게임 가상세계에서의 가상소비 확산 영향요인 고찰: 인구통계학적 특성과 가상상품 유형 그룹별 차이점 분석

The socio-cultural and economic activities of users in virtual worlds are increasing, and virtual consumption of purchasing virtual products is expanding. The future growth potential of this virtual consumption market is very high and has the potential to change the existing traditional consumption ecosystem. This study was interested in the phenomenon of virtual consumption in the most rapidly growing gaming virtual world, and based on the consumption values theory and the concept of self-improvement, major factors promoting virtual consumption in the gaming virtual world were derived. Then, the influence of factors on intention to continue virtual consumption was verified. In particular, this study compared and analyzed whether the influence of factors varies depending on demographic groups (age group and gender) and types of virtual products mainly consumed. This study collected data from users who actually experienced virtual consumption in the game virtual world and empirically analyzed the influence of factors promoting virtual consumption and differences by group. Accordingly, it provides implications for knowledge management in terms of establishing a service development strategy in response to the virtual consumption phenomenon in virtual worlds, which will expand further in the future, and revitalizing the convergence economic ecosystem between the virtual and reality economy.