An investigation of virtual worlds adoption: A research framework and empirical study

A virtual world is an Internet-based simulated environment which users inhabit and where they interact via avatars. As a new information technology innovation, it has developed very fast and has brought about economic success for organizations and individuals. Very limited research has been done to date to investigate virtual worlds. This paper presents a research framework to investigate the acceptance of virtual worlds from the perspectives of individual users. In order to cater to the special features of virtual worlds, a framework based on the technology acceptance and diffusion of innovation models is presented from a synthesis of the extant literature. An empirical study is employed to test each hypothesis. The results show useful implications.