Virtual Worlds: Skill, Challenge and Desire for Uniqueness and Spending Money on Intangibles

摘要

This research is aligned with the author's Dissertation titled ‘Virtual World Consumer Behavior’-2016. It tests a model which looks at the connection between Virtual Worlds (VW) user attributes and VW purchases intentions. Results of this study are aimed at improving understanding of VW users so stakeholders and engineers can improve game system attributes overall leading to VW profits. This study ties together Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Flow Theory and a new component ‘Desire for Uniqueness’ to explain how specific user attributes guide VW purchase intentions through VW shopping attitudes and subjective norms (SN). The study collects data via online surveys from volunteer VW users then analyzes the data with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with Partial Least Squares (PLS) to validate the measurement and structural model. Results show positive relationships between these user attributes to their VW shopping attitudes and VW shopping SNs which lead to positive purchase intentions. These results imply TRA, Flow Theory and Desire for Uniqueness can explain VW consumer behavior through some specific user attributes; scales from previous studies are adaptable to this model; and VW businesses, developers and researchers would benefit by using this knowledge to prioritize efforts by looking at specific attributes as areas of opportunity.