Year: 2011
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The Internet and World Wide Web have had, and continue to have, an incredible\nimpact on our civilization. These technologies have radically influenced the way\nthat society is organised and the manner in which people around the world\ncommunicate and interact. The structure and function of individual, social,\norganisational, economic and political life begin to resemble the digital network\narchitectures upon which they are increasingly reliant. It is increasingly difficult\nto imagine how our ‘offline’ world would look or function without the ‘online’\nworld; it is becoming less meaningful to distinguish between the ‘actual’ and the\n‘virtual’. Thus, the major architectural project of the twenty-first century is to\n“imagine, build, and enhance an interactive and ever changing cyberspace” (Lévy,\n1997, p. 10). Virtual worlds are at the forefront of this evolving digital landscape.\nVirtual worlds have “critical implications for business, education, social sciences,\nand our society at large” (Messinger et al., 2009, p. 204).\nThis study focuses on the possibilities of virtual worlds in terms of\ncommunication, collaboration, innovation and creativity. The concept of\nknowledge creation is at the core of this research. The study shows that scholars\nincreasingly recognise that knowledge creation, as a socially enacted process,\ngoes to the very heart of innovation. However, efforts to build upon these insights\nhave struggled to escape the influence of the information processing paradigm of\nold and have failed to move beyond the persistent but problematic\nconceptualisation of knowledge creation in terms of tacit and explicit knowledge.\nBased on these insights, the study leverages extant research to develop the\nconceptual apparatus necessary to carry out an investigation of innovation and\nknowledge creation in virtual worlds. The study derives and articulates a set of\ndefinitions (of virtual worlds, innovation, knowledge and knowledge creation) to\nguide research. The study also leverages a number of extant theories in order to\ndevelop a preliminary framework to model knowledge creation in virtual worlds.\nUsing a combination of participant observation and six case studies of innovative\neducational projects in Second Life, the study yields a range of insights into the\nprocess of knowledge creation in virtual worlds and into the factors that affect it.\nThe study’s contributions to theory are expressed as a series of propositions and\nfindings and are represented as a revised and empirically grounded theoretical\nframework of knowledge creation in virtual worlds. These findings highlight the\nimportance of prior related knowledge and intrinsic motivation in terms of\nshaping and stimulating knowledge creation in virtual worlds. At the same time,\nthey highlight the importance of meta-knowledge (knowledge about knowledge)\nin terms of guiding the knowledge creation process whilst revealing the diversity\nof behavioural approaches actually used to create knowledge in virtual worlds\nand. This theoretical framework is itself one of the chief contributions of the study\nand the analysis explores how it can be used to guide further research in virtual\nworlds and on knowledge creation. The study’s contributions to practice are\npresented as actionable guide to simulate knowledge creation in virtual worlds.\nThis guide utilises a theoretically based classification of four knowledge-creator\narchetypes (the sage, the lore master, the artisan, and the apprentice) and derives\nan actionable set of behavioural prescriptions for each archetype. The study\nconcludes with a discussion of the study’s implications in terms of future\nresearch.
Author: Niamh O Riordan
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems and Management
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2257985329