Mirth and The Custom of the Country. The concluding chapter, along with general comparisons of the heroines, outlines major arguments in the whole thesis.

The literature on status, product symbolism, product involvement, and reference group influence is reviewed to conceptually define the Product Symbolic Status construct. The research consisted of two studies (N = 524) that examined 17 different product types to develop and validate the Product Symbolic Status (PSS) scale. The PSS scale is comprised of four facets: self-concept, impression management, lifestyle, and social visibility. The PSS scale consists of nine items which produced an average reliability of α = .90 and showed evidence of convergent and discriminant validity in MTMM analyses with the constructs of product value-expressiveness, product involvement, and product exclusivity/luxury. The PSS scale can also be used for brand symbolic status research. The marketing and advertising research implications are discussed.

With the continuous exploration of Chinese market’s potential, this promising and enormous market is becoming more and more crowded no matter in which industry. For example, in home furnishing industry, although the world leader - IKEA strived to implement its differentiation and cost leadership strategies that had brought tremendous success in the other markets worldwide, the company’s performance in this distinctive developing country had not progressed much, unlike other parts of the world. Thus, there must be some factors that foreign companies ignored, which led to this situation. That how Chinese think, what exactly trigger them to buy? There is little research on home furnishing industry regarding those questions inside Chinese market. In this article, through observation of the consumer behavior of Chinese people in the home furnishing industry, and focusing on the “mianzi” factor in Chinese consumer behavior, with a quantitative research method, to examine possible correlations with “mianzi” gaining. After a detailed linear regression through SPSS with data collected from 309 candidates both online and offline, the result shows that price and noticeability of home furnishing are key factors that let the Chinese consumer gain “mianzi”; further, lead to competitive consumption and conspicuous consumption, rather than the brand of the furniture.

This paper presents a simple evolutionary model to study the diffusion patterns of product innovations for consumer goods. Following a Veblenian theme, we interpret consumption as a social activity constrained by social norms and equality of opportunity. Societies that allow for more behavioral variety will experience faster adoption of new consumer goods. We also find that the speed of diffusion as well as the saturation levels reached highly depend on the equality of opportunity. Combining these two effects, we conclude that a social structure displaying behavioral variety and equal opportunities dominates any other social set-up in terms of the speed of adoption of product innovations. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers Series "Growth and Employment in Europe: Sustainability and Competitiveness"

The aim of the thesis is to contribute to the CCT research field on social identity, by placing a focus on power from a customer perspective and studying how power can be accentuated within social identity. Theory from CCT with a focus on social identity has been used in combination with extensive literature on power and authority from a sociological perspective and literature from Fashion-Studies focusing on power-dressing, conspicuous consumption and luxury. The research question is: How is power-dressing and consumption of high-end luxury fashion brands used by female executives/senior managers in an attempt to accentuate power as a part of their social identity? In-depth semi-structured interviews where used as the main data collection method interviewing five female senior managers/female executives working in Stockholm; using the fashion consumption of female senior managers as its empirical sample. The main conclusion on this thesis is the creation of the concept of power-coded-dressing.This thesis implications are that it develops the CCT field slightly by adding a consumer-power perspective into the theoretical discourse. Its practical and social implications help women accentuate their power through, power-coded-dressing.

This thesis stands result of a research conducted in Entebbe Uganda, during approximately five weeks in the autumn of 2009. The aim was to understand the reasoning behind decisions taken concerning the use of economic means, after covering the consumption of necessities. The options set were either to increase the level of conspicuous consumption or enhance the level of investments or consumption of necessities. The point of departure and ontological approach is taken from a household member i.e. individual level. The analytical framework applied elaborating the empirical material collected was Bourdieu’s conceptualisation of habitus. Enhancing the understanding of habitus concepts e.g. needs, methods introduced by Lull was utilised. The primary data consisted of assembled interviews and direct observations. The secondary data consists of qualitative literature.   The results display an individual vision of vertical or transversal social movement. Identified incentives were inter alia peer pressure and competition. Conspicuous consumption is viewed as a process decreasing the distance from an individual social movement i.e. changes habitus. Methods realising a status increase of social position and status, is of symbolic items possessed through conspicuous consumption in combination with social capital, economic capital and level of knowledge.