Gifting and Status in Virtual Worlds

Author List: Goode, Sigi; Shailer, Greg; Wilson, Mark; ki, Jaroslaw Jankows;
Journal of Management Information Systems, 2014, Volume 31, Issue 2, Page 171-210.
While profitable business models elude many virtual worlds, sales of virtual products are a potentially lucrative source of revenue. One new addition to this strategy is virtual gifting, whereby users purchase virtual products to give to other users. The monetary value of such virtual good transactions is economically significant but no prior study has examined this phenomenon in a strictly virtual context. We apply theory from the economics literature to examine gifting behavior in a virtual world in which users’ social status is reflected in observable social connections (friendships) and interactions (personal messages). We find strong evidence that gifting is associated with future enhancements of the gift giver’s social status, consistent with a social status–seeking motivation, thus confirming a theorized behavior that is difficult to study in the real world. Our study has implications for system proprietors and managers because we show that gift giving increases system use continuance. We identify various antecedents of gift giving, which may assist a manager in identifying users who are most inclined to give gifts and enable the manager to signal the social exchange benefits to users as a way of improving their social connections.
Keywords: gift economy;MMOG;status in virtual worlds;virtual gifts;virtual worlds
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List of Topics

#284 0.207 users user new resistance likely benefits potential perspective status actual behavior recognition propose user's social associated existing base using acceptance
#120 0.205 virtual world worlds co-creation flow users cognitive life settings environment place environments augmented second intention spatial interactivity ownership objects immersive
#234 0.142 social networks influence presence interactions network media networking diffusion implications individuals people results exchange paper sites evidence self-disclosure important examine
#116 0.088 research study influence effects literature theoretical use understanding theory using impact behavior insights examine influences mechanisms specifically context perspective findings
#212 0.072 business digital strategy value transformation economy technologies paper creation digitization strategies environment focus net-enabled services processes insights challenges key response
#88 0.064 managers managerial manager decisions study middle use important manager's appropriate importance context organizations indicate field experience management major organizational results
#15 0.059 motivation intrinsic theory social extrinsic expectancy motivations motivate usage enjoyment rewards consequences reciprocity organizational motivational focus helping system's exploratory substantial
#23 0.059 channel distribution demand channels sales products long travel tail new multichannel available product implications strategy allows internet revenue technologies times
#267 0.054 options real investment option investments model valuation technology value analysis uncertainty portfolio models using context intuitive managerial regret uncertain case