GRAIL Research Center Launched to Foster Innovative Luxury Management Research at ESCP

On 11 October 2024, the ESCP Research Faculty officially launched the GRAIL (Global Research Alliance in Luxury) Research Center, led by co-directors Professor Ben Voyer, chair-holder of the Cartier – ESCP – HEC Turning Points Research Chair, and Assistant Professor Perrine Desmichel. This center is dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary luxury research and fostering collaboration between academia and industry on a global scale.

The launch seminar brought together a diverse group of participants, including faculty members, doctoral and postdoctoral students, and industry practitioners, fostering a collaborative environment for knowledge exchange. Highlights of the day included presentations by distinguished guest speakers David Dubois, Associate Professor of Marketing at INSEAD, and Yuri Seo, Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Auckland Business School. In the afternoon, they were joined by Olivier Nicolay, affiliate professor at the ESCP Business School, who brought decades of luxury industry experience to the discussions.

The GRAIL Research Center focuses on three main areas:

• Responsible Luxury: Exploring how luxury brands can respond to social, environmental, and ethical challenges to build a more conscious and sustainable business model.
• Luxury Territories: Investigating the evolving definition of luxury, from mass-market brands to exclusive high-end offerings, and how brands navigate this increasingly diverse landscape.
• Luxury Artistic Ecosystem: Examining the deep connections between art and luxury, and how brands can leverage cultural heritage and new technologies to create lasting value.

These research streams will explore how luxury brands can respond to ethical and environmental pressures, redefine the concept of luxury in a global context, and leverage art to create lasting value.

Our mission is to create meaningful collaborations between leading scholars and practitioners to advance impactful luxury research.

We aim to build an innovative community that generates research with real-world relevance, driving both academic discussions and practical solutions for the luxury sector.

The GRAIL Research Center represents a significant step forward in luxury research at ESCP, with a commitment to producing world-leading research with high-impact insights for both academia and industry. The center seeks to lead discussions around sustainability, inclusivity, and innovation, ensuring that ESCP remains at the forefront of these vital conversations.