Understanding the Role of Sense of Presence and Perceived Autonomy in Users Continued Use of Social Virtual Worlds

Transcription

1 Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication Understanding the Role of Sense of Presence and Perceived Autonomy in Users Continued Use of Social Virtual Worlds Yoonhyuk Jung, Ph.D. School of Technology Management, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) Despite an exponentially increasing number of registered users, social virtual worlds have the problem of a high user attrition rate. It is thus meaningful to explore which factors influence users continued use of social virtual worlds. The current study attempts to find these factors in unique characteristics (e.g., 3-dimentional environment, avatar interaction, and user empowerment) in the world, which can be sources for retaining users. Specifically, the study employs the sense of presence and perceived autonomy. 194 users of Second Life, which is the largest social virtual world, participated in the survey. The findings support the argument that the sense of presence and autonomy are influential in users continued use of social virtual worlds. doi: /j x Introduction Virtual worlds (VWs), referring to computer-simulated, graphic-based virtual environments accessed by multiple users who are represented by their avatars, have dramatically grown over the last decade as supporting technologies (e.g., virtual reality, broadband) have advanced. Recently, a new type of VW that stresses social interactions and user empowerment has appeared, namely social virtual worlds (SVWs) (e.g., Second Life, Entropia Universe, There). While SVWs are similar to gaming virtual worlds (GVWs) such as World of Warcraft in that both are based on a virtual environment, particularly three-dimensional (3D) interfaces and avatar interactions, SVWs are distinctive from GVWs in that SVWs are characterized by social interaction and user empowerment. Also, GVWs are characterized by a predefined structure and quest-driven behaviors, whereas SVWs have emergent structures which are created by users under minimum constraints (Juul, 2005). SVWs offer their users an opportunity to determine their experiences in the worlds for themselves (Dreyfus, 2008), and the user empowerment enables the worlds to be filled with diverse activities such as socialization, learning, virtual business sprout, entertainment, and so on. The increased number of users reflects the popularity 492 Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association

2 of SVWs; for instance, Second Life announced that its registered users exceeded 12 million, as of February 2008 (SLOG, 2008). The amount of real-money trading in SVWs has also been increasing exponentially; for example, user-to-user trading of virtual goods was estimated at 360 million dollars in Second Life in 2008 (Linden Lab, 2009). In addition to quantitative growth of SVWs, their potential as a new marketing channel and a collaboration tool has attracted the attention of managers and researchers. Many educational organizations have already been using SVWs as a new educational tool, and corporations are training new employees in organizational culture and work processes, holding distant meetings, and operating customer service centers in SVWs (Hobson, 2007). One critical challenge facing SVWs is the high user attrition rate (Platoni, 2008). Although the fantasy of SVWs has attracted a large amount of visitors, only small numbers of users have become actual long-term users. Despite the over 12 million registered users of Second Life, the number of concurrent users is about 60,000 which corresponds just to 0.5 percent of the total registered users (SLOG, 2008). Also, it is reported that 80 percent of users drop out within 2 months of registering with Second Life, which is the largest social virtual world (Platoni, 2008). Such high user attrition may threaten the survival of the SVW in that the most important asset of social cyberspaces is the user base. Accordingly, user retention is a contemporary issue and it may be meaningful to investigate factors influencing users continual use of SVWs at the postadoption stages. Postadoption behavior has been increasingly included in research on Web users behavior (Bhattacherjee, 2001; Kim & Son, 2009). Particularly, the importance of postadoption behavior has been gradually emphasized in the current Web 2.0 age in which the web is regarded as the user participation platform. Although user adoption is regarded as one of the core research issues regarding SVWs (Guo & Barnes, 2007; Mennecke et al., 2007), there is still little empirical research about user adoption, and actually little research that explicitly deals with postadoption behavior in SVWs. This study explored SVW users postadoption behavior, specifically users continuance intention, through expectation-confirmation theory (Oliver, 1980), which has been widely used to explain Web users postadoption behavior. The study also employed theories of the sense of presence and autonomy in order to grasp the role of SVWs main characteristics, such as their 3D virtual environment, avatar interaction, and user empowerment, on the continued use of SVWs. The sense of presence is relevant to this study in that it has been broadly used in the context of virtual environment and avatar-based virtual gaming. Perceived autonomy can also be a useful viewpoint to capture an impact of user empowerment on user adoption in SVWs. The research purpose of the study is therefore to examine a role of the sense of presence and autonomy in users continued use of SVWs, and more specifically, their effects on satisfaction and continuance intention. This paper is organized as follows: In the next section, the paper conceptualizes a social virtual world because some of the readers may not be familiar with this emerging cyberspace. The paper then develops a research model based on relevant Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association 493

3 theories. The methodology is described in the third section, and the results of data analyses are presented in the fourth section. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings, the limitations and future research, and the implications of this study. Theoretical Background and Hypotheses Social virtual worlds Despite its diverse definitions, the term virtual world has been commonly used to indicate a computer-simulated persistent spatial environment supporting synchronous communication among multiple users (Holmström & Jakobsson, 2001; Jakobsson, 2006). The most important attribute of virtual worlds is a spatial metaphor. Virtual worlds offer space where avatars, which are virtual persona representing users, walk, explore, and meet others; in particular, they are an iconic symbol (e.g., avatar) that represents a user and facilitates spatial exploration. Even though some virtual worlds such as Habbo provide a 2D interface, a 3D interface can better realize a spatial metaphor. The second attribute is persistency. When a user leaves the virtual world, it will not be reset and sustained; that is, changes in the virtual world are accumulated. Thus, one kind of online game (e.g., Quake), which is sustained only during the gaming session, is excluded from the sphere of virtual worlds. The third attribute is real-time communication. Virtual worlds provide an environment that allows users to synchronously communicate and interact with one another. Accordingly, these attributes of spatial metaphor and real-time communication exclude blog-styled (e.g., MySpace) or videoclip-styled (e.g., YouTube) cyberspaces from the category of VWs. The last attribute of virtual worlds is an interaction of multiple users. Such attribute stresses human-to-human interaction and rules out a computer game based on user-to-computer interaction from the concept of virtual worlds. This concept of virtual worlds is similar with the notion of MMOGs or Massive Multiplayer Online Games, such as World of Warcraft. However, the term MMOGs has been mainly used to specify one type of VW that has a predefined theme and plot and clarifies users performances (e.g., level-ups). Although they (or GVWs) still occupy the majority of VWs, the other distinctive VWs where users create their virtual experiences for themselves and participate in diverse social interaction have exponentially increased. In the present study, these types of VWs are called social virtual worlds (SVWs) and are differentiated from gaming virtual worlds (GVWs). SVWs can ultimately be thought of as an avatar-based 3D virtual environment where users create their virtual experience by themselves. Expectation-confirmation theory In the consumer behavior literature, consumer satisfaction and repurchase behavior have been successfully explained by expectation-confirmation theory (ECT) (Oliver, 1993). The key concept of ECT is satisfaction because satisfaction is considered central to locking in consumers. Satisfaction is affected by consumers cognitive evaluation of the difference between expectation and performance. The consumer s expectation 494 Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association

4 is confirmed when they perceive the performance of the product or service to be as expected. In short, ECT holds that consumers intention to repurchase a product or service is determined by their satisfaction with the product or service, which is affected by the gap between consumers initial expectation and postevaluation (i.e., perceived performance). Acquiring new customers is much more expensive than retaining existing ones, and thus, consumers continual usage or retention is critical for firms to acquire a stable consumer base and maximize long-term profits (Parthasarathy & Bhattacherjee, 1998). Because the switching cost from one retailer or service provider to another is low on the web, customers (or web users ) continual usage is particularly important for business-to-commerce firms or web service providers. Recently, researchers have developed and extended information systems (IS) continuance models based on Bhattacherjee s (2001) expectation-confirmation model, and have empirically tested the model in the IS context. ECT posits that users satisfaction leads to a revisit or IS continuance intention, and a large amount of studies have empirically demonstrated that IS continuance intention is affected by users satisfaction in diverse IS environments, such as Web portals (Lin et al., 2005), e-learning (Roca et al., 2006), and mobile internet services (Thong et al., 2006). Prior argument and evidence can be also applied to the context of SVWs. This paper defines satisfaction as favorable feelings toward experience in a SVW. Users, who are more satisfied with their virtual life in a SVW, are more likely to continue to use the SVW. Therefore, the following hypothesis is developed: H1: A user s satisfaction with experience in SVWs will be positively related to the user s continuance intention. According to ECT, satisfaction is affected by the degree to which users confirm their initial expectation. We assume that users expectation for SVWs is led by unique characteristics of SVWs which differentiate them from other Web services. One of the reasons why users use a specific information technology rather than others is that it offers unique benefits that others do not provide (Rogers, 1983). In other words, if users expect the same merits from SVWs as other Web services, they will not come to SVWs. Thus, unique characteristics of SVWs can be the main sources of users expectation. As conceptualized in advance, SVWs are characterized by a 3D virtual environment, avatar interaction, and user empowerment. This study employs theories of the sense of presence and autonomy to examine the role of these features in users postadoption of SVWs. Sense of presence The sense of presence, indicating the perceptual illusion of nonmediation (Lombard & Ditton, 1997), has been known as a significant factor in understanding users behavioral intention in 3D virtual reality applications, avatar-based virtual gaming, and the web environment (Biocca, 1997; Venkatesh & Johson, 2002). The sense of presence is a particularly relevant concept to SVWs because SVWs provide mainly a Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association 495

5 3D interface and an avatar system which can enhance users sense of presence. Among diverse types of presence, telepresence, defined as the sense of being there (Steuer, 1992), and social presence, defined as the sense of being together with someone, are prominent in prior presence studies (Lee & Nass, 2003). Thus, following the two-type presence convention, this study examined roles of both telepresence and social presence in users satisfaction and continuance intention to use a SVW. Specifically, telepresence is relevant to this study in that it has been extensively used to help understand an individuals attitude or behavior in a computer-mediated environment; social presence is also pertinent to this study in that it may be influential on users behavior in a situation where human-to-human interactions are prominent. Telepresence Telepresence refers to the awareness of being physically located somewhere, or being there in the mediated environment (Steuer, 1992). For example, when one watches a science fiction movie or explores a prehistory battlefield in Dungeons and Dragons, one may feel a realistic artificial situation as if one exists there. It has been demonstrated that telepresence significantly affects users behaviors or attitudes in virtual reality applications and the Web context. Prior literature reveals that telepresence induces users diverse attitudinal or behavioral outcomes in virtual reality applications and web environments. For example, Hoffman and Novak (1996) maintain that telepresence affects web users attitude or performance, mediated by psychological flow; Suh and Lee (2005) reveal that telepresence enhances consumer learning in online shopping; and Li et al. (2002) show that the greater telepresence customers experience, the more favorable attitude toward online advertisements they have. Prior findings suggest that a higher telepresence experience in a SVW leads to more favorable feelings (satisfaction) toward the SVW and further makes users come back to it in the future. Also, considering that users main purposes include immersion in virtual environments (Bartle, 2003; Yee, 2006), telepresence, which is regarded as one dimension of immersion (Novak et al., 2000), may be a critical factor that influences users satisfaction and a motivation for users continued use of a SVW by meeting the purpose. Therefore, this study hypothesizes: H2: A user s telepresence will positively affect the user s satisfaction with a SVW. H3: A user s telepresence will positively affect the user s continuance intention to use a SVW. Social presence Social presence is defined as the degree to which a user feels personal connection with others (Fulk et al., 1990). In computer-mediated communication, users satisfaction or performance largely depends on the quality of users perception of connection with others (Biocca et al., 2003), and thus it has frequently appeared in studies on web user behavior. Social presence has been empirically demonstrated to affect users behavior in various web contexts. It is reported that social presence has a significant role of an antecedent of perceptual variables, such as perceived usefulness (Karahanna & 496 Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association

6 Straub, 1999), trust (Gefen & Straub, 2004), and intrinsic motivation (Shen & Khalifa, 2008), which in turn influence individuals attitudinal variables. Also, prior research shows that social presence directly affects users behavior, for example an influence on consumers involvement (Fortin & Dholakia, 2005) in online advertisement, users satisfaction (Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997) in teleconferencing, and members actual participation in a virtual community (Shen & Khalifa, 2008). In the context of SVWs, considering that SVWs are social in nature, social presence can be considered a crucial factor which significantly affects users behavior in SVWs. The lack of social cues may make users feel that the environment is cold, and ultimately this experience has an extremely negative impact on users satisfaction. Furthermore, a weak social presence experience may hamper their future return to a SVW by making users think that their social needs are not achieved. This study thus assumes that users social presence affects users satisfaction and continuance intention to use a SVW. H4: A user s social presence will positively affect the user s satisfaction with a SVW. H5: A user s social presence will positively affect the user s continuance intention to use a SVW. Perceived autonomy According to the self-determination theory, which is a general theory of human motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985), autonomy indicates the human need to actively engage in determining one s own behavior (Deci & Ryan, 2002). Thus, perceived autonomy is defined as the degree to which an individual perceives his or her actions as a result of his or her own free will, without external interference in a certain situation. When individuals believe their choices depend fully on their autonomous decision, they feel psychologically free and are intrinsically motivated (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Therefore, an environment that encourages autonomy increases intrinsic motivation and leads to continuance intention. Thompson and Wankel (1980) demonstrated that giving an employee a choice of tasks facilitates an intention to continue to work, and Gajendran and Harrison (2007) show that telecommuting increases employees perception of autonomy, which, in turn, enhances their job performance. Perceived autonomy has been also regarded as an important factor to explain individuals creativity (Sheldon, 1995), individuals well-being (Sheldon et al., 1996), and students learning intention in an educational setting (Hardre & Reeve, 2003). Ryan et al. (2006) provide empirical evidence that video gamers perceived autonomy affects their continuance intention to play games. However, GVW users can play only within predefined plots that GVWs offer, whereas SVW users can have a variety of activities including entertainment, social networking, economic activities, and creating virtual objects. Accordingly, perceived autonomy could be more influential in users adoption of SVWs. What a SVW means to a user is determined by the user choices. This behavioral openness implies that the perception of autonomy may vary greatly according to the user s experiences or choices in a Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association 497

7 SVW. A person who feels he has greater autonomy has a more favorable feeling and is motivated to do an action (Deci & Ryan, 1985), and thus users perception of autonomy can have an impact on their adoption of a SVW. Contrarily, despite the unlimited freedom given, users perceptions that they can do few things in a SVW could make them unsatisfied in their virtual life and tremendously diminish their intention to reside in a SVW. H6: A user s perception of autonomy will positively affect the user s satisfaction with a SVW. H7: A user s perception of autonomy will positively affect the user s continuance intention to use a SVW. People s belief about their autonomy is rooted partly in the feedback of the social environment (Abeles, 1991; Skinner, 1995). When individuals interact with the social environment, they expect feedbacks to their inputs. If they believe that they have enough feedbacks to their behavior from the environment, then they may have perceived autonomy (Bandura, 1977). Given that other people are an important part of the social environment, feedback quality from others may significantly affect perceived autonomy. Particularly, in computer-mediated communications, voices without echoes may dramatically deteriorate perceived autonomy. However, if users communicate with others through more visible social cues (e.g., avatar s appearances or motions), they may believe that they get more feedbacks and then feel a higher perception of autonomy. Thus, this study hypothesizes: H8: A user s social presence will positively affect the user s perceived autonomy in a SVW. Methodology Data collection The target SVW for this study was Second Life ( which is the largest SVW. Second Life is equipped with an advanced 3D interface and avatar Telepresence H2 H3 Social presence H8 H4 H5 H7 Continuance intention Perceived autonomy H6 Satisfaction H1 Figure 1 The research model 498 Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association

8 Table 1 Demographics of participants Frequency Percent Gender Male Female No answer Age or older No answer Logging time (hours per week) 4 or less than to to to or more than No answer system. It provides users with a personal avatar which represents them, and can elaborate a personal avatar s face, hair, and body and put it into clothing. A user can create 3D objects (e.g., chair, building, waterfall) using basic prims (e.g., squares, triangles, cubes) and chunks of code called script, and perform virtual tasks with them or sell them to other members. By controlling a personal avatar, members can enjoy synchronous chatting at the park or on the beach, dancing at night club, or taking a class somewhere else in the world. 194 Second Life users completed the survey. Over the course of 2 weeks, the researcher solicited Second Life users to participate in our web-based survey in various popular locations in Second Life, such as shopping malls, beaches, amusement parks, university campuses. The researcher introduced the survey to logged-in Second Life users and participants clicked the box that the researcher s avatar was holding. Then they were connected to the website for the survey. Each participant was rewarded with 200 Linden dollars, virtual currency in the world, which equals approximately one U.S. dollar. The subjects were heterogeneous in demographics (see Table 1). Measurement and pilot study All measurement items for the constructs were based on previously validated instruments (see Table 2). The items were answered on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = stronglydisagreeto 7 = strongly agree) except for vividness. In order to measure telepresence, this paper employed Kim and Biocca s (1997) instrument, which has been widely used in measuring telepresence. The paper depended on Short et al. s (1976) instrument in measuring social presence. This instrument has also been validated in diverse contexts. The measurement items of perceived autonomy are Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association 499

9 Table 2 Questionnaire items Construct Item Factor loading Source Telepresence Social presence Perceived autonomy Satisfaction Continuance intention TP1: I forgot about my immediate surroundingswheniwasonsecond Life. TP2: Using Second Life often made me forget where I was. TP3: After using Second Life, Ifelt like I came back to the real world after a journey. While usingsecond Life, my feeling was: SP1: Personal SP2: Warm SP3: Close SP4: Humanizing PA1: While I was in Second Life, I could choose freely what I wanted to do. PA2:IfeltthatIhadalotofcontrol over my visiting experiences in Second Life. PA3: While doing Second Life, my actions decided the kind of experiences I got. SA1: Using Second Life makes me feel very satisfied. SA2: Using Second Life makes me feel very pleased. SA3: I am content with Second Life. CI1: If I could, I would like to use Second Life in the future. CI2: I intend to continue using Second Life in the future. CI3: I expect my use of Second Life to continue in the future Kim & Biocca (1997) Short et al. (1976) Sheldon et al. (1996) Bhattacherjee (2001) Bhattacherjee (2001) derived from Sheldon et al. s (1996) self-determination scale. Their scale was modified to match the SVW context. The items for satisfaction and continuance intention came from Bhattacherjee (2001). In the pilot study, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis and inspected Cronbach s alpha values with 92 subjects. The results of the factor analysis specified six factors and Cronbach s alpha values of all constructs exceeded the cutoff (.70) 500 Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association

10 (Hair et al., 2006). Based on the results of the pilot study, we decided to use all constructs in the actual survey. Data Analysis and Results This study used structural equation modeling (SEM) as the data analysis method. SEM has been comprehensively applied in studies on an individual s technology acceptance (Gefen et al., 2003). The study used AMOS 7.0, which is the latest as well as the easiest software to operate for SEM. A two-stage model-building process (i.e., the measurement model and the structural model) was used for SEM analysis. The measurement model was analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to verify convergent and discriminant validity of constructs, and the structural model was examined with the research model. Confirmatory factor analysis As seen in Table 3, all fit indices of the measurement model were above or below the recommended thresholds, indicating an acceptable fit of the model to the data: χ 2 /d.f. = 1.58, the comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.98, the goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = 0.92, the adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI) = 0.88, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.06, and the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) = The measurement model was further examined by assessing convergent and discriminant validity of constructs. Convergent validity was assessed by comparing the factor loadings of the items. The loadings ranged from 0.63 and 0.95 (see Table 2), and thus all the loadings exceeded the recommended cutoff value of 0.60 (Chin et al., 1997), demonstrating sound convergent validity. In order to assess discriminant validity, the study examined the correlations of constructs (see Table 4). If a pair of constructs has high correlation (>0.90), then multicollinearity may exist (Hair et al., 2006). No correlation exists between constructs exceeding the recommended threshold; therefore, discriminant validity was established. The examination Table 3 Model fit indices of the structural model Index Measurement model Structural model Recommended Reference χ 2 /df <3.00 Bagozzi and Yi (1988) CFI >0.90 Hu and Bentler (1999) GFI >0.90 Hu and Bentler (1999) AGFI >0.80 Hu and Bentler (1999) RMSEA <0.06 Hu and Bentler (1999) TLI >0.90 Hair et al. (2006) Note. CFI = the comparative fit index, GFI = the goodness-of-fit index, AGFI = the adjusted goodness-of-fit index, RMSEA = the root mean square error of approximation, TLI = the Tucker-Lewis Index. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association 501

11 Table 4 Descriptive statistics and discriminant validity Correlation Mean SD CR AVE TP SP PA SA CI Telepresence Social presence Perceived autonomy Satisfaction Continuance intention Note. SD = Standard deviation; CR = Composite reliability; AVE = Average variance extracted; TP = Telepresence; SP = Social presence; PA = Perceived autonomy; SA = Satisfaction; CI = Continuance intention. Diagonal elements represent the square roots of the AVE; off-diagonal elements are the correlation estimates. of the average variance extracted (AVE) supported the results of testing convergent and discriminant validity. For convergent validity, the AVE should be greater than.50 (Hair et al., 2006). To confirm discriminant validity, the AVE of a construct should be greater than the square of the correlation estimates with the other constructs (Fomell & Larcker, 1981). As shown in Table 4, our AVE values satisfied these requirements. Finally, construct reliability was assessed by examining the composite reliabilities. All the composite reliabilities of constructs were greater than the recommended cutoff value of 0.60 (Hair et al., 2006), indicating measurement reliability for constructs. The structural model The model fit indices of the structural model show that the research model is acceptable (see Table 3). The χ 2 of with 96 degrees of freedom revealed that a χ 2 to degree of freedom ratio (1.67) was less than the recommended cutoff (<3.00). CFI of 0.97, GFI of 0.91, AGFI of 0.87, RMSEA of.06, and TLI of 0.96 also met benchmarks. The model explains 24 percent of variance in perceived autonomy, 27 percent of the variance in satisfaction, and 39 percent of the variance in continuance intention. All paths were significant for a p-value level of 0.05 or 0.01, except two paths (social presence continuance intention, perceived autonomy continuance intention). Both telepresence and social presence have significant effects on satisfaction, and also perceived autonomy positively affects satisfaction. The results show that only telepresence has a weak effect on continuance intention and the other two constructs have no effect on continuance intention. Social presence significantly affects perceived autonomy, and finally, satisfaction has a significant effect on continuance intention. Common method variance Because the data were collected by a self-reporting questionnaire during the same period of time, common method variance (CMV), which is attributed to the 502 Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association

12 Telepresence 0.16* Social presence 0.49** 0.28** 0.26** n.s. n.s. Continuance intention (R 2 = 43%) Perceived autonomy (R 2 = 24%) 0.45** Satisfaction (R 2 = 47%) 0.46*** * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01 n.s = no significance Figure 2 Results of data analysis measurement method rather than the constructs of interest, may exist in the results (Podsakoff et al., 2003). This study checked the threat of CMV by using Harman s one-factor test which states that CMV may exist when a single factor accounts for a majority of covariance among variables in an exploratory factor analysis. In the factor analysis of this study, there was no single factor explaining a majority of the covariance. The five factors together accounted for 84 percent of the total variance; the first (largest) factor did not account for a majority of the variance (19%). The result of the factor analysis suggests that CMV is not of great concern in the study. Discussion Key findings This study proposed that the sense of presence and the perception of autonomy are important factors for understanding users postadoption behavior of a SVW, which is regarded as a novel and noticeable virtual space. The results show the significant impacts of two types of presence (telepresence and social presence) and the perception of autonomy on users continued use of a SVW, and users satisfaction in particular. This finding suggests that SL users expect these three types of experiences (telepresence, social presence, and autonomy), which are based on the main attributes of SVWs, and feel satisfaction by confirming the expectation in their virtual life. Telepresence has a weak influence on continuance intention (0.16, p-value = 0.05), and even social presence and perceived autonomy have no significant effect on continuance intention, (i.e., H 5 and H 7 were not supported). The results indicate that these three constructs may not be significant antecedents to continuance intention, and their effect on continuance intention is mediated by satisfaction. An additional finding is that the results confirm a central tenet of ECT that satisfaction with IS use is an important predictor of users continuance intention. On the whole, this study contributes to research on SVW users behavior by providing meaningful constructs in understanding postadoption behavior. The specific findings are as follows: Most of all, perceived autonomy has a key role in the research model. It has the greatest effect on satisfaction. SVWs endow users with the ability to personalize their Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association 503

13 virtual experiences, which induce various interactions under minimum constraints. In result, SVWs nature of minimum rules leads to members great behavioral diversity (Juul, 2005). Furthermore, as many SVWs support in-world virtual markets and allow users to create virtual objects, users behaviors are extended to economic activities, that is, production and real-money trade of virtual property in a SVW. This finding indicates that SVW service providers can keep their users satisfied by offering better environments for users empowerment. The finding can be applied to a wide range of cyberspaces. Users participation is a prominent phenomenon of the future of cyberspace, and thus users perception of the extent to which a cyberspace operator provides them with behavioral options, is critical for the success of the cyberspace. Accordingly, perceived autonomy is recommended to be included in the investigation of users adoption of social or participatory cyberspaces. Second, we found that telepresence had a significant effect on users satisfaction. This finding indicates that users may implicitly expect the being-there feeling (i.e., telepresence), which can be considered a cognitive benefit from the use of an advanced 3D virtual environment, and their satisfaction is affected by the degree to which they have telepresence in a SVW. Despite the weak influence of telepresence on continuance intention, we also found a connection between them. A plausible explanation is that users come to SL for immersion (or telepresence) and achieving this goal encourages users to return. Third, we demonstrated that social presence is a significant predictor of satisfaction. Users come to a SVW for socialization which is regarded as one of fundamental purposes for social cyberspaces (Ridings & Gefen, 2004). In a SVW, socialization can be facilitated by manifest social cues (i.e., high-level social presence), which are achieved in a SVW. Thus, social presence serves users desire for socialization, and ultimately affects their satisfaction with a SVW. On the other hand, the findings show that social presence has no impact on continuance intention. Prior studies employing social presence have contradictory results. While some research has found no direct link between social presence and behavioral intention (Hassanein & Head, ), others demonstrate the significant impact of social presence on users actual participation in virtual communities (Shen & Khalifa, 2008). The contradictory results imply that the effect of social presence on users intention may need to be differently defined according to contexts. Our results show that the effect is mediated by satisfaction in the context of SVWs. Social presence is also crucial in forming perceived autonomy in a SVW. This connection indicates that the perception of autonomy is affected by the quality of social interactions (i.e., feedbacks from others) beyond behavioral autonomy per se (i.e., behavioral options that a user has). Therefore, perceived autonomy can be enhanced by facilitating communications among users. Lastly, three constructs (i.e., telepresence, social presence, and perceived autonomy) that are deeply related to the main attributes of a SVW jointly explain a large amount of the variance of satisfaction (47 percent). This consequence reveals an importance of factors that reflect characteristics of a SVW. Users expectation for a 504 Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association

14 SVW is primarily based on unique characteristics of the service, and when users experience confirms the expectation, they are satisfied with the service. Thus researchers, who try to examine their postadoption model in a SVW, are recommended to consider factors that reflect characteristics of the service, such as telepresence, social presence, and perceived autonomy. This finding can be applied to other Web services with environments that are analogous to those in a SVW (i.e., 3D interface and user empowerment), and thus the research model can be extended to the contexts of similar Web services. Limitations and future research This study has a few limitations. The first limitation is sampling. Our samples may be biased in that we recruited participants during 2 weeks, and so the majority of the participants were users who frequently log into Second Life. However, because over 80 percent of users drop out within 2 months of registering (Platoni, 2008), it was difficult to include those transient or dormant users in our samples. The other potential bias with our data is that because the participants voluntarily responded to the survey, our results may be biased towards highly motivated users. Accordingly, the study has a limitation in fully generalizing the findings. The second limitation is that we dealt with a single SVW, namely Second Life. Therefore, the findings have a limitation of generalizability for other SVWs. Future research is recommended to apply the research model in other SVWs or social cyberspaces and compare them. Third, because we concentrated on the effect of the sense of presence and autonomy, which stem from the main characteristics of a SVW, other meaningful factors were excluded. Although continuance intention was well explained by the predictors (43% of the variance of continuance intention) in our study, there is still room to adopt more significant factors. Future research may extend the research model of the study by incorporating other social variables (e.g., the sense of virtual community, social influence), intrinsic factors (e.g., perceived playfulness), and a technological aspect (e.g., ease of use). Fourth, we used only continuance intention. There may be other postadoption behaviors, such as willingness to pay for virtual property, willingness to recommend others to use a SVW, or willingness to produce virtual objects. Future research needs to consider diverse postadoption behaviors. Lastly, we did not control variance caused by language. Second Life is a worldwide social cyberspace and the users come from various countries. Thus, the English questionnaire may have a limitation for covering variance caused by language. Future studies dealing with worldwide social cyberspaces need to consider this matter. For remedying variance caused by language, researchers may create multi-version questionnaires targeted to people who speak other languages. Contributions This study also provides several theoretical contributions. The most important contribution of the study is a topical novelty. A SVW as a prospective cyberspace has attracted business mangers, educational practitioners, and researchers. However, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association 505

15 despite vested interests, people do not know much about SVWs because they are emerging cyberspaces. An empirical investigation of SVWs thus can be considered a research priority. Another contribution of the study is that by exploring users postadoption behavior, the study responded to a current research call for how to retain users. As empirically validating vital roles of the sense of presence and perceived autonomy, the study contributes to a better understanding of user postadoption behavior in a SVW. Furthermore, the study shows an applicability of the research model on users postadoption of diverse social cyberspaces that support a 3D virtual environment and a user-participatory platform. Especially, perceived autonomy has been rarely examined in user adoption research, and this study demonstrated its significant role in user adoption in a user-participatory platform. Perceived autonomy thus can be used for future user adoption research. Finally, the study makes a contribution on the generalizability of the sense of presence in the Web environment. Even though sense of presence has been examined in various Web contexts, few studies employing it deal with social cyberspaces, which represent a large portion of the Web. The study demonstrates that sense of presence is applicable in social cyberspaces. The current study also has practical implications. Despite the quantitative growth, many social cyberspaces have disappeared or have been characterized as gloomy landscapes because of their failure to retain users. Although users long-term and strong involvement in social cyberspaces is an essential factor for their survival, prior literature shows the reality of a thin user base of social cyberspaces (Adar & Huberman, 2000; Mockus et al., 2002). Recently, the topic of users participation has attracted even more attention by researchers and practitioners because user-created content is regarded as a core in the future of the Web. This study informs service providers of important factors (i.e., the sense of presence and of autonomy) that can bind users in social cyberspaces. The factors are based on the main characteristics of a SVW, and thus service providers need to reconsider why users come to use their cyberspaces and what characteristics of their cyberspaces meet users demands. Further, this study suggests that service providers put effort into developing a presence and autonomy-enhanced environment that includes, for example, a well-controllable avatar system, an advanced self editing tool for avatars, varied behavioral options including virtual economic activities, policy of the minimum intervene rule, etc. References Abeles, R. (1991). Sense of control, quality of life, and frail older people. In: J. Birren, J. Lubben, J. Rowe, & D. Deutschman (Ed.), The concept and measure of quality of life in the frail elderly (pp ). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Adar, E., & Huberman, B. A. (2000). Free riding on Gnutella. First Monday 5. Retrieved January 20, 2009, from Bagozzi, R. P., & Yi, Y. (1988). On the evaluation of structural equation models. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 16, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association

16 Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unified theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, Bartle, R. (2003).Designing virtual worlds. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders Press. Bhattacherjee, A. (2001). An empirical analysis of the antecedents of electronic commerce service continuance. Decision Support Systems, 32, Biocca, F. (1997). Cyborg s dilemma: Progressive embodiment in virtual environments. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication,3. Biocca, F., Harms, C., & Burgoon, J. K. (2003). Towards a more robust theory and measure of social presence: Review and suggested criteria. Presence, 12, Chin, W. W., Gopal, A., & Salisbury, W. D. (1997). Advancing the theory of adaptive structuration: The development of a scale to measure faithfulness of appropriation. Information Systems Research, 8, Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2002). Handbook of self-determination research. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press. Dreyfus, H. L. (2008, March/April). Faking it. California magazine, Fomell, C. D., & Larcker, F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement errors. Journal of Marketing Research,18, Fortin, D. R., & Dholakia, R. R. (2005). Interactivity and vividness effects on social presence and involvement with a Web-based advertisement. Journal of Business Research,58, Fulk, J., Schemitz, J., & Steinfield, C. (1990). A social influence model of technology use. In: J. Fulk & C. Steinfield (Ed.), Organizations and communication technology (pp ), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Gajendran, R. S., & Harrison, D. A. (2007). The good, the bad, and the unknown about telecommuting: Meta-analysis of psychological mediators and individual consequences. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, Gefen, D., & Straub, D. W. (2004). Consumer trust in B2C e-commerce and the importance of social presence: Experiments in e-products and e-services. Omega, 32, Gefen, D., Karahanna, E., & Straub, D. W. (2003). Trust and TAM in online shopping: An integrated model. MIS Quarterly, 27, Gunawardena, C. N., & Zittle, F. J. (1997). Social presence as a predictor of satisfaction within a computer-mediated conferencing environment. The American Journal of Distance Education, 11, Guo, Y., & Barnes, S. (2007). Why people buy virtual items in virtual worlds with real money. The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, 38, Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., & Tatham, R. L. (2006). Multivariate Data Analysis (sixth ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Hardre, P. L., & Reeve, J. (2003). A motivational model of rural students intentions to persist in, versus drop out of, high school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, Hassanein, K., & Head, M. (2005 6). The impact of infusing social presence in the Web interface: An investigation across product types. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 10, Hobson, N. (2007). Should businesses get a Second Life. Knowledge Management Review, 10, 5. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association 507

17 Hoffman, D. L., & Novak, T. P. (1996). Marketing in hypermedia computer-mediated environments: Conceptual foundations. Journal of Marketing, 60, Holmström, H., & Jakobsson, M. (2001). Using models in virtual world design. In Proceedings of Forty-one Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-41). Hu, L., & Bentler, P. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, Jakobsson, M. (2006). Virtual worlds and social interaction design. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, UmeåUniversity. Juul, J. (2005). Half-real: Video games between real and factional worlds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Karahanna, E., & Straub, D. W. (1999). The psychological origins of perceived usefulness and ease-of-use. Information & Management, 35, Kim, S. S., & Son, J-Y (2009). Out of dedication or constraint? A dual model of post-adoption phenomena and its empirical test in the context of online services. MIS Quarterly, 33, Kim, T., & Biocca, F. (1997). Telepresence via television: Two dimensions of telepresence may have different connections to memory and persuasion. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication,3. Lee, K., & Nass, C. (2003). Designing social presence of social actors in human computer interaction. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) (pp ). New York: ACM. Li, H., Daugherty, T., & Biocca, F. (2002). Impact of 3D advertising on product knowledge, brand attitude, and purchase intention: The mediating role of presence. Journal of Advertising, 31, Lin, C. S., Wu, S., & Tsai, R. J. (2005). Integrating perceived playfulness into expectation-confirmation model for web portal context. Information & Management, 42, Linden Lab (2009, January 20). Linden Lab goes shopping, buys virtual goods marketplaces to integrate web shopping with Second Life. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from Lombard, M., & Ditton, T. (1997). At the heart of it all: The concept of presence. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication,3. Mennecke,B.E.,Roche,E.M.,Bray,D.A.,Konsynski,B.,Lester,J.,Rowe,M.,& Townsend, A. M. (2007). Second Life and other virtual worlds: A roadmap for research. In Proceedings of Twenty-Eighth International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS-28). Mockus, A., Fielding, R. T., & Andersen, H. (2002). Two case studies of open source software development: Apache and Mozilla. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, 11, Novak, T. P., Hoffman, D. L., & Yung, Y. (2000). Measuring the customer experience in online environments: A structural modeling approach. Marketing Science, 19, Oliver, R. L. (1980). A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction decisions. Journal of Marketing Research, 17, Oliver, R. L. (1993). Cognitive, affective, and attribute bases of the satisfaction response. Journal of Consumer Research, 20, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association

18 Parthasarathy, M., & Bhattacherjee, A. (1998). Understanding post-adoption behavior in the context of online services. Information Systems Research, 9, Platoni, K. (2008). Will Second Life survive?. California magazine, March/April, 53. Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology,88(5), Ridings, C. M., & Gefen, D. (2004). Virtual community attraction: Why people hang out online. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(1). Roca, J. C., Chiu, C-M, & Martínez, F. J. (2006). Understanding e-learning continuance intention: An extension of the technology acceptance model. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 64, Rogers,E. M. (1983). Diffusion of innovations (third ed.). New York: The Free Press. Ryan, R. M., Rigby, C. S., & Przybylski, A. (2006). The motivational pull of video games: A self-determination theory approach. Motivation and Emotion, 30, Sheldon, K. M. (1995). Creativity and self-determination in personality. Creativity Research Journal,8, Sheldon, K. M., Ryan, R., & Reis, H. T. (1996). What makes for a good day? Competence and autonomy in the day and in the person. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, Shen, K. N. & Khalifa, M. (2008). Exploring multidimensional donceptualization of social presence in the context of online communities. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 24, Short, J., Williams, E., & Christie, B. (1976). The social psychology of telecommunications. London: John Wiley & Sons. Skinner, E. A. (1995). Perceived Control, Motivation, and Coping. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. SLOG (2008, February 22). Second Life Statistics. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from Steuer, J. (1992). Defining virtual reality: Dimensions determining telepresence. Journal of Communication, 42, Suh, K. S., & Lee Y. E. (2005). The effects of virtual reality on consumer learning: An empirical investigation. MIS Quarterly, 29, Thompson, C. E., & Wankel, L. M. (1980). The effects of perceived activity choice upon frequency of exercise behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 10, Thong, J. Y. L., Hong, S. J., & Tan, K. Y. (2006). The effects of post-adoption beliefs on the expectation-confirmation model for information technology continuance. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 64, Venkatesh, V., & Johson, P. (2002). Telecommuting technology implementations: A withinand between- subjects longitudinal field study. Personnel Psychology, 55, Yee, N. (2006). Motivations of play in online games. CyberPsychology & Behavior,9, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16 (2011) International Communication Association 509