Competence Centre for
Luxury Management
Content · Community · Collaboration
University of St. Gallen · Institute of Marketing
55+
Brands & universities
20+
Academic theses
8
Formats & programmes
4
Active years
Anchoring a field
institutionally
In 2013, luxury management fell between the stools at most universities — too cultural for classical business administration, too commercial for cultural studies. The Competence Centre for Luxury Management at the University of St. Gallen gave this field an institutional home: a place where research, teaching, and practical exchange systematically worked together.
The centre was founded in 2013 at the Institute of Marketing of the HSG, with Benjamin Berghaus as its head. It worked along three dimensions — Content, Community, and Collaboration — and understood itself explicitly as a platform: small at its core, large in its reach.
By 2017, under the centre's umbrella there emerged books, journal contributions, dissertation projects, teaching formats in three languages, and a network encompassing more than 55 brands and universities. The centre concluded its operations in 2017; many of the initiated projects and cooperations continued beyond that point.
Key data
Period
2013–2017
Institution
Institute of Marketing
University of St. Gallen (HSG)
Head
Dr. Benjamin Berghaus
Role
Founding, leadership, research,
teaching, network building, consulting
Focus topics
Omnichannel experiences · Glocal branding
Luxury millennials · Brand strategy in premium segments
Three pillars. One system.
The centre selected its projects not according to available resources, but according to their value along three dimensions: What knowledge content does a project create? What community emerges from it? With whom can it be realised together?
I
Content
The centre published research findings in international academic journals and book chapters, supervised more than 20 academic theses, and built an ongoing publication infrastructure with the Luxury Thesis Collection and the Luxury Reader. Knowledge was not a by-product — it was the goal.
II
Community
Around the centre grew an interdisciplinary network of more than 55 brands and universities — cultivated through recurring formats such as the Luxury BrownBag at BaselWorld, the HSG Luxury Day, and the St. Gallen Luxury Alliance. The network was not an address book, but an active exchange community.
III
Collaboration
The centre functioned as a platform: it connected researchers, teachers, students, and practitioners in joint projects that created value for more than one group. The strategic research project «Next Generation Luxury» with a consortium of 12 universities was the clearest expression of this principle.
«Content, Community and Collaboration guide the selection of our projects.» — Benjamin Berghaus, St. Gallen Luxury Alliance 2017
Eight formats.
One field.
The centre's programme encompassed teaching, research, and network formats that were deliberately coordinated with one another: insights from research fed into teaching; practical questions from the network sharpened the research agenda.
Master & Bachelor Seminars
Multilingual formats in German, English, and French — including with Wittig, Sommerrock, Merk, Reinecke, and Kritzmöller.
Management Workshops
Practice formats on omnichannel experiences, glocal brand management, luxury millennials, and differentiating customer experiences in the luxury segment.
Dissertation Projects
Initiation and supervision of doctoral theses; more than 20 completed and ongoing academic works in the period 2013–2016.
Next Generation Luxury
Strategic consortium research project with 12 universities on international luxury market segmentation among millennials; result: St. Gallen Luxury Trend Study 2017.
Luxury Thesis Award
Recognition of outstanding theses with practical relevance to luxury management — making the best research contributions from the network visible.
St. Gallen Luxury Alliance
Annual partner meeting of brands, institutions, and teachers — exchange on the research agenda, cooperation opportunities, and ongoing projects.
Luxury BrownBag (BaselWorld)
Academic-practical exchange in the context of the watch fair; the 4th and 5th editions took place in 2016. The format connected researchers and decision-makers in direct dialogue.
HSG Luxury Day
Annual event for around 250 students with 6 iconic brands; flanked by the MBA Luxury Goods Industry Insights with ~40 participants and 3 partner companies.
Platform principle
«We are three people. But if done right, we have the power of a thousand.»
Benjamin Berghaus, St. Gallen Luxury Alliance 2017
Selection principle
Projects were evaluated according to their added value for more than one group, not according to internal effort.
«Best case projects integrate and provide value to multiple stakeholders.»
Motivation
Many of the strongest formats only developed their value in retrospect — as a network, as the basis for follow-up research, or as the beginning of collaborations that extended beyond the centre.
Small at its core, large in its reach.
The centre consisted of three people — and yet grew to become one of the most active academic hubs in luxury management in the German-speaking world. This reach was not coincidental: it followed from the principle of achieving more together than alone.
55+
Brands & universities in the network
12
Universities in the Next Generation Luxury consortium
~250
Students per HSG Luxury Day
35+
Contributions from students, researchers & practitioners
Stakeholders in the network
Luxury segment brands · Partner universities · Consulting firms · Trade press · Alumni with leadership experience · Doctoral students · Associations · Academic publishers · Executive Education · Legal & Branding Consultants · International recruiting partners
Initiated by many.
Led by few.
The operational core team consisted of three people. The centre owed its institutional anchoring to its founding initiators, who strategically co-positioned the field at the HSG.
Core team (2013–2017)
Dr. Benjamin Berghaus
Head of the Competence Centre; PostDoc at the Institute of Marketing; research, teaching, and consulting in luxury management
Sophie Schüller
Research Associate; coordination, research projects, event management
Lara Haug
Associate Doctoral Student; dissertation project within the centre
Founding initiators
Prof. Dr. Sven Reinecke
Director Institute of Marketing, HSG
Prof. Dr. Christian Belz
Director Institute of Marketing, HSG
Prof. Dr. Günter Müller-Stewens
Director Institute of Business Administration, HSG
Martin C. Wittig
Co-initiator; teaching & practice
Fabian Sommerrock
Co-initiator; teaching & practice
«The motivation of a good project becomes apparent at the second glance.»
Guiding principle of the Competence Centre for Luxury Management
What the centre achieved was often not immediately visible: dissertation projects took years until publication, network connections developed their value in later collaborations, teaching formats became the starting point for career paths in the industry.
The deliberate decision to judge by the second glance shaped the profile of the centre — and contributed to a small unit becoming a durably effective structure.
Interested in research, consulting, or teaching formats in luxury management? Or questions about individual projects from the centre?
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