Influencers and prosocial luxury dynamics

Abstract Prosocial and sustainable behaviors have emerged as key elements for luxury brands today, catalyzing a significant transformation in their strategies. In this context, the present study investigates whether influencers are reflecting these brands' efforts to align their image with ethical and sustainable values and, if so, determining the engagement level generated by such posts. Two types of analysis are employed on social media content: topic analysis using Latent Dirichlet Allocation and regression. The findings indicate that influencers do mention issues related to the prosocial and sustainable domain when discussing luxury brands, although not predominantly. However, these types of posts do not generate higher engagement, with this indicator being moderated by the type of influencer. These results challenge the effectiveness of prosocial content, underscoring the need for a more nuanced evaluation. In the business sphere, brands must strategically consider the inclusion of prosocial and sustainable content, tailoring their approaches based on the influencer type to optimize the impact on engagement.