• 한국지능정보시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국지능정보시스템학회 2004년도 추계학술대회
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• pp.375-383
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• 2004

Despite the fact that virtual communities on the Internet have been growing at an exponential rate in recent years, little research has been done on the characteristics of virtual communities. In order to better understand and manage the activities of virtual communities, a theoretical model is proposed in this paper. The objective of this paper is to clarify the factors as they are related to the Technology Acceptance Model. In particular the relationship among identities, trust, and other factors are hypothesized. Using the Technology Acceptance Model, this research showed that the importance of identity and trust in virtual communities. The members of virtual communities interact continuously and share an identity. According to the identity type, different ways of stimulating the members are necessary in order to facilitate participation in activities of virtual communities. The virtual communities of a more utilitarian identity are more sensitive to trust in members than trust in the service provider, and members of a more utilitarian identity are inclined to exchange information with each other.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.57-79
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• 2010

In a virtual community, one can possess multiple identities and pretend to be different by creating self-identity in contrast with his or her actual self. Does false identity undermine the qualitative growth of a virtual community by reducing members' accountability? Or does it stimulate their contributive behaviors by ensuring freedom of speech? It is imperative to understand the effects of multi-identity considering the distinct properties of a virtual community in which people easily change their identities at little or no cost. To answer these questions, we adopted the concept of self-discrepancy from the social psychology theory rooted in the concept of the self and developed a theoretical model to predict quality of contribution of the individual member in virtual communities. Based on the self-discrepancy theory, we first identified two different domains of the self: (1) an "actual self" that consists of attributes that the person believes he or she currently possesses in real life and (2) a "cyber self" that consists of attributes the person believes he or she possesses in a virtual community. Next, we derived an index for two different types of self-discrepancy by using the differences between the actual and the cyber identities: Personal Self-discrepancy and Social Self-discrepancy. Personal Self-discrepancy reflects the degree of discrepancy between actual and cyber identity regarding a person's intelligence, education, and expertise. Social Self-discrepancy reflects the degree of discrepancy between actual and cyber identity regarding a person's morality, sociability, and accordance with social norms. Finally, we linked them with sense of virtual community, perceived privacy rights, and quality of contribution to examine how having a multi-identity influences an individual's psychological state and contributive behaviors in a virtual community. The results of the analysis based on 266 respondents showed that Social Self-discrepancy negatively influenced both the Sense of Virtual Community and Perceived Privacy Rights, while Personal Self-discrepancy negatively influenced only Perceived Privacy Rights, thereby resulting in reduced quality of contribution in virtual communities. Based on the results of this analysis, we can explain the dysfunctions of multi-identity in virtual communities. First, people who pretend to be different by engaging in socially undesirable behaviors under their alternative identities are more likely to suffer lower levels of psychological wellbeing and thus experience lower levels of sense of virtual community than others. Second, people do not perceive a high level of privacy rights reflecting catharsis, recovery, or autonomy, even though they create different selves and engage in socially undesirable behaviors in a virtual community. Third, people who pretend to be different persons in terms of their intelligence, education, or expertise also indirectly debase the quality of contribution by decreasing perceived privacy rights. The results suggest that virtual community managers should pay more attention to the negative influences exercised by multi-identity on the quality of contribution, thereby controlling the need to create alternative identities in virtual communities. We hope that more research will be conducted on this underexplored area of multi-identity and that our theoretical framework will serve as a useful conceptual tool for all endeavors.

• 한국의류산업학회지
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• 제15권5호
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• pp.671-681
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• 2013

Persona means the mask of personality where the internal ego exposes itself to the outside. The complicated structure and diversity of contemporary society has provided men with a more variegated and diversified persona; in addition, advancements in internet and information communications creates the possibility for the emergence of more variegated and new persona. This study probes the persona of virtual space expressed in fashion designs; subsequently, this study reviews the concept and various characteristics of persona and examines the type of persona in the virtual space from the perspective of the manifestation of identity. The type of persona in the virtual space canbe categorized into flexible identity and falsified identity; subsequently, the characteristics and meanings of virtual space persona in fashion designs are analyzed. Flexible identity-oriented personas expressed in fashion designs are revealed through the images of animals or dolls. This is a childlike persona expression that expresses ego through other substances in an effort to express infantile substances such as dreams and fantasy cherished in childhood. Falsified identity-oriented personas are expanded as a realm of expression of the body and the realities are camouflaged as transformed persona. Negating existence itself by covering the eyes or face as well as the concealment of the body with masks or veils is an expression of a self-denying persona.

• 대한가정학회지
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• 제40권4호
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• pp.59-71
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• 2002

This study investigated the self wrapping made possible through the anonymity of cuber-space. According to the analysis of the data, which were collected from the online for 2 days, 2,168 respondents were grouped into three types: Those maintaining the strong sense of identity achievement), 53.8%, those experiencing confusion(identity diffusion), 38.3%, and those losing the sense of identity(foreclosure), 7.9%. Among the general respondents, it was reported that the case of sex wrapping was 11.4%, that of occupation, 40.1%, and that of marital status, 60.6%. Specially 11.4% of the sex wrapper took heterogeneous gender identity, while 7% performed dual sex roles. The rate of gender wrapping of female respondents was higher than that of male ones, which reflects female respondents' longing for male sex. Self-disparity between cyber-space and virtual-space was related with the type of self-identity and gender-identity. The rate of self-disparity between cuber-space and virtual-space was 9%. If it occurred continuously, it may cause individual mental division and maladjustment.

• 한국언론정보학보
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• 제37권
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• pp.342-376
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• 2007

이 연구는 온라인 롤프레잉 게임 이용자가 현실공간과 가상공간에서 형성하는 자아정체감의 관계를 탐색하고, 그것이 온라인 게임중독과 현실부적응감에 미치는 영향을 경험적으로 검증하고자 했다. 분석결과 현실공간의 자아정체감과 가상공간의 자아정체감은 정적으로 높은 상관성을 보였다. 구체적으로 현실공간의 자아정체감이 높은 사람들은 가상공간에서도 높은 자아정체감을 보였다. 또한 두 공간의 자아정체감은 게임중독과 현실부적응감과도 매우 높은 상관성을 보였는데, 두 공간 모두 자아정체감이 높을수록 게임중독과 현실부적응감 수준은 낮아지는 것으로 나타났다. 그중에서도 현실공간의 자아정체감은 게임의 부정적 효과들, 즉 중독과 현실부적응감 수준을 결정하는 요인으로 나타났다. 가상공간의 자아정체감은 비록 독립적인 영향력을 발휘하지는 못했지만, 현실공간의 그것과 상호보완적으로 영향을 미칠 가능성을 보였다. 이것은 현실공간에서 자아정체감이 낮은 사람들에게 가상공간이 이상적인 자아를 발견하고 자신에 대해 긍정적인 인식을 발전시킬 수 있는 대안적인 공간으로 작용하지 못함을 의미한다. 중독에 이르고 현실부적응감 수준이 높은 사람들은 현실공간과 마찬가지로 가상공간에서의 자신에 대해서도 부정적으로 인식하기 때문이다.

• 한국전자거래학회지
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.23-45
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• 2011

가상 공간의 익명성으로 인하여 개인들은 물리적 세계와 다른 자기를 가상 세계에서 창조한다. 본 연구의 목적은 물리적 세계의 자기와 가상 세계의 자기 사이에 존재하는 차이가 개인의 온라인 커뮤니티 활동에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 고찰하는 것이다. 먼저, 자기차이이론(Self discrepancy theory)을 기반으로 자기차이에 대한 개념적 정의를 도출하고 자기차이를 가상 세계 내에 존재하는 자기차이(Self-discrepancy in virtual world)와 물리적 세계와 가상 세계 사이에서 존재하는 자기차이(Cross-world self-discrepancy)로 세분화 하였다. 또한 각각의 자기차이를 요인 분석을 통하여 개인적 자기차이(Personal self-discrepancy)와 사회적 자기차이(Social self-discrepancy)로 구분하였다. 도출된 서로 다른 유형의 자기차이가 개인의 커뮤니티 지속사용 및 지식 기여 사이에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 이론적 모형을 개발하고, 수집된 300개의 설문자료를 바탕으로 이를 검증하였다. 분석 결과, 가상 세계 내에서 존재하는 자기차이는 지각된 자기표현 유용성에 부의 영향을 미치는 반면, 가상 세계와 물리적 세계 사이에 존재하는 자기차이는 자기표현 유용성에 정의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 지각된 자기표현 유용성과 사용 용이성은 커뮤니티 지속 사용과 지식기여에 모두 정의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구는 전통적인 자가차이 이론에서 논의되어온 자기에 대한 개념을 가상세계의 자기로 확장하였으며, 서로 다른 유형의 자기차이가 개인의 행위에 미치는 영향을 온라인 커뮤니티 정황에 적용함으로써 자기 개념에 대한 이론적 발전에 기여하였다.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.181-203
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• 2015

Customers who show high level of brand loyalty are one of the most important corporate assets. Accordingly, customers' brand loyalty has been addressed as a critical issue for the business success. In today's business environment where business channels to customers have expanded and diversified continuously, especially the use of social network services (SNSs) have drawn a lot of attention as an effective channel to promote customers' brand loyalty. This study, thus, analyzes the impact of the virtual brand community identity on customers' brand loyalty, focusing on the role of the sense of communities as mediators. The analysis was conducted by using the data collected from 239 users of Chinese virtual brand communities. The results show that both virtual brand community identity and the sense of communities significantly influence on customers' brand loyalty. Furthermore, the results reveal that both of the community belongingness and community trust composing the sense of community partially mediate virtual brand community and brand loyalty as hypothesized. Based on the results, the strategic implications are suggested and discussed, focusing on improving the customers' brand loyalty in the context of SNSs. Our findings and discussions can help companies develop their customer strategies for utilizing the virtual communities to strengthen customers' brand loyalty.

• 한국정보시스템학회지:정보시스템연구
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• 제33권1호
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• pp.183-205
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• 2024

Purpose This study aims to identify the factors that form the social identity of metaverse community users and to investigate the processes that influence engagement behavior. Specifically, this study is to verify the structural relationship between socio-technical factors and social identity of metaverse community. Furthermore, we would figure out the role of psychological ownership and virtual assets in engagement of metaverse community members. Design/methodology/approach Hypotheses were derived through literature research and a survey was conducted for users of the metaverse community. 357 collected responses were analyzed for the structural equitation modeling(SEM) with AMOS 24.0. Findings As a result of the study, all of the proposed hypotheses were supported. As a result, it was found that technical and social perceptions of the metaverse community platform had a positive effect on social identity. Social identity affects the intention to engage in the metaverse community through psychological ownership, and its influence is reinforced by the perceived value of virtual assets.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• 제22권3호
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• pp.53-74
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• 2012

A challenge in fostering virtual communities is the continuous supply of knowledge, namely members' willingness to contribute knowledge to their communities. Previous research argues that giving away knowledge eventually causes the possessors of that knowledge to lose their unique value to others, benefiting all except the contributor. Furthermore, communication within virtual communities involves a large number of participants with different social backgrounds and perspectives. The establishment of mutual understanding to comprehend conversations and foster knowledge contribution in virtual communities is inevitably more difficult than face-to-face communication in a small group. In spite of these arguments, evidence suggests that individuals in virtual communities do engage in social behaviors such as knowledge contribution. It is important to understand why individuals provide their valuable knowledge to other community members without a guarantee of returns. In virtual communities, knowledge is inherently rooted in individual members' experiences and expertise. This personal nature of knowledge requires social interactions between virtual community members for knowledge transfer. This study employs the social capital theory in order to account for interpersonal relationship factors and identity theory for individual and group factors that may affect knowledge contribution. First, social capital is the relationship capital which is embedded within the relationships among the participants in a network and available for use when it is needed. Social capital is a productive resource, facilitating individuals' actions for attainment. Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1997) identify three dimensions of social capital and explain theoretically how these dimensions affect the exchange of knowledge. Thus, social capital would be relevant to knowledge contribution in virtual communities. Second, existing research has addressed the importance of identity in facilitating knowledge contribution in a virtual context. Identity in virtual communities has been described as playing a vital role in the establishment of personal reputations and in the recognition of others. For instance, reputation systems that rate participants in terms of the quality of their contributions provide a readily available inventory of experts to knowledge seekers. Despite the growing interest in identities, however, there is little empirical research about how identities in the communities influence knowledge contribution. Therefore, the goal of this study is to better understand knowledge contribution by examining the roles of social capital and identity in virtual communities. Based on a theoretical framework of social capital and identity theory, we develop and test a theoretical model and evaluate our hypotheses. Specifically, we propose three variables such as cohesiveness, reciprocity, and commitment, referring to the social capital theory, as antecedents of knowledge contribution in virtual communities. We further posit that members with a strong identity (self-presentation and group identification) contribute more knowledge to virtual communities. We conducted a field study in order to validate our research model. We collected data from 192 members of virtual communities and used the PLS method to analyse the data. The tests of the measurement model confirm that our data set has appropriate discriminant and convergent validity. The results of testing the structural model show that cohesion, reciprocity, and self-presentation significantly influence knowledge contribution, while commitment and group identification do not significantly influence knowledge contribution. Our findings on cohesion and reciprocity are consistent with the previous literature. Contrary to our expectations, commitment did not significantly affect knowledge contribution in virtual communities. This result may be due to the fact that knowledge contribution was voluntary in the virtual communities in our sample. Another plausible explanation for this result may be the self-selection bias for the survey respondents, who are more likely to contribute their knowledge to virtual communities. The relationship between self-presentation and knowledge contribution was found to be significant in virtual communities, supporting the results of prior literature. Group identification did not significantly affect knowledge contribution in this study, inconsistent with the wealth of research that identifies group identification as an important factor for knowledge sharing. This conflicting result calls for future research that examines the role of group identification in knowledge contribution in virtual communities. This study makes a contribution to theory development in the area of knowledge management in general and virtual communities in particular. For practice, the results of this study identify the circumstances under which individual factors would be effective for motivating knowledge contribution to virtual communities.

• 경영정보학연구
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.205-227
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• 2023

최근 가상 인간(Virtual Human: VH)이 SNS뿐만 아니라 음원, 광고, 드라마 등 다양한 매체에서 등장하기 시작했다. 가상 인간은 기업의 새로운 마케팅 수단으로 자리를 잡아 가고 있으나 이에 대한 소비자 반응은 여전히 불확실하다. 따라서, 본 연구는 가상 인간이 등장하는 콘텐츠에 대한 소비자의 반응을 살펴보고자 한다. 보다 구체적으로 가상 인간에 대한 표기 여부가 소비자의 인식에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 살펴보고자 하였다. 본 연구에서는 가상 인간에 대한 정체성을 노출시키는 '가상 인간 디스클로저(Virtual Human Disclosure: VHD)'의 개념을 제시하고 광고 태도(유희성, 실용성, 그리고 흥미)와 정보원 공신력(신뢰성과 전문성)을 변인으로 활용하여 가상 인간 디스클로저의 영향을 탐색하였다. 이를 위해 302명의 응답자를 대상으로 실험 설문 연구를 진행하였다. 주요 연구결과는 영상에 등장하는 모델이 가상 인간인 경우와 사람인 경우 모두 소비자들의 광고 태도와 정보원 공신력의 차이가 크지 않은 것으로 나타났다. 그리고 가상 인간 디스클로저가 영상에 직접적인 텍스트 형태로 제시되는 것보다 광고시청 후 SNS와 소개글을 통해 간접적으로 모델이 가상 인간임을 인지하게 되는 것이 더 긍정적인 효과를 가져왔다. 본 연구는 가상 인간 디스클로저라는 새로운 개념을 활용하여 가상 인간에 대한 이해를 증진시키며, 이를 활용한 콘텐츠 제작 시 마케팅 측면에서 소비자에게 최적화된 전략 수립에 기여할 수 있다.