When social media users post their opinion on social media, they might expect to receive a favorable evaluation from others (e.g., ‘like’ on Facebook and ‘heart’ on Instagram). On the contrary, when users read and evaluate other’s posts, they are less likely to care about others. What’s more, if users spend more time on social media, posting would make them more care about others. This research answers the question ‘Does social media interaction alter the way we perceive value and affect different choice? Three studies show 1) how social media interaction affects consumers’ luxury value perception and the mediating role of social media self-view (interdependent vs. independent self), 2) how main effect and mediated relationship are different between two groups divided by participants’ time spent on social media (high vs. low: ±1 SD) and 3) how the type of social media interaction (post vs. “like”) affects handbag choice between social and functional luxury-superior option.

The purpose of this research is to explore the factors that affect a celebrity’s perceived authenticity on social media sites. In total, 653 Taiwanese consumers were recruited to examine the proposed model. The findings generally support our model. The theoretical and managerial implications of this study are discussed.

Using an experimental design, we investigated whether the relationship between apparel product novelty and consumers’ curiosity depends on perceived fashion influencers’ socioeconomic status. In addition, we investigated mediating role of curiosity in the product novelty effect on purchase intentions and intention to use a social shopping service.

Advanced web technologies enable consumers can create and exchange the content in various social media platforms (SMPs). As an interactive communication channel, SMPs serve as a new and updated form of online community where consumers and companies benefit from each other. Due to its minimal threshold in cost and skills necessary for accessing these SMPs, consumers use SMPs to acquire information in addition to seeking for socialization, which affect a purchase decision making process (Wang, Yu, and Wei, 2012). With various benefits of using SMPs among consumers, product reviews and photos posted by the customers in SMPs perform as an emerging type of endorsement to other users of SMPs. Individuals who actively share and disseminate the such product/service related-contents often become micro-celebrities among SMPs users. According to DiSilvestro (2016), customers no longer trust advertising created by brands, but they prefer to reply on reviews via SMPs, and in fact, 67% of consumers visit SMPs to reviews generated by other customers. In this regard, increasing number of brands tries to find influential micro-celebrities to build positive brand image and provide meaningful customer engagement which potentially increase sales in the end (Khamis, Ang, and Welling, 2016). Despite the increasing popularity of SMPs and influencers to brands, marketers struggle to measure their returns on investment, such as customer retention and increased customer lifetime value (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010). Thus, a focal interest of this study is the role of a sense of community in building participants’ positive relational outcomes for a given brand that implementing the promotional activities via SMPs (Hudson et al., 2016).

This research aims to identify the main drivers behind consumers’ connection with fashion brands on social media. With a sample of 29 in-depth interviews with French individuals the study analyzes why and how consumers connect with fashion brands on social media platforms. Our results disclosed three categories of drivers: information with characteristics of information seeking, need for “staying in”, public self-consciousness and tracking promotions; aspirational with characteristics of entertainment, visual enjoyment, and dreaming; and last social with characteristics of need for belonging to brand community, social contamination, and benchmark with reference groups. Theoretical and empirical implications are discussed as well.

This research develops an under-investigated aspect of the business literature regarding firm-created and user-generated social media communication and their influence on purchase intention of endorsed fashion products. The results indicate that (i) brand equity mediates the relationship between social media communication and purchase intention of endorsed fashion products, and (ii) the mediational role of brand equity is further moderated by the consumer’s self-congruity with fashion brands.

This research has adopted Word-of-Mouth (WOM) and social support theory along with a social media (SM) perspective to investigate why consumers enjoy using SM and interacting with luxury brand. Focusing on fundamental human needs, this study aims to examine fulfilment of which type of needs enhances interactivity on SM, encouraging in turn WOM adoption and brand-self connection. Our results have shown that consumers’ cognitive and integrative needs drive social interactivity and lead to WOM adoption and brand-self connection. However, no relationship is found between social needs and interactivity. Such relationship can only be strengthened with the presence of emotional support as perceived from the company and its brand.