The Technological Forecasting and Social Change entitled: “Making real money in virtual worlds: MMORPGs and emerging business opportunities, challenges and ethical implications in metaverses” is now available for download (as a corrected proof) from the ScienceDirect web site.
The following paper has been accepted for presentation as a round the table paper for the British Academy of Management (BAM) 2007 Conference.
From E-retailing to Meta-retailing: Evolution or Revolution?
Savvas Papagiannidis, Michael Bourlakis, Feng Li
Abstract
In this paper we examine one facet of the emerging phenomenon of metaverses, that of retailing, and consider whether the attributes of virtual environments result in evolutionary or revolutionary changes. The discussion is undertaken within the context set by Second Life, one of the most popular metaverses.
Keyword: e-retail, meta-retail, metaverses, Second Life
Do you have what it takes to stand out from the crowd when it comes to designing and scripting in Second Life? If yes, then prove it by entering the Ebusiness Island Second Life Competition. As this is a competition sponsored by the Ebusiness@Newcastle research group the competition has two themes: Ebusiness and the North East of England. Your creation must be inspired by one or both of the themes.
DEADLINE: You must submit your entry by 1st of July 2007.
The winners will be announced on 1st of July at an event that will be held at the Ebusiness Island during which the winning creations will be unveiled. The winners will also be presented with the following prizes:
Entrepreneurial E-business student Theodoulou Theodoulos (Colton Lytton) talks about his experience of making a living in the new virtual world called Second Life. (more…)
The following has been accepted for publication in Technological Forecasting & Social Change:
Making Real Money in Virtual Worlds: MMORPGs and Emerging Business Opportunities, Challenges and Ethical Implications in Metaverses
Savvas Papagiannidis, Michael Bourlakis and Feng Li
Abstract
Today, millions of people from around the globe play online role playing games (MMORPG), in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world, either using their existing identities in the physical world, or more often than not, through new virtual identities that might not even be remotely linked to the identities of the players in the physical world. The number of users is growing at an exponential rate and we are probably on the verge of a new development that is going to be as significant as the Internet itself. This positioning paper will discuss the business opportunities and challenges of such a virtual world, that of Second Life, and will examine the resultant corporate social responsibility implications focusing on the ethical and policy-related ones. This will help to identify important research questions that need to be systematically addressed.
Keywords: massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), virtual world, metaverse, entrepreneur, corporate social responsibility and ethics
If you’ve visited the island you would have most probably came across the @ symbol on many of our buildings (e.g. have a look at the screen shot below). Hey, this is the Ebusiness Island so what else would you expect?!?
