Research Note‹Cant Buy Me Love€Or Can I? Social Capital Attainment Through Conspicuous Consumption in Virtual Environments

Author List: Hinz, Oliver; Spann, Martin; Hann, Il-Horn;
Information Systems Research, 2015, Volume 26, Issue 4, Page 859-870.
Conspicuous consumption affects anyone who cares about social status; it has intrigued sociologists and economists for more than 100 years. The idea that conspicuous consumption can increase social status, as a form of social capital, has been broadly accepted, yet researchers have not been able to test this effect empirically. In this work, we provide empirical evidence by analyzing the digital footprints of purchases and social interactions in different virtual worlds. We use a multimethod approach, such that we both analyze transactional data and conduct a randomized field experiment. Virtual worlds, as artificial laboratories, offer the opportunity to analyze the social capital of their inhabitants, subsequent to their purchase of virtual prestige goods, which provides a means to empirically test hypotheses that would be nearly impossible to test in real-world settings. Our results are consistent with the notion that conspicuous consumption represents an investment in social capital.
Keywords: social status ; social capital ; conspicuous consumption ; prestige goods ; virtual worlds ; randomized field experiment
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#158 0.211 capital social ict communication rural icts cognitive society information well-being relational india societal empirically create develop disadvantaged technologies explore china
#120 0.188 virtual world worlds co-creation flow users cognitive life settings environment place environments augmented second intention spatial interactivity ownership objects immersive
#51 0.143 results study research experiment experiments influence implications conducted laboratory field different indicate impact effectiveness future participants evidence test controlled involving
#201 0.119 piracy goods digital property intellectual rights protection presence legal consumption music consumers enforcement publisher pirate producers policies copyright provision profits
#148 0.079 productivity information technology data production investment output investments impact returns using labor value research results evidence spillovers industries analysis gains
#234 0.067 social networks influence presence interactions network media networking diffusion implications individuals people results exchange paper sites evidence self-disclosure important examine
#182 0.050 percent sales average economic growth increasing total using number million percentage evidence analyze approximately does business flow annual book daily