본 연구는 성인 느린학습자의 사회적 의사소통과 고등교육의 학습지원 경 험을 심층적으로 분석하여 사회적 관계와 교육 환경에서의 어려움 및 지원 요구를 파악하는 데 목적이 있다. 경상북도에 거주하는 성인 느린학습자 9명 을 대상으로 적응적 인터뷰를 진행하였다. 분석 결과, 총 4개의 상위범주와 11개의 하위범주, 24개의 의미단위가 도출되었다. 사회적 의사소통 영역에서 는 대화 개시, 주제 유지의 어려움, 타인과의 농담 해석의 제한, 반복적인 의사소통 실패로 인한 부정적인 자기 인식이 나타났으며, 이러한 부분에서 사회적 관계 형성을 위한 지원과 느린학습자 인식 개선의 요구를 보였다. 고등교육의 학습 경험에서는 전문 용어와 추상적 설명에 대한 수업의 어려움, 질문하기에 대한 심리적 부담, 구체적이고 단계적인 설명 요구가 나타났다. 이러한 어려움은 진로 탐색과 직업 적응, 직장 내 관계 형성의 어려움으로까 지 이어지는 것으로 나타났다. 연구 결과를 통해 본 연구가 성인 느린학습자 의 사회적 및 학습적 어려움을 이해하고 이들의 사회 참여 및 고등교육 지원 을 위한 기초자료로 활용되기를 기대한다.

본 연구는 동물매개 단기집단상담 프로그램이 학교 밖 청소년의 사회정서 및 의사소통 역량에 미치는 효과와 동물매개 단기집단상담 프로그램의 유용성 검증을 목적으로 한다. 본 프로그램은 해결중심단기상담의 기법을 바탕으로, 청소년이 지닌 내적 자원과 가능성 을 동물과의 상호작용을 통해 강화하도록 구성되었다. 연구는 A시 소재 학교 밖 청소년 지원센터에서 참여를 희망한 청소년 8명을 대상으로 단일집단 사전-사후 설계를 적용하 였으며, 2024년 7월부터 8월까지 주 2회, 총 10회기 동안 회기당 50분씩 진행되었다. 효 과 분석은 Wilcoxen 부호 순위 검정을 사용하였다. 연구 결과, 첫째, 동물매개 단기집단 상담 프로그램은 학교 밖 청소년의 사회정서 역량 및 그 하위요인의 유의미한 향상을 가 져왔다. 둘째, 의사소통 역량 역시 하위요인과 함께 유의미하게 증진되었음을 확인하였 다. 셋째, 본 프로그램은 동물매개중재, 치료, 활동 등에서 보고된 효과성과 유사한 수준 의 실천적 유용성을 지니는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 단기간 내 긍정적 변화를 이끌어내는 해결중심 접근과 동물의 정서적 매개 역할이 결합된 본 프로그램이 학교 밖 청소년의 심 리 사회적 역량 강화를 위한 효과적인 중재임을 시사한다. 그리고, 동물매개 단기집단상 담의 실천적 확장 가능성을 제시하며, 집단 기반의 단기중재 모델로서의 활용 가능성을 뒷받침하는 기초자료가 될 수 있다.

목적 : 본 연구는 안경광학과 학생들의 셀프리더십, 일상적 창의성, 사회적지지, 그리고 의사소통에 대해 조사하 였으며, 중요성을 알리고자 한다. 방법 : 대상은 2022년 4월 비대면 온라인 설문에 응한 안경광학과 학생으로 하였다. 설문에 응하지 않은 대상자 를 제외한 180명 대상자가 응답한 결과 값을 분석하였다. 통계분석은 SPSS 18.0 version(SPSS Inc., Chicago. IL, USA)을 이용 기술통계, 평균분석, 상관분석을 통해 자료를 분석하였다. 모든 p-value의 유의수준은 0.05를 기준으로 판단하였다. 결과 : 안경광학과 학생들의 각 요소별 결과는 셀프리더십 3.46, 일상적 창의성 3.61, 사회적 지지 3.98, 그리 고 의사소통 능력 3.71로 나타났다. 그리고 모든 요소 간의 관계는 매우 높은 상관성을 나타내었다. 성별에서는 여 성, 리더 경험 있는 군, 가정 경제가 좋은 군, 그리고 학점이 좋은 군에서 셀프리더십, 일상적 창의성, 사회적 지지, 그리고 의사소통 능력이 다소 높은 것으로 나타났으며, 유의한 차이를 나타내었다. 결론 : 높은 셀프리더십, 일상적 창의성, 사회적지지, 그리고 의사소통은 학생들의 역량을 향상시키고 안경사의 전문성과 발전에도 기여 할 것으로 판단된다.

The purpose of this study is to present the direction of the plan to transform the residential complex into a space that can provide an open residential environment that can lead to social communication and exchange without being closed to the urban residential environment, especially in the apartment complex environment, which is becoming more dense. As a result of the Openness analysis of the ‘Codan Shinonome Canal Court’, the overall accessibility was good in terms of space utilization, and the openness was low in terms of the spatial composition, which is a physical environment due to the dense block type. When looking at the overall openness of the Codan Sinonome complex in terms of analysis by block, the corrected openness index (C.O.I) for all six blocks was 0.245, the corrected accessibility index (C.A.I) was 1.447 and the openness composite index (O.C.I) was assessed at 1.692. This was due to the formation of high-density block-type urban dwellings and the introduction of S-shaped streets and the layout of low-rise urban support facilities and commercial facilities. The Codan Sinonome Canal Court, which is considered an “open city residence,” quantitatively confirmed that it embodies macro-space structure and human-scale space environment even in high-precision environments.

본 연구는 국내 학술지 및 학위논문에 게재된 자폐 스펙트럼 장애 아동을 대상으로 한 사회적 의사소통과 관련된 국내 동물매개치료 연구의 동향을 종합적으로 살펴보고 그에 관한 기초 연구자료를 제공하는데 목적이 있다. 2011년부터 2021년까지 총 5편을 선정 하여 중재기법, 중재효과를 기준으로 분석한 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 동물매개치료 프 로그램은 음악 활동을 제외한 모든 요소의 중재기법과 연관되어 있다. 둘째, 자폐 스펙트 럼 장애 아동을 대상으로 한 동물매개치료는 중재효과 중 ‘사회성’을 가장 중요시한다. 본 연구는 동물매개치료에 활용되는 중재기법과 중재효과에 대한 연구의 종합적인 시각과 향후 방향성을 제시하였다는 데 의의가 있다.

본 연구의 목적은 노인의 사회적 자본이 삶의 질에 미치는 영향에서 의사소통능력의 매개효과를 규명 하여 노인의 사회적 자본, 의사소통능력, 삶의 질의 향상을 위한 중요한 기초자료로 활용되는데 기여할 수 있는 실천적 정책적 함의를 도출해 내는 데 있다. 이러한 목적을 달성하기 위한 연구문제는 첫째, 노 인의 사회적 자본이 삶의 질에 미치는 영향은 어떠한가?, 둘째, 노인의 사회적 자본이 의사소통능력에 미치는 영향은 어떠한가?, 셋째, 노인의 사회적 자본이 삶의 질에 영향을 미치는 과정에서 의사소통능 력은 어떠한 매개효과를 가지는가로 설정하였다. SPSS Ver. 22.0 프로그램을 이용하여 통계분석을 실시하였으며, 분석기법으로는 측정도구의 신뢰 도를 검증하기 위해 신뢰도 분석을 실시하였으며, 영향관계와 매개효과 검증을 위해 회귀분석을 실시하 였다. 분석결과 첫째, 노인의 사회적 자본 요인인 관계망, 신뢰, 규범이 삶의 질에 중요하고 긍정적인 영향 이 있는 것으로 나타났으나 참여는 영향이 미치지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 노인의 사회적 자본 요 인인 관계망, 규범, 참여가 의사소통능력에 많은 긍정적 영향을 주는 요인으로 나타났으나, 신뢰는 영향 이 미치지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 의사소통능력은 사회적 자본과 삶의 질의 관계에서 매개변인로 서의 매개효과가 부분채택되었다. 사회적 자본의 하위요인인 관계망 요인, 규범 요인은 의사소통능력은 사회적 자본과 삶의 질의 관계에서 매개변인로서의 매개효과가 있었으나, 신뢰와 참여 요인은 매개효과 가 없었다.

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.

Introduction The fashion business is known as one of the major industries that is suffering from rising concerns about the consumption of its product, which led to a reorganization of the fashion supply chain to become more sustainable three decades ago. The interest in the concept of sustainability and demand for sustainable marketing activities is gradually growing in the fashion industry due to the negative image and press it receives. Within the luxury fashion segment, the three main themes that are recognized to contribute to sustainability are exclusivity, craftmanship and limited production. However, luxury brands are increasingly shifting their attention and commitment towards environmental and social issues to be incorporated in the concept of sustainability. Yet, the majority of consumers has little understanding or misunderstands the concept of sustainable fashion and marketing, which leads to a gap between attitudes towards sustainability and actual behavior. As a result, fashion brands are trying to leverage their brand by making sustainability a key marketing strategy to raise awareness about social, environmental, economic and cultural issues. Extant research has not explored this recent trend to understand how consumers evaluate fashion brands with a sustainable marketing communication, especially in the context of luxury brands. This study investigates how luxury and mass fashion brands can utilize sustainable marketing contents in social media communication to reach their target group and enhance their equity with sustainability associations. Theoretical Development Associative network models of memory have served as a fundamental framework for a wide range of studies related to the formation and transfer of associations. According to associative network theory, brand knowledge is represented in form of an associative network of memory nodes connected to each other. Nodes are activated when cues, such as advertising, are presented. Mere exposure to cues was shown to be sufficient to active associations and facilitate association transfer. While brands are continuously attempting to make use of associative power to leverage brand equity, extant research has provided compelling reasons to accept that association transfer can also result in brand dilution when a retrieval of conflicting or negative associations occurs. Especially in the context of luxury brands consisting of very unique associations and being different from mass brands in many regards, managing the brand’s associative network is a crucial task in order to send the right signals to consumers and maintain exclusivity. This study investigates how social media communication of different sustainability dimensions affects brand attitude and how it ultimately impacts behavioral outcomes in an attempt to build brand equity for mass and luxury fashion brands. Method and Data The hypotheses are tested with 273 respondents who participated in an online experiment. They were first asked to state their involvement with the category fashion. Subsequently, subjects were presented with a brand post either for the mass or luxury brand including claims related to one of the four sustainability dimensions or no claims for the control group respectively. The experiment consisted of a 2 (brand: mass or luxury) x 5 (sustainability dimensions: none, cultural, economic, environmental, social) factorial design. The measures that followed included attitudinal as well as behavioral constructs related to the brand, sustainability as well as social media use. Analysis of covariance is applied to test for main effects and interaction effects. Summary of Findings This study provides evidence that social media communication of a sustainable brand affects the purchase intention of consumers. The findings indicate a significant difference between the mass and the luxury brand used for this study. The mass brand exhibits the potential to leverage associations with cultural, economic, and environmental sustainability. However, the results only reveal a marginally significant higher purchase intention when cultural sustainability is communicated compared to when the brand does not provide any sustainable associations. In contrast, the luxury brand suffers from significant brand dilution across all four sustainability dimensions resulting in a decline in purchase intention. Key Contributions The findings reveal that sustainability communication exerts a diverging influence depending on the type of brand that is involved. This study suggests that mass brands are able to benefit from sustainability communication in an attempt to leverage brand equity. However, for a luxury brand this type of associations rather presents a liability that might dilute the brand. The findings of this study provide important insights for brand managers. Since mass brands are currently increasing efforts into sustainable communication in the fashion industry, the results suggest that this might be a promising investment. However, luxury brands are advised to carefully manage the communication of salient content related to sustainability as it might harm the invaluable and unique associations inherent in a luxury brand.

Why are CEOs not active on social media? It is increasingly critical for CEOs to not only be physically present at work but also be virtually present in the digital sphere. However, many CEOs are still reluctant to adapt social media or struggle to find the efficient approach to incorporate the tools into their communication strategy. The study explores how CEOs orient themselves in the digital world and make sense of social media. In particular, based on the view of impression management and institutional work, the research examines how CEOs translate their understanding into communication and selfpresentation strategies and activities. The results from 31 in-depth interviews with Chinese and Dutch CEOs suggest that leadership communication on social media is still going through the process of legitimisation in both institutions. Despite the growing popularity of personal branding, most CEOs do not interpret social media as the outlet for their personal and private use or independent from the organisational identities. While most CEOs champion the necessity of digital transformation for their organisations, they do not see clearly how their personal digital habits could potentially influence the process, despite their leadership roles. They typically identify social media as the functional platforms for information circulation and network connection. Multiple narratives and orientations do, however, coexist and they dictate social media decisions simultaneously depending on the context. There is also a prominent difference between the narratives of social media in the Netherlands and in China. Most Dutch CEOs wish active engagement from the organisations but practice passive roles themselves, while most Chinese CEOs are active for both personal and organisational use pressured by the intuitional norms. The research highlights the significance of cultural context regarding leadership communication even on social media. Given most platforms are designed, and arranged to have an international audience, CEOs and companies should be aware of distinctive norms and beliefs they are operated in the different societal institutions.

Introduction In the last decade, the concepts of responsible or sustainable luxury (Vigneron & Johnson 2004; Bendell & Kleanthous, 2007; Kapferer, 2010; Janssen, Vanhamme, Lindgreen & Lefebvre, 2014) and digital or online luxury (Kim & Ko, 2010; 2012; Okonkwo, 2005; 2009; 2010; Mosca, Civera & Casalegno, 2018) have started receiving considerable attention, as separate areas of study. Scholarship shows that communicating CSR is more and more of a strategic decision (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001) that needs to balance promises and performances of social instances (de Ven, 2008; Pomering & Donilcar, 2009; Hur, Kim & Woo, 2014;) and to impact on the audience positively through content, placement and motives of CSR messages (Jahdi & Acikdilli, 2009; Du, Bhattacharya, & Sen, 2010). Furthermore, with the explosion of digital contents and use, communicating CSR is even more challenging and firms increase their exposure to judgments of their real conduct (Christodoulides, Jevons & Blackshaw, 2011). Luxury players make an interesting case of investigation for the digital CSR communication, as they are peculiar both in the use of the online and in the implementation and communication of CSR (Vigneron & Johnson 2004; Bendell & Kleanthous, 2007; Kapferer and Bastien, 2009; Janssen et al., 2014). Despite some exploratory researches underline that luxury consumers are not so likely to see consistency between luxury and CSR (Davies et al., 2012) and yet, the communication of those activities can turn their perception negatively (Torelli et al., 2012), latest findings from empirical studies on luxury consumers show a growing interest in the communication of sustainability on the online (Janssen et al., 2014). However, few studies consider how consumers react and modify their perception in regard to CSR messages spread online, within luxury markets. This research has twofold aims. Firstly, it investigates the state of the art of leading international luxury players‟ CSR digital communication through the application of a theoretical framework developed by the authors for qualitative analysis of digital CSR communication contents, placement and purpose. Secondly, it explores luxury consumers‟ perception over specific digital CSR communications in order to verify whether and if there is consistency between CSR digital communication and consumers‟ reactions within luxury markets as well as underline emerging peculiarities in the way CSR is – and is expected to be – communicated online by luxury players. Theoretical development Creating experiences on the online became the imperative for luxury players (Okonkwo, 2010). This need is strengthened by luxury consumers, who are more willing to take part in the process of sharing brands‟ values through the online platforms, in a challenging multi-channel logic (Rifkin, 2000; Mosca et al., 2013). Luxury players seem to strive more than others to modify and integrate their products offer and communication on the online, because they have to adapt to a “pop” culture without losing their unique character and exclusivity (Aiello & Donvito, 2005) that can be, as some scholars suggest, identified with certain characteristics of sustainability and social responsibility (Janssen et al., 2014). The main contribution of this study is to allow a convergence between “responsible luxury” and “online luxury” by advancing the theoretical understanding of digital CSR communication within luxury markets, in terms of peculiarities, customers‟ perceptions and effectiveness. Research Design The study makes use of a theoretical framework for qualitative evaluation of web CSR communication previously developed by the authors, that is, in the context of the present research, enriched to include a qualitative investigation of all digital CSR messages (including web and social media). Firstly, the study applies the framework to 100 International luxury brands (representative of the principal luxury fashion-related personal products categories) selected from luxury reports by Deloitte, Reputation Institute and Interbrand in order to qualitative evaluate contents, placement and purposes of digital CSR messages. The qualitative evaluation is developed by the authors through the identification of KPIs reflecting the themes emerged in the framework, analysis of their frequency and Chi square test. Secondly, the study involves 400 luxury consumers within mature markets, who are tested around their perception of digital CSR communication of luxury players. The investigation over their reactions and perception of digital CSR messages is conducted through an online questionnaire and several focus groups. Statistical regression model, t-stat and comparison among the responses provided by consumers through the survey are conducted to analyse responses and match the data. Results and Conclusion Results show the that majority of the investigated players are extensively considering CSR as a core digital strategy, pointing out the growing communication of luxury goods that increased sustainability and social responsibility throughout the whole supply chain. The investigation on customers‟ perception outlines some discrepancies between players‟ communication and customers‟ reactions, showing several cases of misjudgements. On the one hand, some players fails in achieving customers‟ expectations and the actual raking of their digital CSR communication does not match the level of given perception. On the other hand, some digital CSR communications succeeds in creating positive overreactions, despite having previously evaluated as the minimum requirement as for CSR implementation and communication. Accordingly, some suggestions to managers are developed, not just around the three considered attributes of digital CSR communication (content, placement and purposes) but also around the context of buying behaviours linked to the core business and the brand values, which can be, somehow, strongly associated with sustainability and social responsibility. In particular, it emerges that luxury digital CSR communication is expected to be an integrated strategy between online and offline channels, focused upon facts, numbers, performances and results of CSR that should show high coherency with the luxury core business.

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of backstage storytelling in luxury brands’ social media communication and examine a psychological mechanism that elucidates how luxury brands’ backstage storytelling influences consumers’ attitudinal and relational outcomes. The theory of narrative transportation (Escalas, 2004) was employed as a theoretical lens. Focusing on the effects of visual storytelling in a social media platform, this study proposed that photos of a luxury brand’s backstage images offer a greater level of narrativity than staged images of products and models. Additionally, this study proposed VIP emotions and perceived intimacy as mediators between transportation to photo narrative and attitudes toward the brand, brand evaluation and self-brand connection. In addition, the effectiveness of social media for luxury brands’ visual storytelling was tested by testing the role of telepresence in viewers’ information processing. This study selects Instagram, a visual-oriented social media platform, as the study context; Chanel, a luxury fashion brand, was selected to develop the study stimuli. Two Instagram accounts for Chanel were created as study stimuli through a pre-test: one account with frontstage brand photos and one account with backstage brand photos. Students from two universities in the Southeast and Midwest were recruited and randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions, frontstage (n=118) or backstage (n=134) Chanel Instagram account. Manipulation checks confirmed that respondents perceived the experimental conditions as intended. Our results revealed that viewers in the backstage condition experienced higher levels of transportation than those in the frontstage condition; VIP emotions and perceived intimacy mediate the relationship between transportation and attitudes towards a brand’s Instagram, brand evaluations, and self-brand connection. Additionally, ANCOVA results confirmed the interaction effects of telepresence on transportation is significant only in the backstage condition. Findings from this study shed light on the effectiveness of luxury fashion brands’ visual storytelling in social media communication.

Introduction Social media communication has become a popular way for firms to engage with customers. Research shows that firms/brands engagement with fans or customers on social media is effective to improve brand equity (Kim & Ko, 2012), drive sales (eMarketer, 2015), and enhance both transactional and relational customer behaviour (Kumar, Bezawada, Rishika, Janakiraman, & Kannan, 2016). Given the influences of social media communication, how brands effectively engage with fans or followers on social media is an important question for marketers. Most research on this topic is from the applied psychology and consumer behaviour literature, whose theories and content are dominantly tested in laboratory setting. Very few research (e.g., Lee, Hosanagar, & Nair, 2017) applied real behaviour data of field settings to study this issue. Additionally, existent research primarily focuses on social media like Facebook and Twitter in developed counties. To our knowledge, no research examines global brands social media communications in developing country, like China. Due to the policy constraints, people in mainland China have no access to foreign social media platforms. There is a local social media platform in China, named Weibo. Weibo is a NASDAQ-listed company and has nearly 100 million active users monthly. Many brands, both global and local ones, have created Weibo accounts and keep engaging with their fans. For example, there are 1,452 luxury brands and 3,707 beverage brands or firms on Weibo (Weibo Data Centre, 2017). This paper focuses on global brands’ communication practices on Weibo. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how brand posts that global brands put on their social media page are correlated with fan engagement. By using real data form Weibo, we answer the following questions: (1) what attributes of brand posts on Weibo do affect fan engagement with global brands? (2) how do these attributes affect fans engagement behaviour (i.e. liking, sharing, and commenting) differently? Conceptual Framework We decompose the attributes of global brand social media posts into five aspects, which are proposed to affect fans engagement. The first two aspects, interactivity and vividness, are derived from computer-mediated-communication research (Frotin & Dholakia, 2005; Hoffman & Novak, 1996). The next two, informative and emotional attributes, are developed from the literature of advertising (Hong, Muderrisoglu, & Zinkhan, 1987; Geuens, Pelsmacker, & Faseur, 2011). The last one is localization-related attributes, which is from global marketing communication literature (Kanso & Nelson, 2002) to capture the special characteristics of global brand posts on a local social media platform. We argue that all these five aspects of global brand posts affect fans engagement on brand page. Fans engagement is conceptualized as fans behavioural response to brand posts, which will influence attitude and behaviour of other fans. There are three kinds of fans responses on brands social media page, i.e., liking, sharing and commenting. We do control the time and date of post issued, the text length of post, whether having celebrity in post, whether related to a remarkable event, the number of followers of brand on Weibo, and product category. Interactivity Interactivity is defined as “the degree to which two or more communication parties can act on each other, on the communication medium, and on the messages and the degree to which such influences are synchronized” (Liu & Shrum 2002, p.54). Interactivity requires two-way interaction between not only customers and companies, but customers themselves (Hoffman & Novak, 1996). Brand posts on Weibo differ in the degree of interactivity. Some posts only have text, picture, or video to deliver messages of brands, which has no possibility to interact with fans. Some posts include a link that fans can click to get more information, which enhances the interactivity of communication. Other posts have questions, which stimulate interaction with fans and followers. There are posts inviting people to indicate their like or comment on social media, which are considered as high interactivity as well. Advertising research has found the positive correlation between interactivity of ads and consumers’ attitude (Coyle & Thorson, 2001). De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang (2012) found interactivity of brand post on brand fan pages partially positively related to brand popularity (measured by number of likes and comments). Empirical research (Lee et al., 2017) using Facebook data showed that having links negatively associated with customer engagement, and having questions increased comments but reduced likings. For the inconsistent findings in the literature, we re-examine this relationship by focusing on global brands on a not well-examined Chinese social media, Weibo. Vividness Vividness refers to the format richness of the message (Daft & Lengel, 1986; Fortin & Dholakia, 2005). As for brand posts, vividness is reflected by the number of sensory dimensions and senses presented (text, colours, pictures, and videos, etc.). The degree of vividness influences what and how multiple senses are stimulated (Coyle & Thorson, 2001). For example, a picture post will activate more senses than a text post because the former has colour that stimulates sight more vividly than the later. Vividness is related to but differs from interactivity. Interactivity focuses on the characteristic of two-way interaction of the communication, while vividness stands for the multiple senses stimulated by the communication. Some advertising research found that a vivid web advertisement results in higher attention and more clicks (Lohtia, Donthu, & Hershberger, 2003). As a result, we differentiate vividness of each post and predict that more vivid post associated with higher customer engagement. A vivid post attracts more likes, shares and comments. Localization-related attributes Localization-related attributes are symbols that posts have reflecting the characteristics of local culture and people. The debate of globalization (standardization) versus localization has lasted several decades. Even though a global standardized marketing strategy saves money and gains scale economy, the localization approach (Keegan, 1969) is supported by the reality that each market has unique tastes. In the international advertising literature, some scholars found that many multinational firms “plan globally and act locally” (Blackwell, Ajami, & Stephan, 1991). “Global-local dilemma” exists when global luxury brands internationalize into the Chinese market (Liu et al., 2016). The marketing communication research found that it is not advised for global brands to use the same appeals and symbols in advertising across different countries (Kanso & Nelson, 2002). In other words, the combination of global advertising theme and local communication expertise can result in enhanced effectiveness. We propose, on Weibo, people are more actively engaged to like, share, or comment global brand posts when Chinese elements, such as Chinse handwriting, Chinese festivals, and Chinese celebrity spokespeople, are present. Informative attributes Besides interactivity and vividness, which capture the format characteristics of global brand posts, content-related attributes are associated with customer engagement as well. Informative content is an important side of content attributes. One important function of brand posts is to deliver messages to customers. Research shows that on social networks people tend to have positive attitudes towards informative ads (Taylor, Lewin, & Strutton, 2011). Global brand posts with specific information should result in higher customer engagement than less informative posts. Additionally, global brand posts on social media may have different types of marketing information, such as product, price, promotion and placerelated ones respectively. The posts with varying degree of informative content may change customer engagement as well. Emotional attributes Emotional attributes are another side of the content characteristics of brand posts besides informative ones. Advertising research shows that using emotion appeal in ads is an effective way to gain people attention and generate actions (Holbrook & Batra, 1987). Emotional connections between customers and brands are considered more stable than cognitive association (Heath, Brandt, & Nairn, 2006). Some scholars find that emotional appeal on banner advertising result in positive effects on click-through rates in both B2B and B2C contexts (Lohtia et al., 2003). Empirical research (Lee et al., 2017) on Facebook shows that perceived emotion in brand posts strongly boost users’ likes and comments. Similarly, we propose that emotional attributes of global brand posts on Weibo are correlated with fans engagement. We conceptualize emotional attributes with three elements, emotional tone, emotional icon and emotional core. Emotional core reflects the type of emotions, such as humour, happiness, and love, etc. Emotional tone stands for the strength of emotion, i.e. the emotion is weak or strong. Emotional icon refers to whether the content of posts has emotional symbols, which can take form of icons or net slangs. Research Design Operationalization Dependent variables Customer engagement is operationalized as three variables, the number of likes, the number of shares, and the number of comments of each global brand post. Independent variables Vividness. Vividness is operationalized as four categories standing for different vividness degree, text only, (text and) static picture, (text, static and) animated picture, (text, picture and) video. Interactivity. Interactivity is operationalized as five 0-1 variables, having link, having question, having invitation/incentive to like, having invitation/incentive to share, having invitation/incentive to comment. Localization-related attributes. This part is operationalized as four 0-1 variables, having Chinese culture image, having Chinese culture colour, having Chinese festival, and having Chinese celebrity spokespeople (we include celebrity as a control variable). Informative attributes. This part is operationalized as seven 0-1 variables, whether a post having information of (1) brand name, (2) promotion/trial, (3) price, (4) segmentation, (5) product lunch time, (6) purchase distribution, and (7) public relation event. Emotional attributes. This part is operationalized as three variables, (1) emotional icon, a 0- 1 variable, having emotional symbols or not, (2) emotional core, a categorical variable, different type of emotions identified by surveyed respondents, and (3) emotion tone, a scalerating variable from 1 to 3, standing for none, weak and strong emotion. Control Variables. There are five control variables, (1) time of posts, including date and hour; (2) length of posts, i.e., the number of Chinese characters; (3) celebrity, whether there is a celebrity in a post; (4) event, whether a post is related to a remarkable event; (5) the number of fans of brand, and (6) product category (3 dummy variables to differentiate four categories). Data We chose 6 global brands across five product categories, specifically, beverage (Coca-cola and Starbucks), cosmetics (Olay and L’Oréal), and sports (Nike and Adidas). All these global brands created Weibo account before 2012 and have cumulated a large number of followers. We select the posts from Sept. 1, 2016 to Feb. 28, 2017, within 6 months. This time duration is long enough to get analytical data. This period covers main Chinese traditional festivals, such as Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day, and Chinse New Year, which results in more variances in localization-related variables. Data were collected through two stages. The first stage was to download raw data from Weibo’s brand pages with Internet worm program directly. Each brand has its page which contains all posts it issued and the number of people’s likes, shares, and comments for each post. The second stage is to code content and get the final dataset. Most of 0-1 variables, such as interactivity, localization-related attributes, and informative attributes were coded by two research assistants. Variables of vividness were also coded by them. Variables of emotional attributes were coded by a survey to ask 500 Weibo users. This survey-based coded method is well applied in published research (e.g., Kumar et al., 2016; Lee et al., 2017). Model The three dependent variables, the numbers of likes (y1), shares (y2), and comments (y3), are count data with a Poisson distribution. As a result, the basic model is as following: 𝑦ij = 𝛼 + 𝑒𝑥𝑝(Σ3p=1 𝛽1p 𝑣𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑑pj + Σ5q=1 𝛽2q 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟qj + Σ4r=1 𝛽lr 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙rj + Σ7s=1 𝛽4s 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜sj + Σ3p=1 𝛽5t 𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑡tj + 𝛽6 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒j + 𝛽7 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟j + 𝛽8 𝑙𝑒𝑛j + 𝛽9 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒j + 𝛽10 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡j + 𝛽11 #𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤j + Σ4u=1 𝛽12u 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑡uj) + 𝜀ij (1) Expected Results This research is among the first initiative to examine social media communication in China. We are still working on the data analysis so far. We intend to identify the influence of global posts on fans engagement, which are from not only the content of posts (informative and emotional attributes), but also the design of posts (vividness and interactivity), and especially the localization considerations. We expect to find that the content foci differ fans engagement. Posts of sales promotion should be more effective to enhance fans engagement than those of product demonstration. We can identify what form of posts stimulates fans participation more effectively. We will know whether a video post is more effective than a picture post. Most interestingly, we will know how the posts combined with Chinese cultural elements on social media are responded. For example, we could compare the difference between posts having foreign and local celebrity people. We will know how different customer engagement behaviour influence by the same characteristic of posts. We can identify the most influential factors to each of three customer responses (liking, sharing, and commenting). Comparing with the research using data from Facebook or other social media outlets, we can obtain implications guiding global brands to implement social media strategy across countries.

Using the framework of social support, we aim to examine factors influencing social Word-of-Mouth (WOM) adoption. The proposed research model will be tested among customers who are active in the existing active social media platforms and have had experience in engaging with the activities of luxury brand communications. Introduction Today the most promising communication environment for reaching and interacting with stakeholders is the social media ecosystem (Hanna, Rohm and Crittenden, 2011). The social media has grown so rapidly in the past years that now impact the business processes and models (Henning-Thurau, Hofacker and Bloching, 2103). Many Brands begin to take advantage of the fluidity between social media and WOM for creating brand experiences that merge real and digital conversations, cutting through in incredibly powerful ways. However, the recent research (Godey, Manthiou, Pederzopli, Rokka, Aiello, Donvito and Sigh, 2016) suggest that luxury brands performing well in social media engagement. However, they are often lagged behind in WOM performance. Despite growing interest in examining the influence of social media marketing on consumer’s responses through brand equity creation (Godey et al., 2016; Jim and Ko, 2012), studies about social media in luxury brand communications remain to be scarce. An investigation of customer’s motivation behind participation in social media is timely and relevant which can help luxury brands unleash its potential. Moreover, development of an effective social WOM adoption model can help to provide a better picture of consumer interactions in online luxury brands communities, thus strengthen customerfirm relationship in longer term. Specifically, this research intends to answer the following two questions: 1) What are the major determinants of social WOM adoption in luxury brands communications? 2) Whether social support affects a. perceived source credibility; b. perceived information quality; c. user experience? Literature review Social media interactivity The concepts of social exchange (Blau, 1964) and the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) have long been used by Marketing researchers to describe the motivational basis behind customer behaviours and the formation of positive relational attitudes (e.g., Wulf; Gaby; Iacobucci, Dawn, 2001; Rafiq; Fulford and Lu 2013). More recently these concepts have been used to explain why customers enjoy interacting with each other in social media (Liang, Ho, Li and Turban 2012; Godey et al., 2016). Social media interactivity is social interaction of people in social networking sites by Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook, Instagram (Hajli, 2016). For instance, Facebook has more than two billion monthly active users which is a great example of a platform. In fact, people love to interact with each other. When they favourite and like each other’s posts that would reinforce the closeness. Online social support Recent research has found that social interaction can bring social value to their users and that the social media is a powerful vehicle for an individual to build close relationships with others and to enhance the individual’s well-being (Liang et al., 2012; Eastin and LaRose, 2005; Obst and Stafurik, 2010; Shaw and Grant, 2002; Xie, 2008). Social support has been found to be a major social value that social media users can obtain from an online interactions (Eastin and LaRose, 2005; Obst and Stafurik, 2010; Huang, Nambisan and Uzuner, 2010). Social support is a multidimensional construct which refers to an individual’s experience of being cared for, being responded to, and being helped by people in that individuals’ social network (Cobb, 1976). Schaefer, Liang et al.(2012) claim that , online social support consists both tangible (e.g. instrumental and appraisal support) and intangible elements (e.g. informational and emotional support). Given the specific context, this study mainly focuses on the latter. Informational support refers to providing messages, in the form of recommendations, advice, or knowledge that could be helpful for solving problems. By contrast, emotional support refers to providing messages that involve emotional concerns such as caring, understanding or empathy. These two types of messages are the major support mechanisms for social interactions (Hajli, 2016). Antecedents of social WOM adoption Information adoption can be defined as the process of engaging purposefully in consuming information (Cheng and Thadani, 2012). Informational support provided through social interaction of individuals in social media can be in the form of ratings, review, recommendations or referrals. Therefore, when consumers search for information provided by other users to make a better decision for their purchasing, they are adopting information. From a marketer’s perspective, this process also helps to build long-term advocacy. This research argues that social media provides more opportunities to the individual to adopt WOM. The existing literature has identified several antecedents of social WOM adoption and most of these studies focused on travelling websites (Filieri; Alguezaui and McLeay,2015; Hajli, 2016). Beldad, De Jong, Steehouder (2010) have categorized the major antecedents of social WOM adoption in the literature into three categories namely customer-based antecedents (e.g. user’s experience during the social interactions); website based antecedents (e.g. perceived information quality) and company based antecedents(e.g. perceived source of credibility). Source of credibility is considered as fundamental predictors of consumers’ acceptance of a message in traditional WOM adoption (McGinnies and Ward, 1980). To facilitate the evaluation of credibility of a source, more and more social platforms require contributors to create a web profile upon their registration. Customers need to provide personal information (e.g. profile picture, personal preference). Furthermore, many social media website utilise reviewer reputation systems to enable customers to assess the credibility of reviewers. Zhang and Watt (2008) argue that the higher source credibility of message perceived in online social media, the higher level of information adoption would be. Moreover, the quality of information in online reviews is perceived as a very important cue for consumers to assess the website (Filierri, et al., 2015). Krishnan; Biswas and Netemeyer (2006) point out that concrete information provided by the website such as detailed features of the product/service is likely to be perceived as more credible than those from abstract information like peripheral description of the product/service. Finally, in marketing literature user experience is strongly related with trust (Yoon, 2002). In an online context customers’ negative experience is likely to affect their trust about the company. As a consequence, they are likely to engage in negative WOM. Research shows that user experience has a strong impact on the social WOM adoption (Liang et al., 2012). Method Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) will be employed for examining the research objectives of this research. The questionnaire for this study will be created through a professional online-based survey tool. As this research focuses on the factors influencing social WOM adoption in relation with luxury brands communications, the proposed research model will be tested among customers who is active in the existing active social media platforms and has had experience in engaging with the activities of luxury brand communications such as posting review or comment other’s post). Result and conclusion This research has adopted the electronic WOM theory and the social media support theory along with a social media perspective to investigate how customer’s interaction in social media affects their behaviour in relation to luxury brands consumption. The results show that social WOM facilitates the evaluation by customers about the luxury products using social media. Moreover, WOM has emerged with broad accessibility and the capability to be evaluated and measured easily by other consumers. This study gives practical implications on how to use social media to develop online communities for luxury brands. In conclusion, when going online, luxury brand should consider the importance of converting the online brand strategy into an interactive and engaging experience for their users and online communities.

In the current digital word, social media represent a relevant tool for marketing and communications strategies, which create new opportunities for firms to engage with their customers (Leeflang, Verhoef, Dahlström, & Freundt, 2013; Lemon & Verhoef, 2016; Libai et al., 2010). Among the sectors that leverage on social media in their communications, the luxury industry represents a main one. As previous research has mainly analyzed the consumer-side (Godey et al., 2016; Jin, 2012; Kim & Ko, 2012) overlooking the firm-side, the aim of this study is to investigate the cross-cultural issues faced by foreign luxury brands in implementing their social media strategies in China by carrying out a qualitative inquiry. China is the setting of analysis as it represents an increasingly relevant luxury market, characterized by the role of digital media as main communications and sales channel. Data collected consist of semistructured interviews with managers from foreign luxury brands operating in China in order to understand the issues faced and the strategies implemented. Moreover, an analysis of their social media presence on Chinese platforms such as WeChat and Weibo is conducted by considering the type of response activated among users. As pointed out by Belk (2017), qualitative advertising research can provide a better understanding of consumer response to advertising also in the rapidly growing field of social media, which have been mainly unexplored by qualitative approaches (Hadija, Barnes, & Hair, 2012). Moreover, an analysis on the firm-side will fill a gap in the existing literature and provide relevant managerial implications for international firms that operate in China.

In an increasingly digital and interactive global marketing landscape, social media marketing is emerging as one of the most important strategic tools for brand communication. This is especially true in the luxury fashion context, which traditionally exploited virtual environments as an effective communicational tool of brand-related content and product usage information all over the world. A contemporary consumer cohort that exhibits digital- and virtual-oriented behaviors are Millennials, which represent the digital native generation highly inclined to Internet interaction and, thus, a relevant strategic opportunity for social media marketers in the luxury industry. While the literature reports a positive relationship between Millennials’ social media usage and purchase intention towards luxury brand, scant attention has been paid to the underlying mechanisms explaining such a relationship. To fill this gap, the current research proposes and tests a conceptual model to provide three main contributions to the social media and brand communication literature: first, consumers’ perceptions of interactivity – a multidimensional construct comprised of real-time conversation, no delay/timing, and engaging/navigation – is hypothesized as an antecedent of social media usage. In this way, relevant theoretical and practical implications are provided to online luxury marketers interested in embracing virtual environments for brand communication. Next, two significant constructs of consumer behavior such as materialism – comprised of success, hedonism, and happiness – and morality – comprised of moral judgment and moral intensity – are hypothesized as mediating variables of the relationship between social media usage and purchase intention towards luxury brands. Particularly, these materialistic and ethical decision making processes emerge as relevant for Millennials’ online purchasing activities, with the expectation of transparent and effective brand-related information through social media. Finally, these mediating influences are hypothesized to be moderated by two other relevant constructs in the brand communication process—consumers’ motivation to use social media and advertising skepticism. In fact, a better assessment of Millennials’ motivation and skepticism toward social media marketing communication result as crucial for modern strategic marketers. Such hypotheses are tested using bootstrapped moderated mediation analysis on a sample of 297 Millennials actively following luxury brand social media activities. Our results confirm the proposed hypotheses, particularly both materialism and idealism partially mediate the relationship between social media usage and purchase intention. Moreover, motivation to use social media improves the effect of social media usage on materialism, whereas advertising skepticism reduces the effect of idealism on purchase intention. These findings contribute to the social media and brand communication literature, providing interesting avenues for future research.