We are announcing a call for papers for a Special Issue dedicated to “Retailing & Distribution Management in the Luxury sector” with Guest Editor Professor Alessandro Brun from Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

Relevance of the topic

In the last decade, the number of papers and books dealing with the luxury sector significantly increased, following the exceptional growth experienced by this market in challenging economic trading conditions:

• This is a varied and complex business field, mainly including fashion-oriented companies (clothing, leather goods, shoes) but also manufacturers of watches, jewellery, cosmetics, cars, yachts, wines and spirits;
• A double digit growth was reported up to 2008 and, after a slight downturn in 2009, it reached about 185€ billion in 2011; forecasts have predicted that consumption of luxury goods will surpass €300 billion in the next few years;
• Luxury has become an interesting topic for researchers investigating the theoretical fundamentals of the unique topic and contextualising the applied practice in the sector supporting companies’ image through well-structured luxury retailing and distribution management policies.

Although a strong commitment in achieving, supporting and sustaining an appropriate brand identity is essential in order to achieve the luxury status, both academics and practitioners recognize that marketing and branding alone cannot guarantee long-term performance anymore: Retailing and Distribution Management are key to building sustainable success, but there has been a lack of research attention for this topic.

Researchers in the field can contribute to developing theory and techniques in order to support the alignment of supply chain management in retailing towards the specific attributes of the luxury market. Contents focus
Papers on all topics related to the research and practice in the luxury goods/services Retailing, Operations and Distribution Management are welcome. The topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Retail strategy for competing in the luxury market;
• Focused supply chain strategies for specific luxury businesses;
• Retail operations in fashion-luxury stores;
• Differences and commonalities in luxury supply chain depending on product positioning;
• Different approaches in luxury Retail, Operations and Distribution Management depending on the country;
• Transferring strategies and practices from the large consumer goods sectors;
• Manufacturing strategies and practices servicing luxury retail markets;
• Sourcing strategies and practices for luxury companies;
• Collaboration and integration along luxury supply chains;
• The role of the retail supply chain for the internationalization of fashion-luxury companies in emerging markets.

Timing

Submissions in English (UK) will be subjected to the normal double blind review process. Special attention should be made to presentation, format and content requirements for the journal found via ‘Author guidelines’ from the journal homepage:

www.emeraldinsight.com/ijrdm.htm.

Papers should be submitted through the Manuscript Central IJR&DM website.

Submission deadline

The deadline for submitting papers is 8th January 2013.

Final publication of the Special Issue is scheduled to be July 2013

Guest Editor

Alessandro Brun
Department of Economics, Management and Engineering
Politecnico di Milano Via Lambruschini 4/B
Milan – Italy
Email: alessandro.brun@polimi.it

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