This paper examines the effects of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) announcement through social media on the consumer perception of the luxury brand consumption. A M&A is becoming more wide spread in the luxury market. Yet, the academic research examining the M&A in the luxury brand context has been sparse albeit the growing interests. Moreover, previous research has not paid attention to the effect of social media as a vehicle to communicate the M&A deal with consumers although social media is increasingly used by luxury brands in their brand communication these days. We aim to fill the gap in the luxury brand literature by examining how a horizontal M&A announcement delivered through social media would affect the brand loyalty derived from the luxury consumption values. Specifically, our research focuses on the four distinctive luxury brand values, which are symbolic, experiential, economic and quality values as well as the perceived sustainability of the M&A deal. We examine how a M&A announcement would affect these five values which in turn influence the brand loyalty, as well as examining the differential effect of social media and non-social media as a brand communication vehicle. In addition, we examine how the vertically differentiated luxury brand perceptions (i.e. different luxury tiers) between acquiring and acquired brands influence the consumption values and brand loyalty. Using a scenario-based online survey, our results reveal several interesting insights on the luxury brand M&A. First, our results show that use of social media as a communication vehicle has differential effects on how the M&A announcement influences consumption values and brand loyalty, comparing with the non-social media communication vehicle. Second, we find that a M&A announcement via social media has a positive impact on the consumer values. Third, the symbolic and experiential values have a positive influence on the brand loyalty, regardless of the luxury tier difference between brands. Fourth, our results show that the perceived sustainability has a positive impact on the brand loyalty as long as the M&A was completed between brands at different tiers. Fourth, the perceived quality has a positive impact on the brand loyalty only if the brand is acquired by a less prestigious brand. Lastly, economic value has a positive impact on the brand loyalty only if the acquiring brand is of more luxurious. In sum, our paper provides useful insights to both academics as well as practitioners in the luxury brand M&A context.

• Yerim Chung(Yonsei University, Republic of Korea)
• Jeonghye Choi(Yonsei University, Republic of Korea)
• Alex Jiyoung Kim(Ewha Womans University, Republic of Korea)
• Hangeun Lee(Yonsei University, Republic of Korea)