Virtual Worlds and Real-Life Organizations

From Information Systems at Pitt Business

Virtual Worlds, such as Second Life, represent a new environement for organizations to navigate in order to reach consumers. The worlds represent an interesting environment, due to the emmersive and emergent nature, with the worlds being created by the interaction of individuals in the space. This presents a set of tensions that organizations much find a balance in order to create value.

Tension                     In Favor                              Against
Popularity                   Significant market                 Minimal traffic
First-mover                  Early foothold                       Popularity plateau
Demographic               Desirable demographic          Dysfunctional demographic
Anonymity                  Honest & uninhibited             Trust issues & misinformation
Sociality                     Social presence                    Limited social cues
Experience                  Immersion                           Authenticity
Accessibility               Anyone, anywhere                Lack of organizational access
Interface                     High interactivity                    Low usability
Structural                   Community                           Control
Social Benefit              Freedom & therapy               Dehumanizing

[edit] Abstract

Virtual worlds have become sizable marketplaces and appear to be maturing into legitimate business tools for certain organizations. While treatment in the popular press of the organizational role of virtual worlds is often favorable, there also appears to a significant amount of caution in the organizational adoption of virtual environments. Since there is a dearth of academic literature on this emerging topic, this research aims to provide an assessment of the potential impact of virtual worlds on businesses, and to tie these insights to existing streams of information systems research. To capture the business discourse relating to virtual worlds, we analyzed the written reports of twenty-five executives who recently spent considerable time training in and exploring Second Life, a popular on-line virtual environment. We identify nine tensions in their assessment of the organizational role of virtual worlds, and situate these tensions in the prevailing computer-mediated communication discourse. Findings point toward an opportunity for theory generation through dialectical reasoning, as well as the potential for information systems research to act as a reference discipline for the budding literature on virtual organizing.

[edit] Paper Information

Authors: Nick Berente, Sean Hansen, Jacqueline C. Pike, Patrick J. Bateman

To read more check out the paper at Virtual Worlds and Real-Life Organizations: A Study of the Perspectives of Executives

This article to be presented at AoM 2008

[edit] Keywords

Virtual environment, virtual worlds, computer-mediated communication, business impact