Luxury in the digital age: A multi-actor service encounter perspective

Abstract Luxury brands have been reluctant to adopt technology-enhanced multi-actor interactions at the customer interface. This article synthesizes research on luxury and multi-actor interactions in non-luxury contexts to explore how luxury brands can adopt digitally enabled multi-actor service encounters. The literature is further supplemented by interviews with managers in luxury firms. Our findings caution against simply adopting approaches from non-luxury contexts as they risk undermining the luxury service experience. Rather, we develop a set of propositions at the intersections of the physical, digital, and social realms on how luxury brands can adapt the use of digital multi-actor interactions to augment rather than imperil their brand image. Specifically, our propositions help luxury managers to enhance the customer experience through hedonic escapism, strengthen their brand communities, and use digitization to simultaneously provide conspicuous customers with greater visibility and discreet customers with social exclusivity.