The electronic bulletin board: a computer-driven mass medium
Computers and the Social Sciences
Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet
Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet
Virtual Community Success: A Uses and Gratifications Perspective
HICSS '05 Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - Volume 07
Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games
Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games
3D Social Virtual Worlds: Research Issues and Challenges
IEEE Internet Computing
User acceptance of hedonic information systems
MIS Quarterly
Users and uses of the internet: The case of Singapore
International Journal of Information Management: The Journal for Information Professionals
Teenagers in social virtual worlds: Continuous use and purchasing behavior in Habbo Hotel
Computers in Human Behavior
Purchase behavior in virtual worlds: An empirical investigation in Second Life
Information and Management
Computers in Human Behavior
Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research
Attracted to or Locked In? Predicting Continuance Intention in Social Virtual World Services
Journal of Management Information Systems
Getting Real About Virtual Worlds: A Review
International Journal of Virtual Communities and Social Networking
Avatar-based Innovation Processes - Are Virtual Worlds a breeding ground for Innovations?
Proceedings of International Conference on Information Integration and Web-based Applications & Services
My avatar is pregnant! Representation of pregnancy, birth, and maternity in a virtual world
Computers in Human Behavior
International Journal of Information Management: The Journal for Information Professionals
Hi-index | 0.00 |
Emerging social virtual worlds (SVWs) are attracting attention from researchers and practitioners for the potential benefits they offer to many real-life domains such as business and education. The values of SVWs cannot be realized without a sufficient number of users; however, little research has been conducted to investigate the factors attracting people to use SVWs. The purpose of this paper is to explore individual motivations and differences in SVW uses based on the uses and gratifications paradigm and on the literature of Internet uses. Content analysis is adopted to code and categorize the responses from 188 users in Second Life (SL), one of the most popular SVWs. Results show that people use SL because of three types of motivations: functional, experiential, and social. Comparative analysis by gender, age, education, and experience using Chi-square tests suggests that (1) female users are more inclined to shopping, researching, and exploring within SL, whereas male users are more concerned with using SL for making money; (2) younger users are more likely to use SL for entertainment, while older users are more likely to use SL for creating and education; (3) users with higher education exert significantly more effort with in-world research and education than those who with lower levels of education; and (4) relative to their counterparts, experienced users are more aware of the values of SL for creating, education, and commerce. No significant inter-group difference of any experiential motivation has been found regarding education and experience. In addition, no significant individual difference has been found regarding social motivations.