Materialistic consumers who seek unique products: How does their need for status and their affective response facilitate the repurchase intention of luxury goods?

• Status consumption and repurchase intention of luxury goods are examined.
• Both need for uniqueness and materialism have strong impact on status consumption.
• Status consumption indirectly affects repurchase intention via affective response.
• Affective response plays the major role in forming repurchase intention.

It is generally known that status consumption fulfils the hedonic needs of luxury goods consumers; affective response generated from the purchase behavior of luxury goods is linked to the display of wealth and symbolic meanings obtained from social standing. However, there is a paucity of studies on how the affective response of consumers influences their repurchase intention of luxury goods. Therefore, in this paper, the repurchase intention of luxury goods consumers is investigated, their motivations are examined, and how status consumption affects their affective response will be demonstrated. The sample in this study comprises 568 survey respondents. The findings show that affective response has the strongest direct impact on repurchase intention. The need for uniqueness and materialism have indirect effects on repurchase intention through status consumption. Consequently, the results will enrich the existing literature on consumer behavior and provide theoretical and practical implications.