2021 AUS-Chalhoub Symposium on Luxury Marketing and Branding

The subject of luxury has recently attracted considerable attention by both practitioners and academics. Despite the current slowdown in sales due to the global pandemic, the value of personal goods market is expected to bounce back to growth and reach €320-330 billion by 2025 (Bain & Co. 2020).  Given the significance of the luxury sector to the global economy and the fact that luxury brands often need to turn classical marketing knowledge “upside down” to preserve their prestige and dream value, it is now more important than ever to develop luxury specific theory and actionable frameworks to help managers steer their luxury brands through the pandemic and return to growth quickly.

American University of Sharjah is home to the Chalhoub Group Professorship in Luxury Brand Management, a center of excellence for research and teaching in luxury marketing. This boutique event aims to bring together the latest thinking in the theory and practice of luxury marketing and to provide a platform for collaborative research work and insightful exchange of ideas between international scholars and practitioners. The university is located about 20km from Dubai International Airport.

We invite extended abstracts from academics and practitioners for consideration for presentation.  The best papers presented at the conference will be invited to submit a full paper for publication consideration in a special issue of Journal of Strategic Marketing (A rated in 2019 ABDC list).  The deadline for submission of full papers for the JSM special issue will be February 28, 2022.

We call for original research, both conceptual and empirical in any area related to the symposium’s theme, including but not limited to,:

• COVID-19 and shifts in luxury consumer behavior
• Brand equity, customer equity and luxury perceptions
• Counterfeiting and luxury products and brands
• Chinese consumers and luxury products and brands
• Perceptions and attitudes towards luxury products and brands
• NPD and downward/upward extensions of luxury brands
• Accessible luxury and the concept of masstige
• Luxury products and brands in emerging and developing countries
• Traditional, digital and social media communication strategies for luxury products and brands
• Luxury experiences management
• Challenges and opportunities of luxury products and brands
• Luxury brands in the GCC
• “Phygital” distribution of luxury products and brands
• Cross-cultural comparisons of luxury consumers and/or firm practices
• Consumer expectations of luxury brands’ CSR
• Performance measurement of luxury brands

Abstract Format

• Length: Maximum of 7 pages, including a cover page.
• Font: Times New Roman, 12 point, single-spaced.
• Cover page: The first page should be the cover page and it must include the title, the name of the author(s), their affiliation and address. 
• References: Follow the style adopted by the Journal of Strategic Marketing, as outlined here.  

Submitting Abstracts

Abstracts must be submitted electronically to [email protected] by April 30, 2021.

Abstracts will be reviewed by the organizing committee. Authors will be notified by May 31, 2021 as to the acceptance of their abstracts for presentation at the symposium.

​Click here to download the PDF.

• USD 275 for Academy of Marketing (AM) members (includes dinner, lunch and coffee)
• USD 299 non-AM members (includes dinner, lunch and coffee)

Registration will begin June 2021.
 

In collaboration with:

SIG in Consumer Psychology and Cross-Cultural Research

The symposium will be held at American University of Sharjah (AUS), United Arab Emirates. American University of Sharjah is a five-minute drive from the center of the city of Sharjah and a 20-minute drive from Dubai.

American University of Sharjah (AUS) was founded in 1997 by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council of the UAE and Ruler of Sharjah, who envisioned the university as a leading educational institution in the Gulf region. AUS is an independent, non-profit coeducational institution. AUS is a leading comprehensive coeducational university in the Gulf, serving students from the region and around the world. 

Sharjah is a city of learning and the arts, as confirmed by its 1998 UNESCO designation as the Cultural Capital of the Arab World. In 2014, it was named the Capital of Islamic Culture for 2014 by Organization of Islamic Countries This context facilitates the university's intention to be an academic center at the intersection of ancient cultural traditions and contemporary intellectual currents. The city of Sharjah is home to more than 20 museums with splendid collections of artifacts and art as well as exhibits on science and natural history. Sharjah also hosts many cultural festivals, educational conferences, fairs and economic expositions. These resources permit the university to broaden students' formal education in a way not possible elsewhere in the region.

To discover more about Sharjah, please click here.

In collaboration with:

SIG in Consumer Psychology and Cross-Cultural Research

• Dr. George Christodoulides, Chair
• Dr. Nina Michaelidou
• Dr. Sajid Khan
• Dr. Rania Semaan
• Dr. Nikoletta Siamagka

In collaboration with:

SIG in Consumer Psychology and Cross-Cultural Research