Content area
Full Text
1. Introduction
The expanding usage of social media continues, connecting approximately half of the world's population. According to Statista (2020a, b), it was predicted that the users of social media will increase to 4.41bn by 2025. To date, it was recorded to have 3.6bn users in 2020. In South Korea, the number of social media users reached 44.73m by January 2020, with a social media penetration rate of 87%, which is considered as one of the highest in the world (Datareportal, 2020). The major users of social media are millennials; recent research revealed that 79% of Korean millennials use social media, meaning that nearly eight-in-ten members of this generation engage on these platforms (KISDI STAT Report, 2019); the report also indicated that Korean millennials are more involved in online shopping (83%) than other groups. Given the impacts of social media among this cohort, researching the online and buying behaviors of Korean millennials within a social media environment is significant and timely.
Social media has changed the lives of millennials, allowing them to express their personalities through social networks. Compared with other generations, millennials demonstrate more self-confidence (Myers and Sadaghiani, 2010), higher self-esteem (Logan, 2008) and more status consumption (Eastman and Lui, 2012). In particular, according to Giovannini et al. (2015), millennials display high intention to purchase luxury fashion goods and are more urged to consume conspicuously. And for them, luxury fashion goods, with their social visibility, a high price, high quality and exclusiveness are closely connected to the notion of conspicuous consumption. These brands serve as the media not only for gaining social status but also for self-expression and improving self-image. Thus, the focus of this paper was luxury fashion brands because millennials appear to associate these goods with their images.
Specifically, the first goal of this study was to explore the connections among three variables: social media usage, self-image congruity and conspicuous online consumption; a second objective was to investigate the mediating role of self-image congruity and the moderating influence of self-esteem. With the increase users of social media among millennials and their higher preference of conspicuous consumption, it is necessary to investigate the underlying mechanisms relating to social media usage and conspicuous online consumption. Previous researchers have mostly examined the mediating effects...