Sustainable influencer services meet luxury: a risky match

Purpose Studies have examined the social costs of luxury consumption in terms of how observers perceive luxury brand consumers. However, how consumers perceive luxury consumption and collaboration with luxury brands by a social media influencer known for engaging in sustainable practices is underexplored. Proposing social media influencers as human service providers, this study aims to examine (i) the effect of luxury consumption by sustainable influencers on consumer relationship avoidance and positive word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions, (ii) the role of the sustainable influencer’s collaboration with non-sustainable vs sustainable luxury brands and (iii) the mechanism that explains this effect. Design/methodology/approach Two scenario-based experiments were conducted. The hypothesized relationships were tested using ANCOVA, and a mediation analysis was performed using Hayes’ PROCESS Model 4. Findings The study results show that when a sustainable influencer engages in luxury consumption, consumers’ relationship avoidance increases and positive WOM intention decreases. In addition, when sustainable influencers collaborate with sustainable luxury brands as opposed to non-sustainable luxury brands, consumers respond with higher relationship avoidance, driven by perceived narcissism. Originality/value The findings contribute to the sustainable influencer literature by tapping into the negative effect of a sustainable influencer’s luxury consumption and collaboration. Another contribution comes from the proposal of social media influencers as human service providers. This study also offers important managerial implications to sustainable influencers who rely on visual content featuring themselves in content creation and luxury brand managers seeking to collaborate with sustainable influencers.