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Research Note—Can’t Buy Me Love…Or Can I? Social Capital Attainment Through Conspicuous Consumption in Virtual Environments

Author

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  • Oliver Hinz

    (Faculty of Law and Business, TU Darmstadt, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany)

  • Martin Spann

    (Munich School of Management, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, 80539 Munich, Germany)

  • Il-Horn Hann

    (Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742)

Abstract

Conspicuous consumption affects anyone who cares about social status; it has intrigued sociologists and economists for more than 100 years. The idea that conspicuous consumption can increase social status, as a form of social capital, has been broadly accepted, yet researchers have not been able to test this effect empirically. In this work, we provide empirical evidence by analyzing the digital footprints of purchases and social interactions in different virtual worlds. We use a multimethod approach, such that we both analyze transactional data and conduct a randomized field experiment. Virtual worlds, as artificial laboratories, offer the opportunity to analyze the social capital of their inhabitants, subsequent to their purchase of virtual prestige goods, which provides a means to empirically test hypotheses that would be nearly impossible to test in real-world settings. Our results are consistent with the notion that conspicuous consumption represents an investment in social capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Oliver Hinz & Martin Spann & Il-Horn Hann, 2015. "Research Note—Can’t Buy Me Love…Or Can I? Social Capital Attainment Through Conspicuous Consumption in Virtual Environments," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(4), pages 859-870, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:26:y:2015:i:4:p:859-870
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.2015.0596
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sebastian Voigt & Oliver Hinz, 2017. "Assessing the economic effects of server launches in free-to-play MMO games," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(4), pages 421-464, May.
    2. Irina Heimbach & Oliver Hinz, 2018. "The Impact of Sharing Mechanism Design on Content Sharing in Online Social Networks," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 592-611, September.
    3. Che-Wei Liu & Guodong (Gordon) Gao & Ritu Agarwal, 2019. "Unraveling the “Social” in Social Norms: The Conditioning Effect of User Connectivity," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 1272-1295, April.
    4. Wil M. P. Aalst & Jörg Becker & Martin Bichler & Hans Ulrich Buhl & Jens Dibbern & Ulrich Frank & Ulrich Hasenkamp & Armin Heinzl & Oliver Hinz & Kai-Lung Hui & Matthias Jarke & Dimitris Karagiannis &, 2018. "Views on the Past, Present, and Future of Business and Information Systems Engineering," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 60(6), pages 443-477, December.
    5. Michael Weiler & Oliver Hinz, 2019. "Without each other, we have nothing: a state-of-the-art analysis on how to operationalize social capital," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 13(5), pages 1003-1035, November.
    6. Yue Yuan & Mary E. Deily & Yuliang Yao, 2022. "Willingness to Pay for Status Signals in Online Luxury Markets," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(2), pages 668-680, February.

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