| A number of researchers and industry pundits have predicted that it is only a matter of time before commercial websites that employ desktop virtual reality (VR) are commonplace on the Internet. Instead of searching through a flat, two-dimensional web of text and images, the visitor to a VR-enabled website will explore a three-dimensional virtual space. To date, however, there have been only a handful of attempts to deploy VR shops or shopping malls, and none of these has been particularly successful. Researchers have only recently begun to investigate factors for success in building VR-based shopping venues.;This study tests the basic assumptions that virtual environments should constructed to be as realistic as possible and that users will experience greater ease of navigation in virtual spaces if they are supplied with an exocentric (3rd person) view rather than an egocentric (1st person) view. From an extensive review of applicable literature, a theoretical model is conceived that predicts, for manipulations of realism and user view, a network of effects on perceptions of navigability, presence, flow, and substitutability. In turn, the model hypothesizes subsequent effects of these perceptions upon exploratory behavior and usage intentions.;Supported by virtual reality plug-in for the Internet, a virtual shopping experiment was conducted in which student subjects were tasked with shopping for sports apparel. Data obtained from the experiment was subsequently examined using structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized network of effects. Nine of eighteen hypotheses embodied in the model are substantiated. In addition, seven of nine research constructs prove viable and survive to play a significant role in a revised theoretical model.;For practitioners, this study provides persuasive evidence to support the continued development of increasingly realistic virtual environments. Contrary to expectations, however, the results suggest that viewing perspective is of little consequence for virtual spaces of limited size and complexity---spaces that may be typical of virtual shopping venues.;For researchers, the introduction of the concepts of substitutability and flow into existing models of technology adoption is both a novel and important step in understanding user acceptance of innovation based on virtual technology. Of further interest is the proposed virtual reality marketing model, a detailed representation of consumer/user behavior that extends existing information systems and marketing theory. |
