User acceptance of second life: An extended TAM including hedonic consumption behaviours

Abstract

Second Life is a 3-D multi-user virtual environment which has gained wide spread popularity amongst

academic community in the recent years. However, due to its infancy very little is known about the

factors driving users’ intention to use Second Life especially in the educational context. This paper

presents findings from an ongoing study about the impacts of using multi-user virtual environments in

higher education. In information systems research, several models and frameworks have attempted to

predict the acceptance of new technology. However some recent studies suggest that the traditional

technology acceptance approaches may not work well with today’s entertainment-oriented

technologies such as multi-user virtual environments. They also recommend exploring those facets of

human behaviour that are likely to capture the hedonic consumption of such technologies. In this

paper, we propose an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) including hedonic consumption

behaviours in order to explain the usage and acceptance of Second Life in the educational context.

The proposed model is empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 122 users about their

perceptions of Second Life. Findings suggest that hedonic consumption behaviours are strong

predictors of Second Life usage as compared to traditional motivational constructs of usefulness and

ease-of-use.

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