The effect of sustainable product innovation on the consumer-luxury brand relationship: The role of past identity salience

Integrating the sustainable dimension into product innovation has become a major concern for luxury brand managers. Building on the consumer-brand relationship theoretical framework (Fournier, 1998) and on transgression acts (Asker, Fournier, & Brasel, 2004), this research focuses on substitution innovations in the luxury sector. An experimental study (N = 536) with two brands (luxury vs. non-luxury) and four types of substitution innovation (recycling, upcycling, sustainable alternative, and process) shows that product demand and brand relationships vary according to those two factors. Impacts are less favorable for luxury brands (vs. non-luxury brands). In addition, demand for innovations using materials with past identity is less favorable for the luxury brand than for the non-luxury brand. Conversely, demand for innovations using materials without past identity is not less favorable for the luxury brand than for the non-luxury brand, thus luxury brands are not more incompatible with sustainable innovation than non-luxury ones.