Matti Mäntymäki

Teenagers in social virtual worlds: Continuous use and purchasing behavior in Habbo Hotel

Social virtual worlds (SVWs) have become important environments for social interaction. At the same time, the supply and demand of virtual goods and services is rapidly increasing. For SVWs to be economically sustainable, retaining existing users and turning them into consumers are paramount challenges. This requires an understanding of the underlying reasons why users continuously engage in SVWs and purchase virtual items. This study builds upon Technology Acceptance Model, motivational model and theory of network externalities to examine continuous usage and purchase intention and it empirically tests the model with data collected from 2481 Habbo users. The results reveal a strong relationship between continuous usage and purchasing. Further, the results demonstrate the importance of the presence of other users in predicting the purchase behavior in the SVW. Continuous SVW usage in turn is predicted directly by perceived enjoyment and usefulness while the effect of attitude is marginal. Finally, perceived network externalities exert a significant influence of perceived enjoyment and usefulness of the SVW but do not have a direct effect on the continuous usage.

Purchasing behavior in social virtual worlds: An examination of Habbo Hotel

Abstract Spending real money on virtual goods and services has become a popular form of online consumer behavior, particularly among teenagers. This study builds on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to examine the role of motivation, social influence, measured with perceived network size as well as user interface and facilitating conditions in predicting the intention to engage in purchasing in social virtual worlds. The research model is tested with data from 1045 users of Habbo Hotel, worlds most popular virtual world for teenagers. The results underscore the role of perceived network size and motivational factors in explaining in-world purchase decisions. The study shows that virtual purchasing behavior is substantially influenced by the factors driving usage behavior. Hence, virtual purchasing can be understood as a means to enhance the user experience. For virtual world operators, reinforcing the sense of presence of users social network offers a means to promote virtual purchasing.

The Janus face of Facebook

There is an increasing awareness that social networking site (SNS) use includes a socio-psychologically positive and a negative side. However, research remains largely silent on which side dominates in driving SNS use. To address this gap and to better understand the nature of SNSs we examine the positive and negative drivers of SNS use in parallel. We draw on the uses and gratifications theory and place social enhancement and interpersonal connectivity as the socio-psychologically positive gratifications and exhibitionism and voyeurism as the adverse gratifications predicting SNS use. We further link these gratifications to two key psychological needs, namely self-presentation and the need to belong. We conceptualize our dependent variable, SNS use, as a multi-dimensional second-order construct that consists of content production, content consumption, amount of usage, and comprehensiveness of ones profile information. We use longitudinal data from Facebook users to test our research model. The results show that exhibitionism, voyeurism and interpersonal connectivity predict SNS use. Furthermore, the number of friends in the SNS decreases the effect of exhibitionism and increases the effect of social enhancement. Altogether, the role of exhibitionism and voyeurism in predicting SNS use underscores the need for increased awareness of the socio-psychologically dark side of SNSs. We investigate the two sides of self-presentation and need to belong in SNSs.We examine positive and negative predictors of SNS use in parallel.Voyeurism, exhibitionism, and social enhancement predict SNS use.Narcissistic self-promotion, i.e. exhibitionism is the main driver of SNS use.

Explaining the Continuous Use of Social Virtual Worlds: An Applied Theory of Planned Behavior Approach

Social virtual worlds (SVWs) have become increasingly popular spaces for social interaction. To be attractive to engage with, maintaining a sufficient base of active users is a sine qua non. Using Habbo as an example, this paper develops a framework for investigating the continuous use of social virtual worlds. Based on a detailed review of literature, we propose that a decomposed theory of planned behavior complemented with critical mass and allure of competitors would be an applicable theoretical lens to explain why users continuously engage with a social virtual world. We suggest that the social aspects are of particular importance in determining the continuous use of SVWs. This research attempts to build a theoretical foundation for further studies empirically investigating the phenomenon.

The influence of developer multi-homing on competition between software ecosystems

Developers multi-home by offering apps in competing mobile application ecosystems.If developers multi-home, several competing ecosystems can survive.We analyzed multi-homing in three mobile application ecosystems with 1.3 million apps.3% of developers generate 80% of installations in a marketplace.The majority of all apps single-home, but the most popular apps multi-home. Having a large number of applications in the marketplace is considered a critical success factor for software ecosystems. The number of applications has been claimed to determine which ecosystems holds the greatest competitive advantage and will eventually dominate the market. This paper investigates the influence of developer multi-homing (i.e., participating in more than one ecosystem) in three leading mobile application ecosystems. Our results show that when regarded as a whole, mobile application ecosystems are single-homing markets. The results further show that 3% of all developers generate more than 80% of installed applications and that multi-homing is common among these developers. Finally, we demonstrate that the most installed content actually comprises only a small number of the potential value propositions. The results thus imply that attracting and maintaining developers of superstar applications is more critical for the survival of a mobile application ecosystem than the overall number of developers and applications. Hence, the mobile ecosystem is unlikely to become a monopoly. Since exclusive contracts between application developers and mobile application ecosystems are rare, multi-homing is a viable component of risk management and a publishing strategy. The study advances the theoretical understanding of the influence of multi-homing on competition in software ecosystems.

Social virtual world continuance among teens: uncovering the moderating role of perceived aggregate network exposure

Engagement in virtual worlds has become pervasive, particularly among the young. At the same time, the number of virtual environments has increased rapidly. Due to intensifying competition, promoting sustained usage, i.e. continuance, has become a top priority for virtual world operators. Prior research has shown that network externalities play a key role in the adoption of communication technologies. However, a small amount of research has examined the role of network externalities in continued IT usage in general or with respect to the virtual world participation in particular. To fill in this gap, we examine how perceived network externalities affect the continuance of social virtual worlds. To this end, we introduce the concept of perceived aggregate network exposure (PANE). We extend the original information systems (IS) continuance model with perceived enjoyment and position PANE as a moderator. We test the model with data collected from 2134 Finnish Habbo Hotel users and employ structural equation modelling in the analysis. The results demonstrate that PANE moderates the influence of motivational factors on continued use intention and satisfaction.

Why Do Small and Medium-Size Freemium Game Developers Use Game Analytics?

The increased use of the freemium business model and the introduction of new tools have made analytics pervasive in the video game industry. The research on game analytics is scant and descriptive. Thus, reasons for employing game analytics are not well understood. In this study, we analyze data collected with a set of in-depth interviews from small and medium-sized freemium game developers. The results show that game analytics is used to (1) assist design, (2) to reduce the risks associated with launching new games, and (3) to communicate with investors and publishers. The study advances the research on the business value of game analytics.

Social Media Marketing in the Scandinavian Industrial Markets

Limited attention is paid in the academic literature to how business markets and marketers have harnessed social media. The purpose of this study is to depict how companies in business markets have been using social media and what kinds of future strategic actions they have planned for it. The research is based on a literature review, six case studies and eight interviews with industry experts. The research shows that managers are hesitant to adopt and use social media mainly due to the challenges of creating compelling content and because open interaction within social media is perceived as a threat, although companies have run trial campaigns with limited success. For academics, this study illustrates areas for further research and theory development.

Young People Purchasing Virtual Goods in Virtual Worlds: The Role of User Experience and Social Context

Millions of young people spend real money on virtual goods such as avatars or in-world currency. Yet, limited empirical research has examined their shopping behaviour in virtual worlds. This research delves into young consumers’ virtual goods purchasing behaviour and the relevance of social context and usage experience. We assert that virtual goods purchasing behaviour is inseparable of the online platform in which it is taking place. We employ the concept of cognitive absorption to capture the user experience and examine the social context with three variables, the size of one’s in-world network, trust in the other users of the online platform and social presence. We test our research model with data collected from 1,225 virtual world users and use PLS in the analysis. The results show that virtual goods purchasing behaviour is predicted by cognitive absorption, perceived size of one’s in-world network as well as trust in the other users.

Multi-homing and Software Firm Performance

Joining or leaving a platform ecosystem is a key strategic decision for software developers. ‘Multi-homing’ is strategy in which a company distributes its products via more than one platform ecosystem in parallel. ‘Single-homing’ is an opposite strategy in which the software is being distributed exclusively via a single platform ecosystem. On one hand, multi-homing can increase customer reach in markets where customers typically single-home. On the other hand, creating a new version of the software product for multi-homing purposes generates, e.g., conversion, maintenance, and marketing cost. Interestingly, multi-homing as a strategic choice in software business has thus far have received surprisingly little academic scrutiny. In particular, there is very little information on whether multi-homing is an economically viable distribution strategy. To fill in this void, we explore the financial performance between single-homers and multi-homers in mobile application ecosystems. We investigate how the decision to multi-home affects firm performance with a sample of mobile application developers. The results imply that the revenue growth has been faster among single-homers while our dataset is biased towards single-homers. This calls for additional research comparing the two distribution strategies. This paper acts as a starting point for a research agenda in order to better understand multi-homing a strategic choice in software business.