ABSTRACT
The chapter introduces luxury as a field of research, sketching its landscape and outlining its key landmarks. To achieve this, and at the same time to introduce our first research method, we present the findings of some meta-analyses and bibliographic citation studies which provide an overview of academic research on luxury and trace its intellectual evolution. We also introduce some of the intricacies of a database-centred literature search, which is crucial for positioning a research enquiry within appropriate fields of the existing body of knowledge. In the second part of the chapter, we present the findings of a short survey of luxury industry professionals which was designed to garner information about how luxury brands undertake research, and what approaches to research are most frequently used. In so doing, we start the process of articulating the scholarly and practical aspects of research enquiry.
