The effects of sense of presence, sense of belonging, and cognitive absorption on satisfaction and user loyalty toward an immersive 3D virtual world

Abstract

Avatar-based 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life have drawn increasing attention from users and researchers in the past few years as an emerging online environment for social, entertainment, and virtual business. However, there are very limited empirical studies that have examined the influence of social-technonlogical constructs (i.e., sense of presence, sense of belonging, and cognitive absorption) on users' satisfaction and their loyalty to a virtual world. An aggregate second-order construct that consists of multiple-dimensions seems a reasonable approach. Moreover, due to the multi-dimensional characteristics of socio-technological constructs, examining those constructs needs to use more stable and reliable higher-order measurements than before. Therefore, in this study, we empirically investigate the effect of three social-technological constructs as a multi-dimensional second-order construct on the first-time users' satisfaction with and loyalty to avatar-based virtual world. The results and their theoretical and practical implications are also discussed. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.