Description
Write a Journal Article Review of 900-1200 words, not including the title page or reference page. For each Journal Article Review, you must discuss how the theoretical model or treatment described in the article compares to the information discussed in your textbook. No more than 20% of each Journal Article Review may be quotations. You must cite and reference the original article, the course textbook, and one additional scholarly article.
Each Journal Article Review assignment must include these sections:
Title page
Article caption at top of first page of text (current APA style) to identify the article
Statement of the author’s purpose (100 words)
Background of the issue (175 words)
Application of supply chain management theory relevant to article (175 words)
Managerial implications of article findings (350 words/2–3 paragraphs)
Summary of the article and its context (100 words)
References (Current APA style)
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The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0960-0035.htm
Luxury supply chain management: Luxury supply
chain
management
a framework proposal based on
a systematic literature review
Maicom Sergio Brandao, Moacir Godinho Filho and
Andrea Lago da Silva
Department of Industrial Engineering, Federal University of S~ao Carlos,
Sao Carlos, Brazil
859
Received 25 April 2020
Revised 21 October 2020
24 March 2021
21 May 2021
Accepted 3 June 2021
Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to identify the main elements that describe the luxury supply chain. It discusses
the relationship between them in a framework that organises and summarises the literature.
Design/methodology/approach – A systematic literature review was conducted that returned 288 papers,
which were selected based on specific quality and theme criteria. Content analysis was used to investigate the
alignment of critical success factors with the performance goals and configuration elements of luxury supply
chains in the final sample of 66 papers.
Findings – The results provide a framework that clarifies the relationship between the configuration elements
and supply chain performance goals and the critical success factors for three different levels of the luxury
market. Depending on the level of luxury, performance goals and configuration elements assume a different
importance and different characteristics. An understanding of these differences is relevant for defining
strategies and managing luxury supply chains properly. The three different configurations also reveal new
research avenues to be further investigated.
Research limitations/implications – The study is limited in terms of its data source as the papers reviewed
were collected from only three academic databases.
Practical implications – The findings of this work help incorporate knowledge about luxury supply chain
management into a framework that can be easily used for defining strategies and organising the supply chain
according to the different levels of luxury.
Originality/value – This study represents an important evolution in organising the current literature on
luxury supply chain management into a framework that covers critical success factors, supply chain
performance goals and configuration elements for three different levels of luxury, which in turn creates
promising opportunities for future enquiry.
Keywords Luxury market, Critical success factors, Supply chain performance, Supply chain configuration,
Systematic literature review
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Luxury products are made by prestigious brands, which can create lifestyles and inspire
people through their values. The luxury market represents an important part of international
trade and reached more than V1 trillion in 2019 (D’Arpizio and Levato, 2019). In 2020, a
decrease of 23% was predicted as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. However, there is a
perspective of recovering market revenues by the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023
(D’Arpizio and Levato, 2020). The luxury market is traditionally configured in terms of its price
positioning and brand heritage and is normally split into three main levels of luxury: accessible,
aspirational and absolute (Alleres, 2000; Brun and Moretto, 2012; Castelli and Sianesi, 2015).
Preserving the essence of the brand is a challenge that is related to the ability to manage
supply chains. First, there is a need for alignment between the critical success factors of the
luxury market and supply chain management goals. This alignment should then drive how
The authors appreciate the valuable comments and helpful suggestions from one anonymous Associate
Editor and four reviewers who have helped develop the final version of the paper.
International Journal of Physical
Distribution & Logistics
Management
Vol. 51 No. 8, 2021
pp. 859-876
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0960-0035
DOI 10.1108/IJPDLM-04-2020-0110
IJPDLM
51,8
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the luxury supply chain is organised by way of its configuration elements, such as the level of
outsourcing, product composition, the distribution channel, the level of customisation and the
decoupling point (Caniato et al., 2011; Castelli and Sianesi, 2015).
Over the past decade, an increasing number of studies have been conducted to identify: (1)
the role of performance goals in improving management strategies in luxury supply chains
(Caniato et al., 2009, 2011, 2013; Brun et al., 2013a, b, 2017c; Brun and Moretto, 2014; Castelli
and Sianesi, 2015; Robinson and Hsieh, 2016), (2) elements of supply chain configuration
(Brun et al., 2008, 2013b; Caniato et al., 2011; Faust, 2013; Khan, 2015) and (3) the differences
between conventional and luxury supply chain processes (Luzzini and Ronchi, 2010; Sapra
et al., 2010; Brun and Moretto, 2012; Brun et al., 2013b; Brun and Moretto, 2014; D’Avolio et al.,
2015). Notwithstanding the availability of the literature for identifying, describing and
explaining luxury supply chain management, there are few studies that systematise the
existing literature into an all-embracing framework that summarises the three above levels of
luxury in the main conceptual axes of supply chain management. Although Brun et al. (2017a)
conducted an initial study with this objective in mind, there is still no framework that
presents an overview of the body of knowledge that has been developed over the last decade
encompassing the different levels of luxury (Castelli and Sianesi, 2015).
Many questions about critical success factors, supply chain performance goals and
configuration elements remain to be addressed. This study creates a framework which: (1)
contains the main operation and market components for differentiating luxury supply chains
and (2) identifies and discusses the relationship between these components. This framework
is useful in both theoretical and practical terms. It expands and splits the luxury supply chain
topic into three different perspectives based on the marketing classification of luxury
markets. It also contributes to practice when it lists possible strategies for supply chain goals
and the configuration elements required for managing luxury supply chains.
2. Research method
The systematic literature review (SLR) is a research method that involves collecting evidence
from the literature and summarising a specific body of knowledge. In this case, supply chain
management in the luxury products industry is the body of knowledge that we focus on. The
present SLR followed the steps (Figure 1).
2.1 Question formulation
A previous scoping study was conducted by the researchers to gather an adequate basis of
knowledge and identify the main topics in the literature review. Our first research question
verifies what elements can be used to describe the luxury supply chain. The first question,
therefore, is:
RQ1. How can luxury supply chain be conceptualised from market and operations
components?
Figure 1.
Research method
summary
The second question goes into the analysis in more depth by verifying how these components
are related to each other. Our second research question is:
Luxury supply
chain
RQ2. What is the relationship between these market and operations’ components and
management
their impacts on luxury supply chain management?
2.2 Study identification: definition of the search strings and databases
The scoping study helped identify the primary construct associated with the topic, namely
“luxury”, which is also the main adjective used to classify brands and products (Brun and
Castelli, 2013). Thus, the term “luxur*” was selected by the researchers to retrieve all the
content related to “luxury” or “luxurious”. The topic of supply chain management also
involves the demand chain, the value chain (Fabinyi, 2016) and the net chain. Therefore, the
terms selected to compose the search string were “supply chain*”, “value chain*”, “net chain*”
and “demand chain*”. The term “luxur*”, therefore, was combined with supply chain
management terms to compose the search strings. There was no restriction on the period
because, based on the scoping study, the development of the luxury supply chain
management theory is a recent phenomenon. Therefore, the study covered all the papers
published up until the time of this research, i.e. 2020. The databases selected for conducting
the searches were Web of Knowledge, Engineering Village and Scopus, which are the most
appropriate ones for providing an adequate search infrastructure and are the online
repositories of papers related to the literature topic being studied (Lima et al., 2018).
2.3 Study selection and evaluation
The search strings recovered 410 papers, of which 176 came from Scopus, 158 from Web of
Knowledge and 76 from Engineering Village; 122 duplicate papers were identified and
removed by the researchers before the two-step screening. The screening was based on the
inclusion and exclusion criteria defined to facilitate answering the research questions. The
inclusion and exclusion criteria were used as a means of proving the appropriate
transparency of the review process. Also, a formal criterion allowed the review to be
updated by adding new studies that were outside the period range. The inclusion and
exclusion criteria were applied as follows. In the first step, the titles and abstracts of the
papers that were returned were analysed based on the proximity of the topic, language and
quality. Taking the remaining papers from the first step, therefore, the second step covered an
in-depth analysis of the full text based on theoretical/conceptual adherence to the review
objectives. Finally, from 288 papers with no duplicates, 151 remained following application of
the inclusion and exclusion criteria in the first step. Sixty-six papers were returned from the
second step, which became the final sample for content analysis.
2.4 Analysis
Content analysis was performed on the 66 papers remaining after the second step because
this research aims to expand the current theoretical understanding of the subject. Content
analysis was conducted according to Krippendorf (2004). Full-text reading enabled the main
elements of the luxury supply chain to be identified, namely luxury market levels, critical
success factors, supply chain performance goals and configuration elements. These were
used to compose the code list, which was based on the critical success factors, supply chain
performance goals and the configuration elements for each luxury market level. The code list
was used by the researchers to classify the content along with the paragraphs of each
selected paper in terms of the critical success of the market, the supply chain performance
goals and the configuration element based on a concurrence of codes, and their meanings, in
the same paragraph.
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The first analysis derived from text codification was term frequency. The code
frequency was used to rank the most frequent critical success factors. Contingency
analysis was used to find the relationship level between two codes, revealed by the cooccurrence level. In the theoretical domains, the proximity between the codes indicates a
possible cognitive association and a greater chance of referring to the same context; cooccurrence is the parameter used to capture this association (Krippendorf, 2004). The
Jaccard similarity index was used to define the similarity between the codes. The Jaccard
index varies between 0 and 1; indices closer to 0 indicate weak proximity and those closer
to 1 indicate strong proximity. Jaccard indices that were bigger than 0.5 were considered
to represent strong proximity; this approach was similar to the one used by Lima
et al. (2018).
3. Results and discussion
This section presents the results of identifying the main elements that describe and
characterise luxury supply chain management. Content analysis clearly showed that critical
success factors, supply chain management goals and configuration elements are necessary
for describing and characterising a luxury supply chain. Dividing luxury supply chain
management into three different luxury levels also seems appropriate from a marketing
perspective (Alleres, 2000). Thus, the levels of luxury were the last elements chosen to
compose the proposed framework.
Besides distinguishing luxury from non-luxury products, several efforts were made to
classify products according to levels of luxury. For example, Brun and Castelli (2013)
proposed a categorisation that divides luxury products on the basis of consumer preferences.
Luxury brands and products are usually classified, however, based on the socioeconomic
criteria of market segments. Consequently, there are accessible luxury products, intermediate
(or aspirational) luxury products and inaccessible (or absolute) luxury products (Alleres,
2000; Brun and Moretto, 2012; Castelli and Sianesi, 2015).
Inaccessible (or absolute) luxury products are mostly provided by traditional brands that
have a long-standing heritage and recognised elitism. High-luxury brands commonly offer
unique pieces or limited-distribution products. Price positioning combines rational and
irrational appeal, justified by the rarity value of these types of products. Hermes and Van
Cleef & Arpels are examples in this category (Alleres, 2000; Castelli and Sianesi, 2015).
Intermediate (or aspirational) luxury products come from brands that enjoy high prestige in
the luxury market. This brings together a segment of consumers who are very demanding
and looking for wide prestigious recognition and social status. Louis Vuitton and Gucci are
representative of this group of brands (Alleres, 2000; Castelli and Sianesi, 2015). Finally,
accessible luxury has a certain level of prestige, but price positioning is at a lower level
compared with other luxury segments. Coach and Hugo Boss are illustrative of this segment
(Alleres, 2000; Yan et al., 2011; Castelli and Sianesi, 2015).
Some characteristics seem to be reasonable for describing products that fit this top
segment. First, luxury products are usually associated with traditional brands, the
excellence of which has been long recognised, which makes brand reputation important for
enhancing prestige and notability. Some luxury products have a close relationship with their
country of origin, which bestows special status on the product or reinforces a significant
aspect of the product, such as its quality or heritage, e.g. the watch industry with
Switzerland (Donze, 2020). Luxury products reflect a set of values that create a lifestyle for
their consumers. Luxury brands are also known to promote a unique shopping experience,
which reinforces an emotional appeal vis-a-vis their consumers, e.g. pop-up stores as spaces
that are designed and created to improve brand experience over and above merely selling
products (Klein et al., 2016).
Superior quality is another characteristic of luxury products. Non-luxury products might
even attain significant levels of quality, but quality in terms of luxury products goes beyond
the traditional view; sometimes, they use their own specific procedures for selecting materials
and in their manufacturing processes (Brun et al., 2008; Caniato et al. 2009, 2011). Finally,
luxury products are known for their unique style and design, which cover the physical and
symbolic elements associated with a luxury product. This aspect is closely related to the
artistic line of the brand’s founder, or its most famous designer.
Supply chain performance goals are organisational priorities that drive strategies,
practices and indicators for increasing organisational competitiveness. Performance goals in
supply chain management include the procurement, transportation, distribution and
manufacturing processes within the supply chain. The literature of luxury supply chain
management has provided a group of performance goals that are appropriate for operating in
the luxury market. Quality was the first performance goal identified. In the luxury market, it
is desirable to deliver products that are of superior quality, which is one of the critical success
factors in this market.
Another supply chain performance goal for luxury operations is traceability, which covers
the collection, documentation, control and maintenance of product-related information, which
allows its origin, history and location to be identified (Bechini et al., 2008). Uniqueness, which
is the ability to provide rare, unique and valuable resources and technologies for use in
product composition or at point of sale, is commonly associated with luxury products (Nueno
and Quelch, 1998; Lamming et al., 2000; Caniato et al., 2011).
Innovation is also important as a performance goal for the supply chain. There is a profile
of customer in the luxury market that pursues innovation (Brun and Castelli, 2013). The
various types of luxury products and their channels, such as travel stores, demand a
responsive supply chain. Responsiveness is closely related to the speed with which the
supply chain responds to demand variations for reducing the risk of product stock-outs,
obsolescence and lost sales (Fisher, 1997).
As well as responsiveness, flexibility is required in some supply chain operations in the
luxury market. For example, customer preferences in terms of product composition may
impose a certain level of flexibility being required to operate in the luxury market.
Collaboration is a core goal in supply chain management, and a partnership between
customers and suppliers in the supply chain improves information sharing and increases
supply chain visibility (Shen et al., 2020).
Sustainability, which here deals with cleaner and more ethical production and marketing/
selling, recently assumed an emerging relevance in luxury supply chain management (Brun
et al., 2017a). Sustainability also involves social and environmental awareness of the
company’s processes and products and aims to reduce any potential negative impacts from
the product design stage to product distribution and returns (Crum et al., 2011; Yang et al.,
2017). Finally, global competition and macroeconomic scenarios have reframed the way cost
is perceived in luxury operations; there is a cost reduction focus throughout the supply chain
activities of purchasing, production, distribution, inventory maintenance, etc. (Fisher, 1997).
Castelli and Sianesi (2015) point out that performance goals drive choices in terms of the
supply chain configuration elements that support the critical success factors of the luxury
market. Configuration elements mean the way the supply chain is organised in terms of its
distribution channels, product composition, level of customisation, decoupling point and the
level of outsourcing (Caniato et al., 2011; Castelli and Sianesi, 2015). They are the result of
alignment between CSFs and performance goals.
The distribution channel is the group of interdependent organisations that make a
product available to customers by way of an appropriate delivery format and at a desired
service level. Important decisions regarding distribution channels cover how centralised it
is (Hausman et al., 2006; Castelli and Sianesi, 2015). The level of outsourcing involves the
Luxury supply
chain
management
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transfer of initially internal processes to external suppliers. Outsourcing choices in supply
chain management include manufacturing, warehousing, transportation and marketing
and purchasing processes (Kroes and Ghosh, 2010; Scott et al., 2018; Castelli and
Sianesi, 2015).
The decoupling point is the supply chain stage where the flow of materials is no longer
pushed but pulled. The order penetration point involves strategies for responding to demand,
such as make to stock, make to order, assembly to order, etc. (Rudberg and Wikner, 2004;
Castelli and Sianesi, 2015). Finally, product customisation and composition are configuration
elements that come from market characteristics but have affected supply chain operations.
Higher levels of product customisation demand a more responsive and flexible supply chain.
Similarly, when product design covers hard to find materials, there are specific requirements
for supply chain management (Nueno and Quelch, 1998; Alleres, 2000).
The effective management of a luxury supply chain should define the performance goals
that help meet the established critical success factors (Caniato et al. 2009, 2011; Castelli and
Sianesi, 2015; Brun et al., 2017c); it also differentiates each supply chain with regard to its
configuration elements. The content analysis results showed that there was no general rule in
terms of performance goals contributing to all of the critical success factors. The supply chain
performance goals enhance each level of luxury differently, which, in its turn, results in
multiple strategies for organising and managing supply chains, which is discussed in the
next subsections.
Based on the results achieved by the systematic review and the content analysis, a
framework was proposed that grouped the critical success factors, the supply chain
performance goals and the configuration elements for each of the three luxury supply chain
configurations listed in the levels of luxury (Figure 2). The following paragraphs discuss the
relationship between the elements, revealing strategies for achieving alignment between
marketing and the supply chain, in addition to understanding how each luxury supply chain
can be described based on its configuration elements.
3.1 Luxury levels and the critical success factors
Accessible products are at the base of the luxury goods pyramid and share many similarities
in their supply chain practices with non-luxury products. Coding analysis revealed that
brand reputation, product quality, style and design, and lifestyle creation were the most
frequent terms in the analysed literature. As a starting segment, accessible luxury products
provide the initial taste of luxury consumption, and this encourages people to adopt a new
lifestyle. These products are also broadly recognised in society because of extensive brand
communication. Finally, these products are perceived as being of superior quality when
compared with non-luxury products (Alleres, 2000; Yan et al., 2011; Faust, 2013).
Aspirational products reveal the prestige of a long-term heritage. Country of origin, brand
reputation, style and design, and product quality were the most frequently found critical
success factors in the studies that investigated aspirational products. In several cases,
prestige is associated with the country of origin of the brand. In other cases, besides the
country of origin, product quality is added to enhance social recognition; the long-term
heritage of the watch industry in Switzerland is a combination of the country of origin and
product quality. In the supply chain, these factors affect outsourcing strategies and the
selection of materials, among other aspects (Alleres, 2000; Xu et al., 2012; Robinson and
Hsieh, 2016).
Absolute luxury products are as close as possible to the perfect product. They are iconic
and make history by influencing other product segments. Style and design, product quality,
emotional appeal and brand reputation are the most frequent critical success factors found in
the literature studied (Alleres, 2000; Brun et al., 2013b; Carmignani, 2016; Fabinyi, 2016).
Luxury supply
chain
management
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Figure 2.
A framework for
luxury supply chain
management
3.2 Performance goals, the critical success factors and the luxury levels
Performance goals were divided into transversal and complementary in Figure 2.
Transversal performance goals refer to those most important to all CSFs across the
different luxury SCs, as opposed to complementary, which differ in terms of importance
accordingly to the luxury level and CSF.
Quality and uniqueness are transversal goals in luxury supply chain management, i.e.
they have high importance to main critical success factors across all luxury levels but with
different scopes. In general, a common challenge in quality is looking for suppliers that meet
quality requirements and can deliver relatively large volumes, for accessible luxury, or
specific and intricate raw materials that are either found only in a few geographic regions or
are in limited supply, as in the case of precious stones, for aspirational and absolute luxury
supply chains (Luzzini and Ronchi, 2010; Caniato et al., 2011; Braglia et al., 2020).
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Another view on quality considers how it is managed inside firms. In this aspect, a wide
range of approaches was found according to the type of product. In the case of accessible
luxury products, quality tends to be managed according to traditional market practices
(Barbaritano et al., 2019), but even so, there are limitations and challenges to adopting market
practices completely, such as total quality management (TQM). However, absolute brands
tend to follow no standard rules, most of them choosing to adopt specific criteria for
managing their quality systems, which do not necessarily include standardisation of the
outcome (Brun and Moretto, 2014; Carmignani, 2016). This could occur in several cases owing
to the characteristics of the product or of the production process. For example, in processes
involving craftsmanship, variability might be an attribute of quality and uniqueness and not
a defect or problem. Consequently, if variability is not dealt with as a problem, this could
increase the complexity of managing quality (Brun et al., 2013b; Brun and Moretto, 2014). In
this luxury market segment, most companies prefer to create their own quality standards for
materials and procedures to cover all the specific elements associated with the production and
products rather than adopt solutions created for functional products. Acknowledging the
importance of certifications to company operations, however, luxury companies tend to
follow conventional recommendations for more general technical norms, such as procedures
for defining sample size or adopting certifications not directly related to a product’s technical
specifications, such as ISO 14001, which deals with environmental management systems
(Brun and Moretto, 2014).
Quality is also closely related to the country of origin of the brand in the aspirational
luxury supply chain, so outsourcing strategies during the production phases in low-cost
countries have been increasingly reviewed in this luxury segment, and this has led to a
movement called reshoring emerging within this supply chain. Reshoring is returning
production to the country of origin of the brand. A notorious case occurred with Burberry,
which moved its production back to the UK after customer demands for a revival of the
brand’s heritage (Robinson and Hsieh, 2016; Młody and Ste˛ pie
n, 2020). However, a valueadded strategy is to outsource a process to a highly specialised supplier that enhances quality
attributes in the end. For example, heels and moulds are produced by third-parties in French
and Italy to supply Weston, which except for these components, is highly verticalized
(Depeyre et al., 2018; Niu et al., 2020).
Uniqueness is the other relevant performance goal across luxury levels. However, some
considerations need to be taken into account when approaching the accessible supply chain.
Rather than creating uniqueness from extremely rare materials or adopting an inaccessible
price position, uniqueness in an accessible luxury environment comes from differentiating
luxury products from non-luxury products (Hennigs et al., 2015). The shopping experience
helps enhance this supply chain goal. Although primarily related to product or service
attributes (Lamming et al., 2000), uniqueness has been used by brands to create a premium
experience at the point of sale (Faust, 2013). Since the shopping experience contributes
towards a product’s uniqueness, it is important to consider that outlets may reduce the
perception of this uniqueness. Although it is not uncommon to find examples of accessible
brands that adopt outlets as a distribution channel, this strategy needs to be carefully
reviewed to prevent loss of brand awareness/reputation.
With regard to uniqueness in the aspirational luxury supply chain, choosing centralised
channels and mono-brand stores enhances the emotional appeal. On the demand side,
uniqueness is present in controlling the distribution channels and points of sale. Luxury
brands prefer to control their points of sale because it allows them to control product
presentation in the store, communicate the value of the brand and enhance the shopping
experience. It is frequently not possible, however, to adopt a unique strategy that covers only
mono-brand or boutique stores. Therefore, brands operate with multi-brand stores and
participate in channels in which other brands are also sold. When this occurs, the luxury
companies face a challenge in competing with the other brands for customers’ attention, and
they need to ensure that the value of the brand is communicated in the best possible way.
Therefore, to reduce the negative effect that multi-brand stores inflict on uniqueness, luxury
companies should look for coordination mechanisms with partners, such as contracts to
secure appropriate product display and presence at points of sale. Another supply chain
strategy for increasing uniqueness is using waiting lists for meeting additional demand
because operating based on waiting lists enables the aspirational supply chain to adopt a
make to order policy, which potentially reduces the risk of inventory obsolescence. Waiting
lists complement a make to stock policy, which also exists in the aspirational luxury supply
chain (Sapra et al., 2010; Brun et al., 2013a; Wei and Li, 2020).
Uniqueness is the most desired aspect of product characteristics in the absolute luxury
supply chain; in other words, unique and valuable elements in product composition make it
aspirational and provide the final consumer with a unique experience (Brun et al., 2008;
Luzzini and Ronchi, 2010; Caniato et al. 2009, 2011). On the supply side, uniqueness is
enhanced by elements that add exclusivity and value to the product. This might involve
using specific materials, or a specialised workforce. Some materials are hard to find, which
makes them rare or limited. As a result, some luxury brand manufacturers may prefer to keep
the manufacturing location close to the source location and the suppliers of these types of
materials, which would guarantee their supply (Luzzini and Ronchi, 2010; Depeyre et al.,
2018). Another strategy involves buying more volumes than necessary of a specific material
and maintaining stocks to reduce the dependence of the brand on its supplier (Caniato et al.,
2011). To deal with the highly specialised manual workforce, which, besides uniqueness,
improves the style and design of the products, luxury companies often tend to adopt a
strategy that focuses on collaboration to ensure the availability of these workers and reduce
the risks to labour supply (Luzzini and Ronchi, 2010; Caniato et al., 2011; Carmignani, 2016).
The following discussion focuses on those performance goals that complement the supply
chain strategy for luxury products. They were found relevant to some critical success factors,
which vary accordingly to the luxury level, as presented in Figure 2.
Traceability helps prevent damage to the brand’s reputation resulting from counterfeit
products or illegal and illegitimate commercialisation (Castelli and Sianesi, 2015; Khan, 2015;
Robinson and Hsieh, 2016). It is, however, not easy to achieve the desired levels of traceability
in supply chain management because it demands coordination and control over actors and
processes (Caniato et al., 2011; Khan, 2015; Asian et al., 2020), which is a big challenge for
supply chain operations characterised by the relatively large volume and decentralised
channels, i.e. the accessible luxury supply chain. Some conventional mechanisms are
recommended for supporting traceability strategies, such as adopting a registered
trademark, promoting continuous awareness among partners, taking legal action against
those who practice illegal commerce and investing in technology (Brun et al., 2013a; Khan,
2015; Quach and Thaichon, 2018; D’Amato et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2020). Technology has
been used as an instrument to reduce traceability costs and provide adequate monitoring. A
common example involves using RFID to check the authenticity of products, while another
example involves employing online tools to track websites that sell luxury products via
unauthorised online channels (Xu et al., 2012; Rizzi and
