UTAUT in Metaverse: An “Ifland” Case

Abstract

Since 2021, big tech companies have been interested in metaverse platforms and services. Metaverse is the permanent, immersive mixed-reality world where people and people and people and objects can synchronously interact, collaborate, and live beyond the limitations of time and space, using avatars and the immersion-supporting devices, platforms, and infrastructures. On metaverse platforms, people can merge the real world and the virtual world. Because the metaverse has only recently begun to be studied, there are only dozens of studies on the metaverse published in qualified academic journals. There are few empirical studies on the extent to which metaverse platforms will be accommodated in the lives of information system users from an integrated perspective. Therefore, this paper aimed to empirically verify user acceptance of metaverse platforms by referring the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). This study was conducted in two stages. (1) The concept and research trends of the metaverse platform were examined, and (2) the UTAUT model was introduced in “Ifland”, one of the metaverse platforms, to verify its acceptance of information system users. I conducted a laboratory experiment while complying with the quarantine rules. Participants were required to watch a 15 min lecture on artificial intelligence on the metaverse platform “Ifland” for a sufficient time, then they discussed the impacts of artificial intelligence with others in the lecture. A total of 120 valid data points, excluding insincere responses, were collected, and hypotheses were verified through PLS analysis. Results indicate that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence of the metaverse platform significantly increased satisfaction, usage intention, purchase intention, and word-of-mouth intention. Facilitating conditions had no significant impact on satisfaction. The results of this study provide implications for how the metaverse platform should be designed and what factors should be emphasized to increase user acceptance of metaverse platforms.

A Metaverse Maturity Model

“…The vision of the Metaverse comprises the idea that an unlimited number of users can experience virtual worlds simultaneously [8]. This attribute is strongly related to the computing power of the platforms running the virtual worlds as well as the bandwidth of connections [7].…”

Metaverse: How to Approach Its Challenges from a BISE Perspective

“…Over time, however, scholars, practitioners, and companies have refined the initial metaverse idea in different directions or developed completely new ones. Thus, even though the metaverse is widely discussed, it lacks a commonly accepted and consistent definition (Lee and Kim 2022;Park and Kim 2022;Xu et al 2022). Yet, the lack of a definition is not surprising at this stage, as only the future will show us what shape it will ultimately take.…”

“…As a result of a literature review, Park and Kim (2022) provide a list of metaverse definitions originating from 54 different sources that take reference to the metaverse. Lee and Kim (2022) have further refined and updated the list and retrieved common characteristics within the definitions, namely, avatars as user representation, technology used for world representation (i.e., AR, VR, MR), synchronicity reflecting the real-time component, interactivity with objects, immersion and realism describing the closeness to reality and the ability to experience telepresence, support of social collaboration (i.e., interaction between users), and permanence outlining the continuance and persistence of the metaverse. In Information Systems (IS), the term metaverse has also been around for several years, mostly to capture phenomena around virtual worlds such as Second Life.…”

“…Fortnite and Roblox allow users to create and share their own content, e.g., self-developed games or designed worlds, or to trade virtual items. While the former two strive to be as decentralized as possible, meaning that the users should have agency, ownership, and be in charge of everything, the latter two are controlled by a central institution, similar to the Snow Crash metaverse (Kim 2021;Lee and Kim 2022). Further, Stephenson's protagonist named ''Hiro'' enters the metaverse by wearing goggles and headphones that are capable of creating realistic 3D vision and stereo sound leading to a telepresence experience (Stephenson 1992).…”

How do mini games affect female users of mobile commerce? Improving platform satisfaction through game use intention

“…Previous studies have shown that satisfaction has a significant impact on the willingness of a player to continue using some platforms, such as mobile shopping apps, metaverse platform, online social networks, and book self-service systems ( Natarajan et al, 2017 ; Wu and Wu, 2018 ; Lee and Kim, 2022 ). Satisfaction with the mobile shopping application environment is the sum of emotional responses to mobile shopping application activities triggered by various factors, such as information, system, and service quality ( Agrebi and Jallais, 2015 ).…”