Fluidez nos mundos virtuais: a participação nas comunidades virtuais do Second Life como forma de potencializar a experiência de consumo

• Ano de defesa: 2010
• Autor(a) principal: Abramides, Vinicius Casella
• Orientador(a): Fontenelle, Isleide Arruda
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Palavras-chave em Português: Fluidez; Mundos virtuais; Comunidades virtuais; Experiência de consumo; Marketing de experiência
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Flow; Second life; Virtual worlds; Virtual communities; Experience marketing; Consumption experience
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/10438/8297

To increase the knowledge of what effectively contributes towards the occurrence of successful interactions between websites and online consumers, more specifically in the growing market of virtual worlds, is a relevant issue for researchers and business administration professionals. We are living in a new consumption culture era, where consumption experience gains relevance. Online games, played in virtual worlds, are very appropriate illustrations to represent the emergence of Experience Marketing, characteristic of this era. Virtual Worlds, like Second Life, can be classified as 'experience worlds', and one of their main characteristics is the existence of virtual communities. Interaction among users and social relationships are elementary for the consumption experience enrichment in virtual worlds. The flow theory is one of the most utilized constructs to understand the consumer’s behavior in the Internet, and one way to define the nature of consumption experiences in the Internet. This model (witch has been utilized and improved during the last 14 years) can be used in order to define and measure the consumption experience in the Internet. Participating in virtual communities may be one of the factors that enrich the consumption experience in virtual worlds, perceived by flow. The objective of this dissertation is to understand if the participation in virtual communities enhances the consumption experience in social virtual worlds, especially in the Second Life, based on the flow concept. The study object was the Second Life virtual communities, during the research period that occurred between the end of July and the beginning of November 2010. In order to perform the field research, empiric and exploratory, the netnography (virtual ethnography) methodology was utilized, descriptive by definition, as a way to reach the proposed objective. Netnography is a strict and systematic adaptation of ethnography specifically modified for the behavior contingencies and the online interaction, that is, to the study of virtual communities. Research activities were undertaken with participative observation, which is with the participation, by the researcher, in the dayby-day Second Life virtual world that he, as a newcomer, fully experienced the consumption experience itself. The present dissertation is the result of the researcher’s engagement in an immersion in the Second Life virtual communities. The conclusion was that the consumption experience in virtual worlds is enriched by the participation in virtual communities. Flow – noted by the telepresence (immersion), loss of time notion, involvement, pleasure, and entertainment – is a sensation that can be considered as typical and frequent in virtual worlds, and enhanced by the participation in virtual communities. Participation in virtual communities enables the users to fully experience a rich experience that is active, responsive, interactive, and participative, which enhances the consumption experience in virtual communities.