Consumers' Social Media Advocacy Behaviors Regarding Luxury Brands: An Explanatory Framework

Abstract

ABSTRACTConsumers can take advocacy actions on social media websites that validate and amplify brand messages and brand meanings. But why do some consumers choose to become brand advocates in social media while others do not? We propose and test an exploratory framework for the likelihood of consumers' social media advocacy behaviors (SABs; e.g., “Liking” brand pages, share brand postings) using the context of luxury brands. We posit that brand-level, social-influence, and individual-difference variables will influence the likelihood of SABs. Further, the effects of these independent variables will be mediated by three motivating variables—consumer perceptions of self-enhancement benefit, community identification benefit, and utilitarian benefit from SABs—and one inhibiting variable, social-evaluative anxiety from SABs. A study with 413 nonstudent, female participants supported our framework.