Economic decision-making in free-to-play games : A laboratory experiment to study the effects of currency conversion

Peer reviewe

Pengaruh Persepsi Nilai Pada Intensi Pembelian Produk Virtual Yang Dimediasi Oleh Kepuasan

. This study investigates online game consumer intention to purchase virtualproduct offered during the playing period. Satisfaction of the game was predicted asmediating variable in the influence of perceived value to purchase intention.Hypotheses testing were done by using mediation analysis in IBM SPSS Statisticssoftware version 21 and macro Hayes (2013) model 4. Results showed that in bothgroups, MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) and MMOBA(Massively Multiplayer Online Battle Arena), online games satisfaction mediates theinfluence of perceived value to virtual product purchase intention. This study extendsconsumer behavior literature, particularly in perceived value, satisfaction and purchaseintentions of online game consumers. Practical implication of this research can be usedspecifically by online games developer, where satisfaction with the game being playedis one determinant of the players intention to purchase virtual products offered duringthe playing period

Behavioral and Network Origins of Wealth Inequality: Insights from a Virtual World

Almost universally, wealth is not distributed uniformly within societies or economies. Even though wealth data have been collected in various forms for centuries, the origins for the observed wealth-disparity and social inequality are not yet fully understood. Especially the impact and connections of human behavior on wealth could so far not be inferred from data. Here we study wealth data from the virtual economy of the massive multiplayer online game (MMOG) Pardus. This data not only contains every player's wealth at every point in time, but also all actions of every player over a timespan of almost a decade. We find that wealth distributions in the virtual world are very similar to those in western countries. In particular we find an approximate exponential for low wealth and a power-law tail. The Gini index is found to be $g=0.65$, which is close to the indices of many Western countries. We find that wealth-increase rates depend on the time when players entered the game. Players that entered the game early on tend to have remarkably higher wealth-increase rates than those who joined later. Studying the players' positions within their social networks, we find that the local position in the trade network is most relevant for wealth. Wealthy people have high in- and out-degree in the trade network, relatively low nearest-neighbor degree and a low clustering coefficient. Wealthy players have many mutual friendships and are socially well respected by others, but spend more time on business than on socializing. We find that players that are not organized within social groups with at least three members are significantly poorer on average. We observe that high `political' status and high wealth go hand in hand. Wealthy players have few personal enemies, but show animosity towards players that behave as public enemies.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, 8 pages S

The relationship between aesthetics, perceived value and buying intention: a literature review and conceptual framework

This research aims to synthesize the scales of aesthetics, the perceived value of the consumers for the intention to buy smartphones. At the same time, this analyzes the relationship between aesthetics, perceived value and intention to purchase, thereby the study suggests the research model which can be applied in other places, other contexts, and related fields. The method in this study is to summarize the systematics theories and compare the relevant studies. As a result, this research can develop research hypotheses. The main results of the proposed model are to explore the scales and find out the relationship between aesthetics, perceived value and intention to buy smartphones directly and indirectly. Moreover, empirical research can, based on the proposed conceptual framework, be studied for different countries or technology-related products such as computers, tablets, and other smart devices

ตัวแบบสมการโครงสร้างปัจจัยที่มีอิทธิพลต่อการตัดสินใจซื้อสินค้าเสมือนของกิจกรรมการแข่งขันอีสปอร์ต

การวิจัยในครั้งนี้เพื่อศึกษาปัจจัยที่มีอิทธิพลต่อความตั้งใจซื้อสินค้าเสมือนจริงว่ามีแนวโน้มอย่างไรในบริบทประเทศไทย ซึ่งศึกษาจากสินค้าเสมือนจริงที่มีการเจือปนของตราสินค้าจริง ในกิจกรรมการดูหรือการแข่งขันกีฬาอิเล็กทรอนิกส์ โดยการศึกษาวิจัยนั้นใช้วิธีการในการสร้างแบบจำลองตัวแบบสมการโครงสร้างเป็นเครื่องมือในการวิเคราะห์และทดสอบสมมติฐาน ประชากรที่ใช้ในการศึกษาครั้งนี้คือแฟนกีฬาอิเล็กทรอนิกส์ที่เป็นทั้งผู้เล่นและผู้ชมภายในประเทศไทย เก็บข้อมูลโดยการใช้แบบสอบถามเป็นเครื่องมือในการรวบรวมข้อมูลโดยมีจำนวนตัวอย่างทั้งสิ้น 387 คน สถิติที่ใช้ในการวิเคราะห์ได้แก่ ค่าเฉลี่ย ร้อยละ ค่าส่วนเบี่ยงเบนมาตรฐานและการทดสอบตัวแบบสมการโครงสร้างเชิงยืนยันต่อตัวแปรจากการทบทวนวรรณกรรมด้วย วิธีการ CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis) ผลการศึกษาพบว่า ตัวแบบที่สร้างขึ้นมีความสอดคล้องกับข้อมูลเชิงประจักษ์โดยค่าความสอดคล้องนั้นเป็นไปตามเกณฑ์ (CMIN/df = 3.055, GFI = 0.946, NFI = 0.943, RFI = 0.918, IFI = 0.961, TLI = 0.943, CFI = 0.961 และ RMSEA = 0.073) ผลการทดสอบสมมติฐาน พบว่า ปัจจัยการมีส่วนร่วมในกิจกรรมการแข่งขันอีสปอร์ตมีอิทธิพลเชิงบวกกับความตั้งใจซื้อสินค้าเสมือนจริง ปัจจัยการมีส่วนร่วมในกิจกรรมการแข่งขันอีสปอร์ตมีอิทธิพลเชิงบวกกับการระบุตัวตนเป็นตัวแทนเสมือนจริงในอีสปอร์ต ปัจจัยการระบุตัวตนเป็นตัวแทนเสมือนจริงในอีสปอร์ตมีอิทธิพลเชิงบวกกับความตั้งใจซื้อสินค้าเสมือนจริง ปัจจัยการระบุตัวตนเป็นตัวแทนเสมือนจริงในอีสปอร์ตมีอิทธิพลเชิงบวกกับความรู้ในตราสินค้าจริง ปัจจัยความรู้ในตราสินค้าจริงมีอิทธิพลเชิงบวกกับความตั้งใจซื้อสินค้าเสมือนจริง อย่างมีนัยสำคัญทางสถิติที่ระดับ 0.01 และ 0.0

Direct and indirect impact of aesthetics on intention to buy smartphones

This study aims to measure the direct and indirect impact of aesthetics on consumers' intention to buy smartphones through perceived value in the context of research in Vietnam. The research data conducted through three surveys: The first one is expert survey and group discussions to explore and adjust the scales. The second one is that the authors conducted a pilot study with 100 customers in Ho Chi Minh City to evaluate the reliability of scales, the last one is that the authors survey directly 200 customers and send 100 online surveys. And 275 valid observations with Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were conducted to find a direct and indirect impact on the intention to buy smartphones. The main results show that aesthetic has a direct and indirect impact on the intention to buy smartphones. The strongest influence is the indirect impact of aesthetics on the intention to purchase through social value; the second strong impact is the direct impact of aesthetics on the intention to buy, the two weakest indirect effects is through functional value and emotional value respectively. Based on the research results, the product developer can adjust the properties of aesthetics, and at the same time looking the ways to increase the perceived value of customers; thereby increasing revenue in selling smartphones

Factors influencing purchase intent in virtual worlds: A review of the literature

Contains fulltext : 202193.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Previous empirical studies have identified several factors that seem to play a role in determining purchase intent in virtual worlds; three-dimensional online environments in which users interact while represented by their avatars. So far however, a clear overview of these factors is lacking, and the question that remains is what factors affect purchase intent most. Therefore, this study aims to create an overview of factors that influence users' purchase intent in virtual worlds, and to subsequently identify the most influential factors. To conduct this review, relevant literature was gathered using a variety of search engines and keywords. An article had to explicitly study factors influencing purchase intent in virtual worlds in order to be included in this review. This search method resulted in a selection of twelve relevant articles that were used for further analysis. Results show that perceived enjoyment, social influence, customization and ease of use are important factors that influence purchase intent in virtual worlds. Enjoyment of the virtual world, beliefs and attitudes of others, avatar customization, and easy-to-use virtual world applications can thus increase users' willingness to purchase products in the virtual world. Practical implications as well as limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.18 p

Impact of Social Media On Consumer Purchase Behaviour During COVID-19 Pandemic

Social media has been used by people to create and share content with the public. Consumers have changed their purchasing habits from offline to online purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media is also changing sellers' and buyers' specialised strategies. This study aimed to study the factors influencing consumer purchasing behaviour via social media during the COVID-19 outbreak. 215 young adults from three Malaysian states which are Johor, Melaka, and Selangor, have been invited to participate in this study by answering a set of questionnaires. The successful response rate is 93.02%, where 200 completed questionnaires were used for data analysis in this study. The four independent variables, price, convenience, product variety, and risk, are tested in relation to the dependent variable, consumer purchase behaviour during the COVID-19 outbreak. The measurement items of all the four independent variables and dependent variables were adopted from the past research studies. The collected data were entered into SPSS version 26 and then tested using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM 3.3.3). All hypotheses were found to be supported by the analysis results. Lastly, the findings of this study will help marketers understand consumer purchasing behaviour via social media during the COVID-19 pandemic

Investigating the continuance intention to play massively multi-player online games

Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) have been one of the fastest growing online entertainments and attracted a great sum of venture investment. Yet, little empirical research has been conducted to examine the interrelationship between gamers’ motivations and post-adoption behaviors. This study attempted to explain gamers’ continuance intention to play MMOGs by integrating motivations for playing MMOGs into the information systems (IS) continuance model. We conducted an online survey with 392 World of Warcraft gamers, and validated the model with structural equation modeling approach. With the majority of hypotheses being substantiated, our results revealed that the extended IS continuance model demonstrates satisfactory predictive power to gamers’ continuance intention to play MMOGs. Achievement and immersion motivations were testified to positively associate with enjoyment, and that enjoyment and satisfaction jointly predict the continuance intention to play MMOGs. The study rounded off with theoretical and practical implications