TY - JOUR
T1 - How representational fidelity affects sociability and cyberself engagement in the Metaverse
AU - Lee, Seoyoun
AU - Chang, Younghoon
AU - Park, Jaehyun
AU - Chong, Alain Yee Loong
AU - Yin, Qiuju
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Emerald Publishing Limited
PY - 2025/12/9
Y1 - 2025/12/9
N2 - Purpose – This study examines how users' multidimensional representational fidelity factors affect sociability and cyberself engagement in the Metaverse platform; that is, how they interact with newly defined self-images as their personas in the environments. It investigates how representational fidelity serves platform users to perform social roles and increase their sociability by establishing a new cyberself, thus influencing continuous platform use. Design/methodology/approach – This study surveyed 314 users of the Metaverse platform Horizon, where users can create a virtual agent avatar, meet people in the same online environment in real time, and interact with a sense of three-dimensional immersion. Data were analyzed using partial least squares regression models. Findings – User socialization significantly influenced the intention to use the Metaverse platform. Representational fidelity was a crucial variable for sociability, and activity representational fidelity was the most influential aspect among the four other elements. Platforms should consider how to enable users to create and use activities that faithfully represent their personas. Originality/value – The novelty of this study is that it introduces representational fidelity based on representation theory into the context of virtual persona in the Metaverse platform. This study extended representational fidelity to the socialization perspective by utilizing the integrated model of user satisfaction and the technology acceptance model. Through the results, this study emphasized that users' sociability significantly influences their intention to use the Metaverse platform. Finally, this study provides a feasible guideline on how practitioners could design and strengthen their platforms so that users can represent their cyberselves faithfully.
AB - Purpose – This study examines how users' multidimensional representational fidelity factors affect sociability and cyberself engagement in the Metaverse platform; that is, how they interact with newly defined self-images as their personas in the environments. It investigates how representational fidelity serves platform users to perform social roles and increase their sociability by establishing a new cyberself, thus influencing continuous platform use. Design/methodology/approach – This study surveyed 314 users of the Metaverse platform Horizon, where users can create a virtual agent avatar, meet people in the same online environment in real time, and interact with a sense of three-dimensional immersion. Data were analyzed using partial least squares regression models. Findings – User socialization significantly influenced the intention to use the Metaverse platform. Representational fidelity was a crucial variable for sociability, and activity representational fidelity was the most influential aspect among the four other elements. Platforms should consider how to enable users to create and use activities that faithfully represent their personas. Originality/value – The novelty of this study is that it introduces representational fidelity based on representation theory into the context of virtual persona in the Metaverse platform. This study extended representational fidelity to the socialization perspective by utilizing the integrated model of user satisfaction and the technology acceptance model. Through the results, this study emphasized that users' sociability significantly influences their intention to use the Metaverse platform. Finally, this study provides a feasible guideline on how practitioners could design and strengthen their platforms so that users can represent their cyberselves faithfully.
KW - Cyber self-engagement
KW - Metaverse
KW - Representation fidelity
KW - Representation theory
KW - Sociability
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85201829315
U2 - 10.1108/INTR-12-2022-0937
DO - 10.1108/INTR-12-2022-0937
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85201829315
SN - 1066-2243
VL - 35
SP - 1999
EP - 2027
JO - Internet Research
JF - Internet Research
IS - 6
ER -