https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1500-9078
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Abstract
Situated in the context of the climate crisis this research examines the LVMH Corporation’s 2020 and 2021 Social and Environmental Responsibility Reports through the lens of the narrative structure found in fairy tales. Central characters and the trajectory of the narrative are consistent with this literary form, and counter narratives that provide context to the corporate narrative also emerge. This analysis suggests the significance of narratives to corporate communications, their application extending beyond the brand communication or user-generated content generally investigated in the marketing and consumer research literature. Moreover, the article elaborates on how luxury corporations, like LVMH, communicate their efforts to counter climate crisis in ways that meet the expectations of stakeholders, especially investors and consumers. The findings have implications for future research on how narratives impact stakeholder perceptions of luxury corporations.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
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3 Kim, Lloyd, and Cervellon, 305.
4 Michelon, Trojanowski, and Sealy, “Narrative Reporting: State of the Art and Future Challenges.”
5 PWC, Beyond Compliance.
6 Brown, Stevens, and Maclaran, “What’s the Story, Allegory?”; Visconti, “Communicating Luxury Brands Through Stories.”
7 Escalas, “Self-Referencing and Persuasion.”
8 Geels et al., “A Critical Appraisal of Sustainable Consumption and Production Research.”
9 Pirages and Ehrlich, Ark II: Social Response to Environmental Imperatives.
10 Mittelstaedt et al., “Sustainability as Megatrend.”
11 United Nations, Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
12 Independent Group of Scientists Appointed by the Secretary-General, Global Sustainable Development Report, Times of Crisis, Times of Change, XVIII.
13 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact; LVMH, 2021 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact.
14 Propp, Morphology of the Folktale.
15 Boje, Narrative Methods for Organizational and Communication Research.
16 Dillard and Vinnari, “Critical Dialogical Accountability”; Morrison and Lowe, “Into the Woods of Corporate Fairy Tales and Environmental Reporting”; Vinnari and Laine, “The Moral Mechanism of Counter Accounts.”
17 Wells et al., “How Legitimate Are the Sustainability Claims of Luxury Conglomerates.”
18 Okereke, “An Exploration of Motivations, Drivers and Barriers to Carbon Management: The UK FTSE 100.”
19 Bendell and Kleanthous, Deeper Luxury.
20 Rauturier, “How Ethical Is Louis Vuitton?”
21 Escalas, “Narrative Processing”; Escalas, “Self-Referencing and Persuasion”; Hamby and Jones, “The Effect of Affect: An Appraisal Theory Perspective on Emotional Engagement in Narrative Persuasion”; Kim, Lloyd and Cervellon, “Narrative-Transportation Storylines in Luxury Brand Advertising”; Gurzki, Schlatter, and Woisetschläger, “Crafting Extraordinary Stories.”
22 Hamby, Brinberg, and Daniloski, “It’s about Our Values.”
23 Delgadillo and Escalas, “Narrative Word-of-Mouth Communication”; Hamby, Daniloski, and Brinberg, “How Consumer Reviews Persuade through Narratives”; van Laer et al., “What Happens in Vegas Stays on TripAdvisor?.”
24 Herman, The Cambridge Companion to Narrative.
25 Czarniawska, Narratives in Social Science Research.
26 Gabriel, Storytelling in Organizations, Facts, Fiction, and Fantasies.
27 van Laer et al., “What Happens in Vegas Stays on TripAdvisor?”
28 Fludernik, An Introduction to Narratology.
29 Culler, The Pursuit of Signs: Semiotics, Literature, Deconstruction.
30 Green and Brock, “The Role of Transportation in the Persuasiveness of Public Narratives”; van Laer et al., “The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model.”
31 Marsh and Fazio, “Learning Errors from Fiction.”
32 Green and Brock, “The Role of Transportation in the Persuasiveness of Public Narratives”; van Laer et al., “The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model.”
33 Morrison and Lowe, “Into the Woods of Corporate Fairy Tales and Environmental Reporting.”
34 Propp, Morphology of the Folktale.
35 Monarth, “The Irresistible Power of Storytelling as a Strategic Business Tool.”
36 Economopoulou, “Aristotle’s Poetics in Relation to the Narrative Structure of the Screenplay.”
37 Nguyen, “Animation Narrative and the Differences of Narrative in Films between East Asian and Western.”
38 Morrison and Lowe, “Into the Woods of Corporate Fairy Tales and Environmental Reporting.”
39 Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics; Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays.
40 Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics; Nesari, “Dialogism versus Monologism.”
41 Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics; Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays; Nesari, “Dialogism versus Monologism.”
42 Kristeva, “Word, Dialogue and Novel.”
43 Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays.
44 Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text.
45 Morrison and Lowe, “Into the Woods of Corporate Fairy Tales and Environmental Reporting.”
46 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact; LVMH, 2021 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact.
47 Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays.
48 Ibid.
49 Robinson, “In Theory – Bakhtin: Dialogism, Polyphony and Heteroglossia.”
50 Ibid.
51 Morrison and Lowe, “Into the Woods of Corporate Fairy Tales and Environmental Reporting.”
52 Bronner, Folklore: The Basics.
53 Monin and Monin, “Hijacking the Fairy Tale.”
54 United Nations, The 17 Goals.
55 Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics.
56 Morrison and Lowe, “Into the Woods of Corporate Fairy Tales and Environmental Reporting.”
57 van Laer et al., “What Happens in Vegas Stays on TripAdvisor?.”
58 Padgett et al., “Political Discussion and Debate in Narrative Time.”
59 Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics.
60 Deloitte, Global Powers of Luxury Goods 2022, 19.
61 Armitage and Roberts. “Critical Luxury Studies: Defining a Field.”
62 Schumpeter, “How Bernard Arnault Became the World’s Richest Person.”
63 Subramanian, Zlatev, and Farook, “LVMH’s Bid for Tiffany & Co,” 2.
64 Schumpeter, “How Bernard Arnault Became the World’s Richest Person.”
65 Donzé, “The Birth of Luxury Big Business.”
66 Elliott, “LVMH Acquires a Majority Stake in Bulgari.”
67 Subramanian, Zlatev, and Farook, “LVMH’s Bid for Tiffany & Co.”
68 Allérès, Luxe, Stratégies-Marketing.
69 Thomas, DeLuxe: How Luxury Lost Its Lustre.
70 LVMH, 2022 LVMH Annual Report: Passionate about Creativity, 154 and 18.
71 Forbes. The 2023 List: Facts and Figures: Inside Forbes’ 37th-Annual Billionaires Ranking.
72 Czarniawska, Narratives in Social Science Research.
73 Visconti, “Communicating Luxury Brands Through Stories.”
74 Morrison and Lowe, “Into the Woods of Corporate Fairy Tales and Environmental Reporting.”
75 van Laer et al., “The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model.”
76 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 21–2.
77 Escalas, “Narrative Processing”; Visconti, “Communicating Luxury Brands through Stories.”
78 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 3.
79 Phelan et al., “Character.”
80 Margolin, “Character”; Simons, “Sacred Stories and Silent Voices.”
81 van Laer et al., “What Happens in Vegas Stays on TripAdvisor?.”
82 Escalas and Stern, “Sympathy and Empathy: Emotional Responses to Advertising Dramas.”
83 Propp, Morphology of the Folktale; Morrison and Lowe, “Into the Woods of Corporate Fairy Tales and Environmental Reporting.”
84 Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces; Nguyen, “Animation Narrative and the Differences of Narrative in Films between East Asian and Western.”
85 Propp, Morphology of the Folktale.
86 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 2–3.
87 Ibid., 3.
88 Morrison and Lowe, “Into the Woods of Corporate Fairy Tales and Environmental Reporting.”
89 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 3.
90 For information on the UN Global Compact see: https://unglobalcompact.org/about
91 MSCI ESG Ratings aim to measure a company’s management of financially relevant ESG risks and opportunities (see: https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/esg-ratings).
92 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 14.
93 Ibid.
94 Ibid, 127.
95 Ibid, 126.
96 Ibid, 127.
97 Independent Group of Scientists Appointed by the Secretary-General, Global Sustainable Development Report. Times of Crisis, Times of Change: Science for Accelerating Transformations to Sustainable Development.
98 Propp, Morphology of the Folktale.
99 For example, action to address goals seven and thirteen “affordable and clean energy” and “climate action,” respectively, are manifesting itself through higher priced energy and therefore increased poverty and lower economic growth, thereby undermining the first and eighth goals of ‘no poverty’ and “decent work and economic growth.”
100 Mittelstaedt et al. “Sustainability as Megatrend: Two Schools of Macromarketing Thought.”
101 White, “Luxury Leader LVMH, in Green Mode, Laments Thunberg’s Pessimism.”
102 Ibid.
103 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 127.
104 Ibid., 24–5.
105 Ibid., 24–5.
106 LVMH, LVMH Climate Week Opening Ceremony.
107 Ibid.
108 Economopoulou, “Aristotle’s Poetics in Relation to the Narrative Structure of the Screenplay.”
109 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 24–5.
110 Ibid., 127.
111 Bendell and Kleanthous, Deeper Luxury.
112 Ibid., 32–33.
113 Ibid.
114 Ibid., 3.
115 Ibid.
116 See: https://www.corporateknights.com/rankings/global-100-rankings/2022-global-100-rankings/100-most-sustainable-corporations-of-2022/ retrieved September 7, 2023.
117 Schultz, “LVMH Does Sustainability Differently.”
118 Morrison and Lowe, “Into the Woods of Corporate Fairy Tales and Environmental Reporting”; Propp, Morphology of the Folktale.
119 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 15.
120 Kent, “Can Stella McCartney Clean Up Fashion?”
121 Ibid.
122 Kent, “Widespread Inaction on Sustainability Eclipses Progress at Fashion’s Biggest Companies.”
123 Rauturier, “How Ethical Is Louis Vuitton?.”
124 Ibid.
125 Fiorani, Bosco, and Di Gerio, “Measuring Sustainability in the Luxury Fashion Sector,” 367.
126 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 64.
127 Kent, “Can Stella McCartney Clean Up Fashion?”
128 Business of Fashion, The Sustainability Index 2021.
129 Turunen, “Luxury Resale Shaping the Future of Fashion.”
130 Stella McCartney, Circularity.
131 Stella McCartney, Sustainability Timeline.
132 Stella McCartney, Circularity.
133 Ibid.
134 Stella McCartney, Fibres from Forests.
135 Stella McCartney, Circularity.
136 Wolfe, “How Ethical Is Stella McCartney?”
137 Ibid.
138 Ibid.
139 Ibid.
140 Ibid.
141 Agnew, “LVMH Buys Minority Stake in Stella McCartney Brand.”
142 Kent, “Can Stella McCartney Clean Up Fashion?”
143 Ibid.
144 Muret, “LVMH Launches Life 360 Programme for a New Luxury at Group’s Climate Week.”
145 Joy et al., “The Artification of Wine”; Ozdamar-Ertekin, Atik, and Murray, “The Logic of Sustainability.”
146 Schultz, “LVMH Does Sustainability Differently.”
147 Ibid.
148 Morrison and Lowe, “Into the Woods of Corporate Fairy Tales and Environmental Reporting.”
149 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 3.
150 Muret, “LVMH Launches Life 360 Programme for a New Luxury at Group’s Climate Week.”
151 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 67 and 65.
152 Ibid., 66.
153 Ibid.
154 Ibid.
155 Caliendo, “New LVMH Packaging Using Eastman’s Molecular Recycling Technologies.”
156 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 66.
157 Ibid., 66–67.
158 Ibid, 66.
159 Sommer, “Why LVMH Teams Up with Weturn.”
160 Sommer, “LVMH Launches Online Resale Platform for Luxury Fabrics.”
161 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 66–7.
162 Ibid., 67, 75 and 84.
163 Ibid., 87.
164 Pavarini, “How LVMH Wants to Save the Forest.”
165 Rauturier, “How Ethical Is Louis Vuitton?.”
166 Ibid.
167 Ibid.
168 Ibid.
169 Ibid.
170 Muret, “LVMH Launches Life 360 Programme for a New Luxury at Group’s Climate Week.”
171 Ibid.
172 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact; LVMH (2021), 2021 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact.
173 Know the Chain, Apparel and Footwear Benchmark Company Scorecard 2018; Know the Chain, Apparel and Footwear Benchmark Company Scorecard 2021.
174 Orava, High Fashion Going Green.
175 Know the Chain, Apparel and Footwear Benchmark Company Scorecard 2021.
176 Ibid.
177 LVMH, 2021 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact, 125.
178 Know the Chain, Apparel and Footwear Benchmark Company Scorecard 2021: LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE.
179 LVMH, LVMH: Excellent First Half for LVMH.
180 The Straits Times, “Louis Vuitton Owner Emerges as ESG Magnet with Almost $23 Billion Stake.”
181 Euromonitor International, World Market for Luxury Goods: Briefing.
182 BlackRock, Inc. is multinational investment company based in New York City. It is the world’s largest asset manager, with US$8.594 trillion in assets under management as of the end of 2022 (BlackRock, 2023). BlackRock positions itself as an industry leader in environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG).
183 BlackRock. Built For You: BlackRock 2022 Annual Report.
184 Fryer, “Storytelling That Moves People”; Lakoff, George “Why It Matters How We Frame the Environment.”
185 Propp, Morphology of the Folktale.
186 Propp; Economopoulou, “Aristotle’s Poetics in Relation to the Narrative Structure of the Screenplay”; Monarth, “The Irresistible Power of Storytelling as a Strategic Business Tool”; Nguyen, “Animation Narrative and the Differences of Narrative in Films between East Asian and Western.”
187 LVMH, 2020 LVMH Social and Environmental Report – Committed to Positive Impact.
188 See for example: Adegeest, “LVMH Releases First Comprehensive Social and Environmental Report.”
189 Bendell and Kleanthous, Deeper Luxury.
190 Business of Fashion The Sustainability Index 2021.
191 Rauturier, “How Ethical Is Louis Vuitton?”; Know the Chain, Apparel and Footwear Benchmark Company Scorecard 2018; Know the Chain, Apparel and Footwear Benchmark Company Scorecard 2021.
192 Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays.
193 Gaiman, The Sleeper and the Spindle.
194 van Laer, Feiereisen, and Visconti, “Need for Narrative.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Annamma Joy
Annamma Joy is Professor of Marketing in the Faculty of Management at the University of British Columbia. Her research spans the domains of art, fashion and wine. She has edited The Future of Luxury: Sustainability and Artification published by de Gruyter in 2022 and New Directions in Art, Fashion and Wine published by Lexington Books in 2023.
Joanne Roberts
Joanne Roberts is Emeritus Professor at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK. Her areas of expertise include creativity and innovation, knowledge management, luxury, and international business. Joanne's most recent book is The Oxford Handbook of Luxury Business, (Oxford University Press 2022) edited with P-Y. Donzé and V. Pouillard. [email protected]
Bianca Grohmann
Bianca Grohmann (MBA Ph.D. Washington State University) is Professor of Marketing and Concordia University Research Chair (Tier 1) at the John Molson School of Business in Montreal, Canada. Her research focuses on consumer psychology in the context of branding, corporate social responsibility, and gender. She is the director of the Sensory Lab at Concordia university.
Camilo Peña
Camilo Peña-Moreno is an Assistant Professor in the School of Management at the University of Bath. He holds a PhD from The University of British Columbia. His research interests are primarily in the areas of consumer culture and sustainability with a special focus on wine consumption, experiences of nature, new market development, and social movements.