Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

Western individualism (Ramamoorthy, et. al., 2005). As collectivists, Indians lay importance on groupaffiliation and social harmony. Thus, luxury consumption is largely affected by group preferences andtastes (Eng and Bogaert, 2010). However, as individualists, Indians value the importance of independenceand personal success (Ramamoorthy, et. al., 2005). They work hard for their success and demand itemsthat enable them to fulfill their personal desires for luxurious experiences. They want luxury that willexpress them in the best way and this leads to strong emotional connections between the brand and theluxury consumer. Another facet of cultural development in India is the interaction between traditional andmodern cultures. Most middle and upper class Indians, while rooted to traditional Indian values, areexposed to global lifestyles through various media. This exposure finds its way into modern culture, whichis heavily dominated by Western style of consumption. The interaction between traditional values andglobal consumer culture is a representation of the Indian consumers‘ perceptions about luxury. This kindof interaction is well received by Indians as they take pride in their traditional culture. They feel thatmodern culture should be integrated with traditional culture so as to portray a wholesome and holisticexperience of luxury. The coexistence of traditional styles and modern Western brands gives rise toperceptions about luxury (see Figure 7). As a result, luxury brands have realized that Indians do not prefermodernist Westernization in all their brands. Indians often like global brands that have an Indiancharacteristic (Atwal and Khan, 2008). For instance, the luxury watch brand Tag Heuer has attracted theIndian actor Shah Rukh Khan and Formula race champion Karun Chandhok as its brand endorsers (Stars& Glamour, 2011). These celebrities have great appeal in India and are perceived to be appropriate forendorsing the brand. Indians in general connect well with these brand associations (Eng and Bogaert,2010). The cultural context of India may also be viewed in the light of its shopping culture. In Indiaexclusive streets devoted to luxury brands that are highly prevalent in places like Paris are rare. Most bigbrands open their showrooms in posh hotels so that their target consumers can be easily reached. This isslowly changing as there is a growth in malls such as DLF Emporio in the capital city of New Delhi thatpositions itself to be a high end luxury mall (Kulshrestha, 2010). However, in spite of this change, there isa lack of luxury infrastructure that exists in other countries such as China and Japan. It will take a longtime before this infrastructure becomes established, and that is the reason why most luxury retailers havepreferred to wait for a few years before fully establishing themselves in India (Narayan, 2006).Proposition 8: Individualism and collectivism affects the perception of luxury differently in India andChinaFigure 7: Influence of Culture on Luxury Consumption in IndiaIndian CultureCollectivism withan IncreasingInfluence ofCollectiv Individualism IndividuaismEmphasis onGroupNormsandSocialPreferenlismEmphasis onIndividualSuccessandPreferenInfluence ofTraditional andModern CultureTradition ModernalEmphasis onTraditionalIndianValuesEmphasis onWesternizationdue toGrowingExposure