Online low‐key conspicuous behavior of fashion luxury goods: The antecedents and its impact on consumer happiness

Abstract

Nowadays, people tend to show off in a more conservative rather than ostentatious way, that is, “low‐key style.” This paper focuses on consumers' low‐key conspicuous behavior on social media after they purchase fashion luxury goods, so as to explore the antecedents of this behavior, as well as its impact, on consumer happiness. Our results show that motivations for self‐representation and avoidance of negative comments from others trigger the low‐key conspicuous behavior. Afterward, this behavior will positively affect consumers' short‐term happiness through both perceived self‐image and perceived interpersonal relationship, while enhancing long‐term happiness only through perceived interpersonal relationship. The reason may be that the temporary pleasure brought by the improvement of perceived self‐image is not enough to raise the quality of life, but an improvement in one's interpersonal relationship is a lifelong benefit.

Social media and luxury: A systematic literature review

“…Such an approach facilitates a quantitative exploration of factors such as social media usage and behaviour (e.g. Chen et al, 2021b;Ha et al, 2019;Martín-Consuegra et al, 2019), attitudes towards social media marketing and advertising (e.g. Godey et al, 2016;Xie & Lou, 2020), brand perception (e.g.…”

“…Conversely, in a collectivist Chinese context, consumers engage in more inconspicuous displays of luxury consumption in their own social media content. This contributes to the individual's self-image while preserving interpersonal relationships by avoiding ostentatious displays and possibly attracting negative comments (Chen et al, 2021b).…”

“…Posting purchases on social media significantly increases consumers' perceived impact of purchases on themselves and interpersonal relationships, which increases happiness (Duan & Dholakia, 2017). Such behaviour can be linked to Veblen's theory of conspicuous consumption (Veblen, 1899(Veblen, /1979, involving individuals' public display of wealth to accumulate status, however previous work has already highlighted a varied desire by users from diverse cultures to engage in such loud or discreet brand displays (Chen et al, 2021b;. Further research examining implications for the varying forms of luxury consumer (e.g.…”

Someone like me: The role of consumer brand engagement and social identification in the perception of luxury brand users

“…Given that the sales of luxury goods, despite the crisis associated with COVID‐19, are still at a very high level (Sabanoglu, 2021) and such goods are now more available than before (Granot et al, 2013), luxury consumption arouses the interest of many researchers (Gurzki & Woisetschläger, 2017; Prestini & Sebastiani, 2021). Although, we know a lot about the motivation of consumers to acquire luxury goods (Chen et al, 2021; Dhaliwal et al, 2020; Minton & Geiger‐Oneto, 2020; Nwankwo et al, 2014; Shao et al, 2019), there is still a need for research into the psychological consequences of using luxury products. We can distinguish two main research trends in this area.…”

Purchasing social attention by tipping: Materialism predicts online tipping in live‐streaming platform through self‐enhancement motive

“…Online consumer behavior has become a burgeoning area of academic research in recent years (Anesbury et al, 2016). Researchers are paying increasing attention to consumers' cognitive, motivational, and social processes during online shopping activities (e.g., Chen et al, 2020; Wagner et al, 2020). Along with their many promises and benefits, e‐commerce activities and services have shown their negative side in recent years.…”