The Green Road to Luxury : Insights into the Perceptions of Sustainability in the Minds of Luxury Car Consumers

Abstract: Background The alarming speed of environmental degradation is enhancing the need to shift current production and consumption habits towards more sustainable ones. Luxury producers face the necessity to act following their responsibilities to stimulate sustainable sourcing, manufacturing, and marketing. Despite the sustainable trend, the concept of sustainable luxury is still developing. Current research on sustainable luxury mostly covers areas with limited to habituated decision-making cycles, that are rather short-lived.  Aim The thesis aims to explore the compatibility of luxury and sustainability within the automotive context and identify and understand ways to positively impact the consumer perceptions of sustainable luxury. Furthermore, insights into products that involve rather extensive decision-making cycles and highly impact the life of the consumers from a financial side are intended to be examined, by analyzing the perceptions of automotive customers.  Methodology By conducting a quantitative study, data provided by an international operating automotive manufacturer is analyzed. Further, a clustering method for customer segmentation is initially applied. Afterwards, the related results are used afterwards as basis for a moderation analysis. Findings The results indicate that luxury and sustainable are generally considered as compatible within the automotive industry, but that the degree to which this perception is translated into actual purchasing behavior differs based on the context of the situation and the offering. Further, there is evidence of the existing opportunity for cars manufacturers to actively influence and support the luxury perception of their products by putting emphasis on aspects that are important to the consumers and increase their willingness to buy sustainable luxury products