Examining self congruence between user and avatar in purchasing behavior from the metaverse to the real world

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Examining self-congruence between user and

avatar in purchasing behavior from the metaverse

to the real world

Jinsu Park & Naeun (Lauren) Kim

To cite this article: Jinsu Park & Naeun (Lauren) Kim (2024) Examining self-congruence

between user and avatar in purchasing behavior from the metaverse to the real world, Journal

of Global Fashion Marketing, 15:1, 23-38, DOI: 10.1080/20932685.2023.2180768

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2023.2180768

Published online: 03 Apr 2023.

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Examining self-congruence between user and avatar in

purchasing behavior from the metaverse to the real world

Jinsu Park and Naeun (Lauren) Kim

Department of Design, Housing, and Apparel, College of Design, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,

MN, USA

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to examine the role of “avatar” in the

metaverse, specifically, by exploring how appearance similarity with

an avatar affects virtual product purchase intention, which is

mediated by self-congruence and flow Further, this study also

attempted to find how human behavior in the virtual world could

affect behavior in the real world An online survey was administered

to a total of 164 users of a popular South Korean metaverse

plat-form ZEPETO The findings indicated that the appearance similarity

with the avatar influenced virtual product purchase intention, and

this relationship was fully mediated by avatar-self congruence and

flow This study also found that virtual product purchase intention

could influence real product purchase intention Based on these

findings, it is suggested high-quality avatar customization is critical

for users, and retail brands can utilize metaverse as a new

market-ing tool and as a testbed for new products.

ARTICLE HISTORY

Received 6 October 2022 Revised 3 January 2023 Accepted 5 February 2023

KEYWORDS

Metaverse; avatar; self-congruency; flow; virtual product purchase intention

1 Introduction

In the disastrous pandemic of COVID-19, many activities that had traditionally been conducted face-to-face made a major shift to online As a result, the metaverse has gained considerable attention due, in part, to the increased popularity of non-face-to-face activities The “metaverse” is a virtual world extending the physical universe where various activities occur (Papagiannidis et al., 2008) The concept of the metaverse is not new as many video games have taken the form of the metaverse In addition, advances in 3D virtual programs and hardware technology have introduced a more realistic metaverse world For example, the “Animal Crossing” game has recently been described as a representative metaverse platform After Nintendo of Japan developed and released Animal Crossing in March 2020, 32.63 million units of Animal Crossing were sold worldwide as of 31 March 2021 (Bankhurst, 2021) In this game, players can build and decorate their towns through various hunting-gathering activities Animal Crossing

is considered a metaverse platform particularly because of its interactive features People can visit other players’ towns, and engage and interact with other users, such as sharing, trading, and communicating (Zhu, 2021) According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers

CORRESPONDENCE TO Naeun (Lauren) Kim nlkim@umn.edu Department of Design, Housing, and Apparel, College of Design, University of Minnesota, 240 McNeal Hall, 1985 Buford Ave St Paul, Minneapolis, MN 55108-61367, USA https://doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2023.2180768

(PwC) global consulting firm, the size of the metaverse market was valued at

$148.5 billion dollars in 2021 and is estimated to grow to $15,423 billion dollars by

2030 (Hwang, 2021) Therefore, retail industries have paid considerable attention to this new media and are trying to utilize the metaverse as a new retail channel (Bourlakis et al.,

2009)

Virtual channel such as metaverse is also being utilized by traditional high-end companies to promote their products and gain capital, and this trend has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic (Loranger & Roeraas, 2022) A popular metaverse platform, “ZEPETO”, was created by Naver in South Korea in 2018 Two-hundred- million people worldwide have used this platform, and 80% of the users are from generation Z (Lancaster, 2021) The global luxury brand Gucci made a “Gucci Villa” in ZEPETO, allowing users to visit their virtual space Users can try on virtual Gucci products and can buy a virtual Gucci product for their avatar, which is much cheaper than a real (i.e tangible) product (Tamola, 2021) This trend illustrates that entering the metaverse is beneficial for product advertisement and can be quite lucrative

What makes the metaverse special compared to other media outlets is the virtual interaction between users All of the interactions are accomplished through a digitalized, psychological being called an avatar, which represents the digital self of the user These avatars are interconnected with each other as they could be in the real world but with fewer physical limitations (e.g time and space) Digital-self avatars have been studied in video game contexts, and video game players are known to feel self-congruence with their avatars, which subsequently affects the players’ perception and behavior in the digital world (Ko & Park, 2020) The role of the avatars in the metaverse is similar to those of video games such as portraying users in the virtual world and helping users to immerse in the virtual world Thus, self-congruence with avatar and flow should be discussed in the metaverse, but these concepts have not been studied extensively

The biggest difference between video games and the metaverse comes from the proximity to the real world Unlike video games, the metaverse is highly attached to the real world It is not hard to find a virtual version of the product in the metaverse, which exist in the real world For example, global luxury brands such as Gucci, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Givenchy have launched their digital form of products in the metaverse, and most of them are less expensive than the real world counterparts (Bein,

2022) The affordability of virtual products makes people easy to purchase the products, bringing advantages to both consumers and retailers Virtual products provide consu-mers greater access to tangible products by virtually trying on a product on their avatar and, in succession, create the chance of increasing brand recognition and loyalty (Miles,

2022) However, few studies have focused on how consumer behavior in the metaverse impacts the real world (Belk, 2016; Papagiannidis et al., 2014) In addition, while several studies on virtual products have identified consumer behavior in the “virtual reality” realm (Barhorst et al., 2021), few studies have been conducted in the metaverse where the focus is interaction features

The purpose of this quantitative study is twofold First, based on the extended-self theory, this study aims to analyze the effect of the appearance similarity between users and their avatars on self-congruence and understand how such congruence between self and avatar increases the flow state of the user while playing in the metaverse The second aim is how these effects, derived from the relationship between the avatar and the user,

promote purchase behavior intention for their avatar in the metaverse We also examine how virtual interaction and virtual purchase behavior influence purchase behavior intention for the user in the real world

The findings of this study provide a deeper understanding of the nature of the metaverse which remains as a nascent field of research for its stakeholders (i.e users, retailers, and scholars) Since the development and commercialization of the metaverse are still in the early stage, studies on the metaverse are largely lacking Our study will fill this gap in the literature and, specifically, will illuminate how the user’s perception of their avatar develops under the extended-self theory, comparing it with the previous studies on video games This study will also reveal how self-congruence with the avatar can affect purchase behavior in both the virtual world and the real world In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the underlying mechanism behind the effect of appearance similarity with an avatar on user behavior Furthermore, the findings will provide implications to the fashion retail brands who are questioning the marketability of the metaverse and suggest ways in which the metaverse can be effectively utilized as an additional retail channel

2 Literature review and hypotheses development

2.1 Metaverse

The word “metaverse” was first coined by Neal Stephenson in 1992 and appeared in his novel, “Snow Crash”, stating that the metaverse is a new version of future virtual reality (Stephenson, 1993) Malaby (2006) later described the metaverse as a synthetic world where users can create content by themselves and own the intellectual property rights of the virtual products they make Papagiannidis et al (2008) suggested a broader concept, defining the metaverse as a virtual world extending the physical universe by adding new dimensions and domains for economic, social, and leisure activities Dionisio et al (2013) conceptualized the metaverse as a more technological concept, describing it as a fully immersive 3D digital environment in contrast to cyberspace, which is more inclusive and reflects the totality of shared online space across all dimensions Most recently, Sparkes (2021) took a broader view, defining the metaverse as a shared online space that integrates 3-dimensional graphics on a screen or in virtual reality These changes in the definition indicate that people initially considered the metaverse as simply a “synthetic world” It was then expanded to a broader concept referring to a “shared online space” The definition has become broader rather than concrete because it was believed that unique technologies would be used to implement the metaverse

Although the definition of the metaverse has continued to change, several prominent features of the metaverse have been maintained Ubiquity is a central component of the metaverse (Dionisio et al., 2013), which comes from the major criterion that the metaverse must provide an environment for culture and interaction like in the physical world (Dionisio et al., 2013) Gilbert (2011) also maintained that the metaverse should support massive multi-user remote interactivity simultaneously and be immersive, giving

a sense of psychological presence Tools and functions should also be provided to generate activities, which share the same goals as an open-ended setting rather than

a specific quest (Gilbert, 2011) Based on these perspectives, we infer that an essential

factor in the metaverse is the interaction among users with their own personas (i.e psychological presence), and this interactivity is accomplished through their extended self, the avatar

2.2 Extended self and avatar-self congruence

Traditionally, the extended self can be comprised of a person’s body, mind, physical possession, and close affiliation group, including family and friends (Belk, 1988) However, with the advent of information technology (IT), there have been more ways

of representing “self” than ever and, especially, the virtual world has been stimulating the way of expressing oneself with the digital version of myself, an avatar (Belk, 2016) Belk (2016) asserted that the concept of extended self needs to be modified because of digitalization, and one of the changes is re-embodiment, which concretely expresses the concept of an avatar in the digital world In a digital age, people can be emancipated from their physical bodies and be whatever they want to be In addition, the relative freedom of creating an avatar has led people to think that the avatar they made represents themselves, and when people perceive a gap between the self in the real world between that in the virtual world, they tend to modify their self-representation which is called

“proteus effects” (Fox et al., 2013; Yee & Bailenson, 2007) Interestingly, this self- discrepancy between virtual and real can have effects on offline behavior as well For example, a person who has an attractive avatar behaves warmly and is more social in real life (Yee et al., 2009)

An avatar is a digital representation of the user through which the user interacts with and relates to others in the virtual environment (Hooi & Cho, 2014) In most virtual worlds, users create an avatar or customize their character as they want to express themselves (Sung et al., 2011), and almost every interaction has to do with the digital vicarious self, the avatar (Hollebeek et al., 2020) According to Belk (2016), regardless of the level of immersion, users are attached to their avatars, and users become their avatars while playing games, where avatar-self congruence occurs Self-congruence was devel-oped to explain the way in which consumers tend to choose a brand that is congruent with their self-concept (Malär et al., 2011) Because of the malleability in describing how people behave in a way to keep the consistence of their self-image, this concept has been used in a wide range of studies, including video game fields According to Davis and Lang (2013), who studied the effect of self-congruence with video game itself on game usage and purchase behavior, they found that people who perceive high self-congruence with the game they play are more likely to play and purchase games Similarly, Ko and Park (2020) who examined the effect of self-congruence with the avatar in video game context, suggested that people choose an avatar that is congruent with their self, as consumers tend to choose a brand or product that accords with their self-image

Self-congruence with an avatar begins to develop when the user first creates their avatar Avatar creation is often one of the very first tasks users are given in the metaverse During this process, a user’s main consideration is the physical appearance of the avatar, and one of the most available references would be their own physical traits in shaping the avatar’s appearance This phenomenon has been clearly observed in several studies Nowak and Rauh (2005) noted that people tend to prefer avatars that align with their own gender and choose avatars featuring characteristics that are similar to their own

Williams (2010) also suggested that users are more likely to identify with avatars that are physically similar to the users

Once the avatar creation is done, the next step is to meet and interact with other users’ avatars in the metaverse As users increasingly interact with other avatars and spend time

in the metaverse, the importance and attachment to their own avatars grow Avatars help users carry out all activities in the virtual world, including communication, game playing, and transactions When performing these activities, avatars will exhibit the user’s persona such as personality, communication style, and behavioral traits in addition to physical qualities (Procter, 2021) This, in turn, makes the users further reduce the gap between the self and avatar Such a phenomenon can also be explained by self-verification theory Self-verification theory refers to a tendency to maintain a consistent self-concept, avoid-ing psychological anarchy (Swann, 1987) Therefore, users may perceive their avatar in

a way to lessen the inconsistency between the avatar and the self, and this unconscious effort is inextricably related to interaction with other users Given that the self- congruence effect is often attributed to the underlying motivation of socialness (Davis

& Lang, 2013), the more people interact with other users in the metaverse, the greater self-congruence with the avatar could occur Thus, the following hypothesis is developed

H 1: Appearance similarity with one’s avatar is positively related to avatar-self

congruence.

2.3 Flow

Given the nature of the metaverse that provides users with an immersed experience, it is crucial to understand the flow experience in the metaverse Technology-mediated flow refers to a situation in which people are fully immersed, absorbed, and engaged by mechanical interactions, in the meantime, losing self-consciousness and experiencing enjoyment (Barhorst et al., 2021) Flow provides an experience of holistic immersion for users (Ha et al., 2007) The metaverse can induce a flow state in two ways The first way stems from the equipment Sherry (2004) asserted that the flow occurs when players ignore the real world and increase concentration through visual and auditory stimuli The perfect form of the metaverse requires various equipment including headgear that blocks the environment around the users Users cannot see the real world or hear sounds nearby, but they can see the virtual world and hear the sounds that are digitally created However, few metaverse platforms now need this 3D virtual equipment Many metaverse platforms can be played with a small digital device with a screen such as a mobile phone, tablet, or computer that only allows limited immersion (Wiederhold, 2022) Therefore, this study did not consider the flow induced by 3D equipment Flow can also come from the content that users participate in and enjoy Activities in the metaverse mainly focus

on leisure activities such as decorating their avatar, playing with other users in the virtual world, and visiting famous places that are hard to visit in the real world These activities deeply immerse users in the metaverse In addition, according to Barhorst et al (2021) study, the novelty of the metaverse also increases the flow, and users step into a flow state when playing in the metaverse

To understand the metaverse, one must examine studies related to games, since the metaverse shows similar characteristics to games in that users are involved in the

metaverse or the game with their digital representatives: their avatars The similarity with the avatar is highly related to attention and concentration (Liao et al., 2019) In addition,

as users identify with a character, their consciousness is transported into the avatar they manipulate, making users lose self-reflection, which is an aspect of flow (Jennett et al.,

2008) Furthermore, since the extent of self-congruence affects people’s level of attention (Ding & Hung, 2021), the extent of flow may be determined by the level of congruence with the avatar Therefore, the following hypothesis is developed

H 2: Self-congruence with the avatar is positively related to flow.

When people fall into a flow state, it results in specific human behavior or stimulates a certain intention For example, shopping in the virtual environment could induce a state of flow, making people stay in the virtual store and facilitating purchase behavior (Bleize & Antheunis, 2019) Domina et al (2012) found that enjoyment and control, which are major constructs of flow are positively related to purchase intention in the virtual world This effect of a flow state on purchase intention can also be found in the game field Jin et al (2017) asserted that people buy virtual products (i.e items) due to social presence and user engagement, which are some of the main attributes of the flow Specifically, people who are

in a flow state are more likely to purchase virtual game items (Liu & Shiue, 2014) Goli and Vemuri (2021) also found that a flow experience in a mobile game has

a positive effect on virtual game items Thus, it is plausible to infer that the flow experience can influence the virtual product purchase intention in the metaverse Therefore, the following hypothesis was developed

H 3: Flow is positively related to virtual product purchase intention.

Given the fact that the metaverse is a three-dimensional virtual world, avatar and flow must be crucial factors in explaining the purchasing behavior in the metaverse As described earlier, an avatar is considered a digital version of self in

a digital world, and the extent of homogeneity with an avatar influences human perception and intention Thus, it can be inferred that the more users perceive their avatars as similar to themselves, the more they are likely to dive into the virtual world and buy virtual products to decorate their avatars, which, in turn, makes users identify their avatars more synchronized with themselves Furthermore, considering the self-verification theory, people attempt to verify and enhance their self-concept, and one of the easiest to do this is to purchase items that could help achieve these goals (Stuppy et al., 2020) In video games, people buy virtual products which make their virtual characters more powerful (Domina et al., 2012) However, compared to video games, buying virtual products does not directly enhance the ability of their avatar in the metaverse In the metaverse, where virtual characters’ ability to compete with other users and villains is not necessary, the role of virtual products is to decorate the avatar to express their identity, which is closely associated with social motivation As Davis and Lang (2013) asserted, underlying self-motives of socialness is one of the

functions of self-congruence In other words, in the metaverse, where the trait of

“interactivity” is stressed, the virtual item is a tool for maintaining self- congruence, which, in turn, makes users buy virtual products As Belk (1988) asserted, the concept of “self” can be defined by what they possess, and this also can be applied to the virtual world The behavior of possessing virtual products is

a way of representing and defining their avatar, implying the user’s self-concept Therefore, this study hypothesizes that appearance similarity with the avatar has

a positive effect on virtual product purchase intention through self-congruence with avatar and flow successively

H 4: Self-congruence with avatar and flow serially mediate the relationship between

appearance similarity and virtual product purchase intention.

2.4 Purchase intention (virtual product and real product)

One of the distinct features of the metaverse from video games is that the metaverse is highly related to the real world The metaverse is a virtual world that is extended from the real world (Papagiannidis et al., 2008) In other words, users’ behavior in the metaverse can affect their real life and vice versa For instance, Papagiannidis et al (2014), who identified the impact of virtual driving experience on automobiles in the real world, revealed that people who experienced

a simulated product were willing to buy the real-world product Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, studies that have found a direct connection between the virtual and the real worlds are scarce However, several industry cases have indicated a strong relevance between the two worlds Louis Vuitton’s limited edition (physical) products worn by virtual characters in the League of Legends game were all sold out in less than an hour after launch (Phelps, 2021) After Balenciaga released a brand showcase in the virtual game Afterworld, the number

of searches for the brand rose by 41% within 48 hours (Tashjian, 2021) Given this,

we can infer that consumer behavior in the virtual world is somewhat related to the real world Therefore, the following hypothesis is developed Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework of the study

H 5: Virtual product purchase intention is positively related to real product

pur-chase intention.

Appearance

Similarity with

Avatar

Self-congruence with Avatar

Virtual product Purchase Intention

Flow

H1

H2

H5 Real product

Purchase Intention

H3 H4

Figure 1 Conceptual framework for the study

3 Methodology

3.1 Samples

To capture the experience of actual metaverse users, this study recruited people who had prior experience in the popular metaverse platform, ZEPETO ZEPETO is one of the most famous metaverse platforms with 200 million users worldwide (Lancaster, 2021) Since ZEPETO was developed and is operated by a Korean company, Naver, we recruited participants from South Korea A total of 164 participants were recruited through

a survey panel of a market research company, and participants were given a voucher for USD $2.00 as compensation for their participation All of the participants were in their 20s and 30s, representing generation Z and millennials, who are the major users of the metaverse (Locke, 2021) Among the 162 participants, 132 were female, and 32 were

male, and the age range was 15 to 39 years (M = 27.97, SD = 6.36) (see Table 1)

3.2 Procedures and measurements

An online survey questionnaire was used, and all survey questions were translated and checked by two bilingual researchers In the initial stage of the survey, participants were asked whether they had used ZEPETO and had created their own avatars Then, several survey items related to ZEPETO were presented to stimulate their memories of using ZEPETO, such as the date of their first use, the number of their avatars, the amount of time they spent creating their avatars, and their experience of participating

in the virtual event in ZEPETO Participants then proceeded to the main survey items

The main survey measurement items were borrowed from previously validated scales The survey items were modified from existing measures to fit the context of this study

Table 1 Demographic profiles

Gender

Female

Male

131 31

19.1 80.9

Age

10s

20s

30s

19

71 72

11.7 44.1 44.2

Annual income

Less than $10,000

$10,000–$30,000

$30,000 - $50,000

$50,000 - $70,000

$70,000 - $90,000

Over $90,000

49

39

53

15

3 3

30.2 24.1 32.7 9.3 1.9 1.9

ZEPETO usage

Once a week

Twice a week

Three times a week

Frequently used but not using it anymore

37

15

12 98

22.8 9.3 7.4 60.5

Experience in buying a virtual item in ZEPETO

Never

Have experience

89 73

54.9 45.1

(see Table 2) Four items related to appearance similarity with their avatar, including body, style of clothing, and overall look (Hooi & Cho, 2013) The scales for self- congruence with the avatar included three items (Ko & Park, 2020; V Kumar & Kaushik, 2022) Three items were used to measure virtual product purchase intention

by modifying items from Huang (2012) and Cha (2011) Three items were used to gauge their flow state when using ZEPETO (Barhorst et al., 2021) For real product purchase intention, three items were used from N Kumar et al (2022) and Papagiannidis et al (2014) All items were rated on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree)

to 7 (strongly agree)

4 Results

4.1 Reliability and validity

Before the main analysis, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted using SPSS

28 All values of factor loadings exceeded the recommended threshold of 0.7 (Hair et al.,

2010), confirming indicator validity Internal consistency was checked with Cronbach’s alphas of the constructs, and the values exceeded the recommended threshold of 0.7 In addition, convergent validity was confirmed with average variance extracted (AVE), and the values exceeded the threshold of 0.5 (see Table 2) Discriminant validity was also established by comparing the square roots of the AVE values with the correlation values (Fornell & Larcker, 1981) (see Table 3)

Table 2 Measurement items and exploratory factor analysis results

Appearance similarity .870 912 723

Self-congruence with avatar .823 894 739

Virtual product purchase intention .907 907 764

I am likely to consider purchasing virtual items (e.g clothes, accessories) for my avatar in

ZEPETO.

.889

I would like to recommend the virtual items I bought for my avatar to my friends who know

ZEPETO.

.830

Real product purchase intention .857 874 698

If the virtual products I have purchased for my avatar are available in the real world

The experience in ZEPETO would increase my intention to buy the real items I used in the

virtual world.

.864

The experience in ZEPETO would help me make a purchase decision about real products .817

FL = Factor loadings, CA = Cronbach’s alpha, CR = Composite reliability, and AVE = Average variance extracted.