Having belief(s) in social virtual worlds : a decomposed approach

The interest in teenager oriented social virtual worlds with multiple functions has mushroomed during the past few years. The key challenge social virtual worlds face while attempting to anchor and serve the masses is to reflect the core beliefs of their users. Existing research lacks insight into these core beliefs and their influences on social virtual world usage, as system-specific beliefs and the multipurpose nature of these systems have largely been left unaddressed. In this study we aim to contribute to the research of social virtual worlds by proposing and testing a model grounded on the decomposed theory of planned behavior (S. Taylor & Todd, 1995a). The model proposes system-specific attitudinal, normative and control beliefs as determinants of three actual behaviors, mediated by continual use intentions. The model is tested with data collected from 1,225 active users of Habbo Hotel, one of the most popular social virtual worlds in the industry. The results indicate significant though different influences of attitudinal and control beliefs. The most fundamental finding is the irrelevance of normative beliefs which puts the social nature of social virtual worlds into perspective. Social Virtual world ; Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior ; Continual Use ; Attitudinal Beliefs ; Normative Beliefs ; Control Beliefs ; Overt behavior