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Individual motivations and demographic differences in social virtual world uses: An exploratory investigation in Second Life

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  • Zhou, Zhongyun
  • Jin, Xiao-Ling
  • Vogel, Douglas R.
  • Fang, Yulin
  • Chen, Xiaojian

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Zhongyun & Jin, Xiao-Ling & Vogel, Douglas R. & Fang, Yulin & Chen, Xiaojian, 2011. "Individual motivations and demographic differences in social virtual world uses: An exploratory investigation in Second Life," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 261-271.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ininma:v:31:y:2011:i:3:p:261-271
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2010.07.007
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mäntymäki, Matti & Merikivi, Jani & Verhagen, Tibert & Feldberg, Frans & Rajala, Risto, 2014. "Does a contextualized theory of planned behavior explain why teenagers stay in virtual worlds?," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 567-576.
    2. Mäntymäki, Matti & Riemer, Kai, 2014. "Digital natives in social virtual worlds: A multi-method study of gratifications and social influences in Habbo Hotel," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 210-220.
    3. Mäntymäki, Matti & Salo, Jari, 2013. "Purchasing behavior in social virtual worlds: An examination of Habbo Hotel," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 282-290.
    4. Laroche, Michel & Habibi, Mohammad Reza & Richard, Marie-Odile, 2013. "To be or not to be in social media: How brand loyalty is affected by social media?," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 76-82.
    5. Giang Barrera, Kevin & Shah, Denish, 2023. "Marketing in the Metaverse: Conceptual understanding, framework, and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PA).
    6. Hamari, Juho & Keronen, Lauri, 2017. "Why do people play games? A meta-analysis," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 125-141.
    7. Hamari, Juho & Hanner, Nicolai & Koivisto, Jonna, 2017. "Service quality explains why people use freemium services but not if they go premium: An empirical study in free-to-play games," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 1449-1459.
    8. Kang, Young Sik & Min, Jinyoung & Kim, Jeoungkun & Lee, Heeseok, 2013. "Roles of alternative and self-oriented perspectives in the context of the continued use of social network sites," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 496-511.

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