Discussion
This study makes three key contributions that have implications for academics and practitioners. First, the study offers a theoretical framework to analyze social media LBCs using the key concepts of integration and interactivity. Second, the findings confirm a relationship between the key concepts: positive effects of LBC integration on interaction as a process and positive effects of interaction as a process on perceived interactivity of LBCs in the social media context. Finally, the study identifies the effects of social media LBC interactivity on attitude, brand loyalty, and purchase intentions. Key factors that influence interaction include LBC integration that reflects a customer-centric relationship with the brand, products, companies, and other customers. Interaction as a process and perceived interactivity are identified as the nexus of LBC integration. With the interaction process and perception of interactivity as the conceptual framework of multifaceted interactivity, a positive causal relationship between LBC interaction as a process and perceived interactivity ultimately affects positive outcomes regarding luxury brand attitude, luxury brand loyalty and purchase intention. These findings contribute to marketing theory regarding luxury brand management. In applying the key concepts, the findings reveal that accumulated experiences and customer willingness to interact on social media LBCs are more powerful factors for building brand loyalty than overall positive brand evaluations. Marketing practitioners can benefit from new ideas regarding how to develop and manage strategies that consider integration, interaction as a process, and perceived interactivity within the social media LBC context. The importance of actual interaction and perceived interactivity to LBC members was confirmed here as well as the interdependencies among interactivity and its effects on new perspectives for traditional brand community models that focus solely on member identification and satisfaction as the key drivers of loyal behavior.
