Spending money on hedonic luxuries often seems wasteful, irrational, and even immoral. We propose that adding a small utilitarian feature to a luxury product can serve as a functional alibi, justifying the indulgent purchase and reducing indulgence guilt. We demonstrate that consumers tend to inflate the value, and usage frequency, of utilitarian features when they are attached to hedonic luxur...

We estimate the ground state energy of the hydrogen atom using the variational Monte Carlo (VMC) method with a simple model trial wavefunction and the RANLUX random number generator with five luxury levels (RANLUX-[04]). The resulting VMC energies are compared with the reference (exact) energy that is analytically evaluated with the same wavefunction as in the VMC simulations. The VMC energies ...

For many years, the concept of sustainability and luxury has been considered a paradox. Despite scholars’ efforts to highlight compatibility between luxury, limited studies have shown mixed inconclusive evidence. By adopting luxury-seeking consumer behavior framework, this study examines relationship value perceptions (i.e., conspicuous, unique, social, emotional, quality values) sustainable pr...

The luxury sector is characterised by several critical success factors, including 'premium quality'. Although quality management (QM) has been deeply studied in recent years, few authors explicitly addressed QM with regard to industry as a whole, let alone the idiosyncrasies of Italian approach luxury. contribution present study twofold: 1) first all, it introduces novel and rigorous research p...

R groups influence product and brand evaluations, especially when the product is a publicly consumed luxury good. Marketers of such luxury goods need to carefully balance two important social forces: (1) the desire of leaders to distinguish themselves from followers and (2) the countervailing desire of followers to assimilate with leaders. In this paper, we examine the theoretical implications ...

Using quadratic Engel curves with measurement errors, we identify the proportion of urban households in Ethiopia for whom food exhibits the characteristics of a luxury commodity. The threshold welfare level beyond which food ceases to be a luxury is found to lie between the 35 and 47 percentiles of the total expenditure distribution. This suggests that policy aimed at reducing food poverty shou...

In this chapter, the authors focus on the aspects of religious belief that may affect consumption behavior. Previous studies have clearly stated that the study of religion’s influence on consumer behavior is still under-researched (Lindridge, 2005; Mokhlis, 2009, 2010). The premise lies in the view that culture is a way of life, and thus, the authors explore whether or not that suggests the sam...