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This research aims to examine the interplay between social media engagement, motivation and materialistic values on purchase intention towards luxury fashion brands among young Chinese consumers in Hong Kong. The study explores three key areas: the correlation between social media engagement and luxury purchase intention, the motivational factors that influence this relationship and the role of materialistic values within this context.

The study employs a moderated mediation analysis approach to explore these relationships. A cross-sectional online survey was completed by 226 young Chinese respondents (aged 18–35) in Hong Kong. The survey aimed to measure the participants’ engagement with luxury fashion brands’ social media (predictor), materialistic values (moderator), intention to purchase luxury items (outcome) and their motivation regulation (mediator).

The study reveals a moderated mediation model. It indicates that consumers’ autonomous motivation, specifically intrinsic and identified regulation, acts as a mediator between social media engagement and luxury purchase intention. Interestingly, social media engagement has a more profound influence on the intrinsic motivation to purchase luxury items among consumers with less materialistic values.

This study pioneers in explaining luxury purchase intention in relation to social media engagement, autonomous motivation and materialism among young Chinese consumers in Hong Kong. Further, it highlights that by engaging in social media, non-materialistic consumers’ intrinsic motivation toward purchasing luxury goods can mirror that of their materialistic counterparts.