Abstract
Although virtual reality (VR) technology has been available since the 1970's, it is becoming increasingly sophisticated and cost effective. Architecture, education, medicine, electronic commerce, collaboration, and data visualization are some of areas where VR is beginning to be applied. Much of the reported research on VR is technological rather than social, leaving only a limited understanding of its behavioral and organizational impacts and its potential for novel situations. Immersion, interactivity, and presence are intriguing concepts that emerged as important to VR research, but are yet ill-defined. In this paper we argue that the information system research community offers a unique and valuable perspective on VR research, and that this capability represents a logical extension of the work in several IS research domains. Multi-methodological approaches using both positivist and emergent perspectives are needed. A research framework that can be used to begin this work is described.
DOI
10.17705/1CAIS.00820
Recommended Citation
Walsh, K., & Pawlowski, S. (2002). Virtual Reality: A Technology in Need of IS Research. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 8, pp-pp. https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.00820
When commenting on articles, please be friendly, welcoming, respectful and abide by the AIS eLibrary Discussion Thread Code of Conduct posted here.
