Users\u27 understandings of the virtual economy in social virtual worlds: consumption and entrepreneurship of virtual goods

Social virtual worlds (SVWs) such as Second Life have gained immense popularity during the last decade. Their popularity is reflected in the explosive growth of the in-world economy, which is mainly supported by users’ consumption of virtual goods and entrepreneurial behavior. Users’ economic behavior has increased the size of the virtual economy to reach over $1B in the United States in 2009 (Nicholson 2009). Given that virtual consumption and entrepreneurship have become an important part of everyday virtual life in SVWs, understanding these two types of economic activities is an essential aspect to understanding user behavior in SVWs. This research aims at investigating the meanings of virtual consumption and entrepreneurship for users. The research consists of two independent essays. In the first essay about virtual consumption, I examine users’ understandings of virtual consumption through core-periphery analysis of its social representation. 154 Second Life users participated in the web-based survey for this study. I also identify user goals for virtual consumption by using means-end chain analysis, based on interviews with 93 Second Life users. The second essay on the topic of virtual entrepreneurship examines the collective meanings of virtual entrepreneurship and their relationship with the collective meanings of SVWs. To understand the meanings of virtual entrepreneurship, the core-periphery structure of social representations of virtual entrepreneurship is analyzed, based on interviews with 24 Second Life entrepreneurs. The meanings of virtual entrepreneurship are explained and compared with the central meanings of SVWs, identified from 101 newspaper articles on SVWs from 2005 to 2009. The results show that virtual consumption penetrates extensively into the virtual life of users and make their virtual experience in SVWs much richer; that virtual entrepreneurship is institutionalized in SVWs, and the key meanings of SVWs are well translated into the meanings of virtual entrepreneurship. This research contributes in providing fundamental knowledge about virtual consumption and entrepreneurship and further suggests potential theoretical frameworks for future research. Implications for SVW service providers and producers and sellers of virtual goods are also identified. Another contribution of the research is to demonstrate alternative qualitative research approaches combined with quantitative analyses

An Exploratory Study of Users\u27 Purposes for Social Virtual Worlds

This study aims at investigating users’ purposes for social virtual worlds which are thriving and emerging social cyberspaces; and introducing an alternative method (i.e., a means-end approach) to analyze users’ purposes. The data from a web-based questionnaire were analyzed by a means-end approach (Olson and Reynolds, 1983) which produces users’ purpose structure consisting of individual purposes and their hierarchical relations. The results showed that people come to social virtual worlds for satisfying their social and hedonic needs and for escaping from real world constraints as do virtual community members and gaming virtual world players; they also pursue unique activities, such as creating virtual objects and selling them. On the other hand, by clarifying relations among purposes, the mean-ends approach provided a richer explanation about users’ purposes than prior research which just offers separate purposes of social cyberspace users

Consuming Bits: An Exploratory Study of User Goals for Virtual Consumption

Virtual consumption, or consumption of virtual goods and property, has become a major economic activity in social virtual worlds such as Second Life. Given that virtual consumption has become an important part of everyday virtual life in social virtual worlds, understanding virtual consumption can be an essential aspect to understanding user behavior in those worlds. Despite its significance, little research has explicitly examined virtual consumption. Unsurprisingly, then, we know very little concerning the fundamental question of why users consume virtual property. The research study described in this paper is an initial examination of that question. For the study, we employed the laddering interview technique and means-end chain analysis, which produces users’ goal structure in reference to a hierarchical system of interrelated goals. 93 participants were interviewed in Second Life for the study. The results show that virtual consumption widely penetrates into virtual life and make virtual experience much richer

Conducting Social Cognition Research in IS: A Methodology for Eliciting and Analyzing Social Representations

This paper presents a methodology for socio-cognitive research based on the theory of social representations. Elements of the methodology include:1) data elicitation through free word association; 2) content analysis/coding to identify key concepts in the social representation; 3) analysis of the structure of the representation using analysis of similarity and core/periphery analysis; 4) correspondence analysis to place the concepts on a perceptual space; and 5) interpretation of the social representation. The methodology is demonstrated in use through a study examining early sense-making about electronic health records (EHRs). Analysis of qualitative survey data from 190 students identified 22 concepts forming the social representation. Merits of the methodology are discussed, including its potential value for investigations based on technology frames of reference (TFR), the social construction of technology (SCOT) and organizing visions for IT innovations

An Investigation in to Virtual World Adoption

Virtual worlds are emerging in importance as more multinational firms are investing heavily in these emerging communities. Although much excitement has been built up around the idea of virtual worlds, a gap exists between those who sign up and those who engage in the virtual world. Our analysis of the gap between those who initiate an action and have signed up to join a virtual world and those who follow through and ultimately engage the community on a regular basis derives from a lack of adoption. Through the use of a subject matter expert study, we identified 35 factors to explain adoption, which then explain through the use of seven psychological theories. After discussing and integrating these seven factors, we test our model through a test of 223 new users of Second Life. The results from our empirical test of these seven theories are presented, and we conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of understanding virtual world adoption

Medios de Comunicación en Internet móvil: La televisión como modelo aún pendiente de éxito

La televisión en el móvil no ha acabado de arrancar comercialmente en la mayor parte de los países europeos. No existe una única razón que explique esta situación. Antes bien, cabe referirse a un conjunto de causas complejas (e interrelacionadas). En el lado de la oferta, deben analizarse aspectos técnicos (infraestructuras, estándares), económicos (modelos de negocio, disponibilidad de contenido) y normativos. En el lado de la demanda, es necesario investigar cuál es la utilidad que el servicio realmente (y no teóricamente) ofrece al consumidor y las circunstancias en que lo usaría. El estudio de todos estos factores es el objetivo de este artículo. Se concluye que la televisión móvil asentará su presencia en el mercado sólo si se sortean algunos de los obstáculos descritos, se pone el foco en el posible usuario (y no en el producto) y se cuenta con cierto apoyo institucional

What a smartphone is to me: Understanding user values in using smartphones

The objective of this study is twofold. First, it aims to investigate the various values users achieve with smartphones, which is a form of user-empowering information technology (IT). The other objective is to introduce a means-end chain approach into IT-user studies. An important attraction of smartphones is their personalized environment, which is mainly provided by varied applications. The user personalization ability implies that users achieve diverse benefits with smartphones; that is, users decide what a smartphone is to them rather than adopt a given product. Thus, investigating what values users pursue with a smartphone (i.e. a value-oriented approach) will give insights into understanding the users. To investigate user values in using smartphones, we conducted a laddering interview with 54 smartphone users and analyzed the data by using a means-end chain approach to understand consumers' hierarchical value structure. This study contributes to value-oriented research on user-empowering IT by revelling how users benefit from smartphones. Furthermore, the study advances value-oriented research by showing what users actually do with smartphones, from concrete activities to abstract values. In addition, a means-end chain approach introduced in the study can be another angle for the investigation of user adoption of technology, in that it can describe IT use contexts and practices, which become an important object of analysis in the information systems research.close0