Constructing Personas: How High-Net-Worth Social Media Influencers Reconcile Ethicality and Living a Luxury Lifestyle

Drawing from a multi-sourced data corpus (in-depth interviews and Instagram posts) gathered from high-net-worth (HNW) social media influencers, this article explores how these individuals reconcile ethicality and living a luxury lifestyle through the enactment of three types of personas on Instagram...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of business ethics Vol. 169; no. 2; pp. 225 - 239
Main Authors Leban, Marina, Thomsen, Thyra Uth, von Wallpach, Sylvia, Voyer, Benjamin G.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.03.2021
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Audiences
Business and Management
Business Ethics
Celebrities
Consumers
Consumption
Education
Enactment
Ethics
Influencer marketing
Legitimacy
Licenses
Lifestyles
Management
Mass media
Original Paper
Philosophy
Quality of Life Research
Reconciliation
Social media
Social networks
Luxury lifestyle
Social media influencer
Ethicality
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Summary:Drawing from a multi-sourced data corpus (in-depth interviews and Instagram posts) gathered from high-net-worth (HNW) social media influencers, this article explores how these individuals reconcile ethicality and living a luxury lifestyle through the enactment of three types of personas on Instagram: (1) Ambassador of ‘True’ Luxury, (2) Altruist, and (3) ‘Good’ Role Model. By applying the concepts of taste regimes and social moral licensing, we find that HNW social media influencers conspicuously enact and display ethicality, thereby retaining legitimacy in the field of luxury consumption. As these individuals are highly influential, they could leave a potentially significant mark on public discourse and, consequently, on their audiences’ construction of ethically responsible luxury consumption. In this vein, this article offers significant managerial insights into professional influencers and discusses ethical managerial practices to ensure ethical collaborations between influencers and managers.
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1007/s10551-020-04485-6