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These relatively novel environments with such robust economic potential are particularly interesting for marketers, given their massive user pool, and their associated ability to offer new insights into consumer identities and characteristics. By the same time, the virtual goods market was anticipated to reach 2.1 billion USD. Īmong the numerous Internet applications, online virtual worlds, such as Second Life or World of Warcraft, have managed to build up a substantial client base over recent years, with current estimates placing the total number of registered virtual world accounts at 1.4 billion as of 2011. Should individuals' reasons for their Internet presence be associated with entertainment, research, and / or social encounters, online environments offer organizations with new opportunities to understand their consumers, reaching beyond the more traditional theories based on marketing and economics, which alone may no longer be sufficient to predict consumer behavior in online environments. According to a recent report, the number of Worldwide Internet users reached nearly 2.3 billion by the end of 2011. On the other hand, the continuous increase in Internet penetration trends around the Globe makes the already critical influence inherent in these applications even more prevalent. On the one hand, Internet-based innovative technologies, such as Facebook, YouTube or Twitter, changed the traditional relationship between individual users and computer mediated contents, with mass customization and one-to-one marketing opening new doors for self-expression. Recent Web-based innovations and technological applications provide consumers with a variety of novel ways to express their preferences, continuously challenging marketers to re-think and adapt their approach. Keywords: Second life, Virtual identity, Virtual worlds, Virtual consumption, Online consumer behavior
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Further implications for organizations and scholars are discussed.
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The business approaches most likely identified to lead to success or failure associated with certain businesses confirm that online environments differ substantially from physical and real world markets, with trust being a particularly sensitive issue in these anonym and fully disembodied contexts.
SECOND LIFE FORUMS HOW TO PUT IMAGE PROFESSIONAL
In terms of business activities, residents appeared quite demanding, identifying high quality products and professional services as the basis for business success in virtual settings. We highlight particular characteristics associated with each of these clusters, with suggestions aiming to capture the various demands and preferences of each corresponding group. From our results, three distinct categories emerged on the basis of residents' immersion to Second Life 1) purely virtual, 2) mixed, and 3) realist. Qualitative narrative research analysis was employed. Information was obtained from comments posted on four Second Life forums, focusing on the general themes of virtual avatars, aspects of business activities, and their mutual impact on each other. More specifically, we investigate the tendency to link the virtual world to reality through the concept of identity, and explore the role consumption and business endeavors play in this process. This paper is available online at Virtual Customers behind Avatars: The Relationship between Virtual Identity and Virtual Consumption in Second LifeĬentral European University, Business School, Budapest, Hungary, 1 2 paper examines the relationship between virtual identity and virtual consumption in Second Life. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research