Second life (henceforward, SL) has captured the interest of many scholars and practitioners. Indeed, the entrance of many real world companies, attracted by the potentialities of Virtual Worlds (henceforward, VWs), has been interpreted as the signal for the discovery of new web-based business...

In response to a request for comment from the Federal Trade Commission, this report is divided into three parts:• The FTC's continuing leadership in consumer protection for Internet access• Competition and consumer protection in a changing communications industry• Competition and consumer...

This article presents and analyses the results of a large-scale empirical study in which over 11,000 consumers from ten countries in five continents were surveyed about their use, perceptions and understanding of online platform services. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first...

This paper presents a review of empirical methods used to assess the behavioral, economic, and political outcomes of Internet and social media usage. Instead of merely surveying the various impacts of the Internet, we examine the methods adopted to identify these impacts. We describe two main...

This Chapter discusses the emergence of online word of mouth, the process by which consumers disseminate their views about marketplace goods and services. Due to online word of mouth, consumers have an unprecedented ability to influence the brand perceptions of other consumers. Unfortunately,...

Since foreign social media sites have been banned, three Chinese social media sites, all listed at the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ, are thriving. Chinese social media are insulated from foreign competition at their domestic market. However doing business in China does not become easier for...

We study the relationship between the spread of social media platforms and the communication and responsiveness of politicians towards voters, in the context of the expansion of Facebook in Brazil. We use self-collected data on the universe of Facebook activities by federal legislators and the...

Many mobile app providers offer their apps for free and base their business models on user engagement. However, declining app usage over time threatens user engagement and the ability of apps to create business value. To keep users engaged, app providers use gamification, i.e., they link their...