Title : 
Buying decorative virtual goods for the avatars in the virtual world
         
        
            Author : 
Shang, Rong-An ; Chen, Yu-Chen ; Huang, Sheng-Chieh
         
        
            Author_Institution : 
Dept. of Bus. Adm., Soochow Univ., Taipei, Taiwan
         
        
        
        
        
        
            Abstract : 
The virtual world has been a new channel in which people can contact with the others and organizations can provide service to their customers. Selling symbolic goods in the virtual world has also emerged as a new economy. People buy symbolic goods to decorating their avatars. This study based on the theories of symbolic consumption, self-presentation, and computer-mediated environment, investigated why people buy decorative symbolic goods in the virtual world. This study not only can help us to understand better behaviors in the virtual world, the virtual world also provides us a good opportunity to understand the value of symbolic consumption and decorating behaviors in the real world.
         
        
            Keywords : 
avatars; customer services; economics; avatars; computer mediated environment; customers service; decorative virtual goods; new economy; self presentation; symbolic consumption; symbolic goods; virtual world; Animation; Automobiles; Avatars; Cultural differences; Decoding; Displays; Home appliances; Internet; Second Life; Virtual environment; anonymity; self-presentation; social presence; symbolic consumption; telepresence; virtual goods;
         
        
        
        
            Conference_Titel : 
Service Systems and Service Management (ICSSSM), 2010 7th International Conference on
         
        
            Conference_Location : 
Tokyo
         
        
            Print_ISBN : 
978-1-4244-6485-2
         
        
        
            DOI : 
10.1109/ICSSSM.2010.5530158