An Empirical Study on the Measurement Model of Virtual World Lifestyles
Qiang Ye · Journal of Management Sciences · 2009
Recently,virtual world such as Second Life has attracted serious attention of organizations for its potential business opportunities and tremendous impact on Internet applications.Research in this field,however,is still in its infancy.Currently there is lack of understanding on virtual residents' behaviors in the virtual world.Rigorous research methodologies and reliable instruments are expected to guide future research as well.Based on the research of consumer lifestyle and Internet consumer lifestyle,a new construct named Virtual World Lifestyle and its measurement scale are proposed in this study.A special survey methodology in the streets of virtual world was conducted in Second Life in order to develop and validate the proposed measurement scale.By exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis,four dimensions of the construct are identified as personality satisfaction,dyadic communication,social involvement and virtual experience.The established measurement scale can be used to describe users' behavior,interest,values and attitudes in virtual world.This study contributes to the knowledge community by providing an instrument for future research on virtual world residents' lifestyles as well as validating the availability of the proposed survey methodology in virtual world.