How being envied shapes tourists’ relationships with luxury brands: A dual-mediation model

Abstract

Positive reviews of luxury brands on social media provide tourists with an opportunity for self-presentation. Recent studies have suggested that these reviews can easily trigger envy in receivers, yet few studies have discussed the effect of envy on review writers. This research examined the effects of review writers’ perceptions of being envied on their relationships with the luxury brands they shared on social media. The results of three experiments in vacation scenarios showed that writers were more likely to feel pride (anxiety) when they were benignly (maliciously) envied, eliciting a stronger (weaker) self-brand connection. Moreover, social tie strength played a moderating role. The effect of being envied was stronger when writers and receivers had strong (vs. weak) ties. Our findings provide luxury brand managers with managerial insights into content customization and platform selection in buzz marketing strategies.