Understanding of consumers’ inconspicuous luxury consumption practices in Vietnam: an exploratory study from an ethical perspective

Purpose This study aims to explore how inconspicuous luxury consumption is being practiced in an Asian culture like Vietnam. Moreover, the ethical motivations that drive Vietnamese luxury consumers to engage in consuming inconspicuous luxury fashion products are also investigated. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research approach was used to serve the purpose of this study. Specifically, the authors conducted two rounds of in-depth interviews with 42 Vietnamese luxury consumers recruited using the snowball sampling technique. Findings The findings from the interviews indicate that inconspicuous luxury consumption is on the rise in Vietnam. This study also reveals that inconspicuous luxury consumers in Vietnam share some common characteristics with their counterparts in Western and other Asian countries. Significantly, based on Hunt–Vitell model, the findings suggest that ethical considerations play a crucial role in motivating Vietnamese consumers to engage in inconspicuous luxury consumption. Together with typical motivations such as differentiation seeking, aesthetics seeking and status seeking, consumers buy inconspicuous luxury products to adhere to internalized norms and moral principles. Originality/value This study contributes to the extant literature by enriching knowledge pertaining to practices of inconspicuous luxury consumption, especially in the context of an emerging Asian country. Notably, an essential contribution of this study is to identify ethical considerations as a new emerging motivation driving inconspicuous luxury consumption. The link between ethical issues and inconspicuous luxury consumption has been largely unexamined in the literature. In this study, the Hunt–Vitell model’s process of ethical reasoning is used in a new context of inconspicuous luxury consumption in an emerging Asian economy.