Sustainable Luxury and Word of Mouth: The Effect Of Shame and Individualism

This research proposes that messages describing unsustainable versus sustainable luxury manufacturing methods elicit anticipated shame, which differentially impact consumers’ negative word-of-mouth intentions depending on their individualistic versus collectivistic cultural orientation. An experimental study shows that messages about unsustainable luxury products trigger shame, which, in turn, increases (decreases) negative word-of-mouth for collectivistic (individualistic) consumers. Such results contribute to the literature on luxury and sustainability by shedding light on the role that negative emotions ‒ shame, in particular ‒ and consumers’ cultural orientation have in sustainable luxury development.