In the following pages, you will find a questionnaire that you are invited to answer. This questionnaire is about avatars on virtual worlds, more precisely on Second Life. The participation to this research engages you to send a picture of your avatar on Second Life. This questionnaire has been developed by researchers of the RBC Financial Group Chair in E-Commerce at HEC Montréal. To thank you for your participation, you earn the chance to win the grand prize of 500 US$.  To fill in the questionnaire and to be eligible for the grand prize, you must be 18 years old or more. The age of the winner will be verified.

After completion of this questionnaire, the picture of your avatar will be used into the second phase of this research where five individuals will be exposed to your avatar and ASKED TO judge it.

The main objective of this research is to understand relationships between individuals and avatars in virtual worlds. An avatar has been defined by Holzwarth, Janiszewski and Neumann (2006: 20) as a “general graphic representation that is personified by means of computer technology”. This questionnaire is divided in six sections. In the first section you will be asked to send a picture of the avatar you use in the virtual world Second Life. In the second section, you will be asked to answer questions concerning your level of participation in virtual worlds. In the third section and fourth section, you will be asked to answer questions about yourself. In the fifth section, you will be asked questions about your level of involvement towards different product classes. Finally, in the sixth section you will be asked questions about your socio-demographic profile.

Through this questionnaire, work at a fairly high speed. Do not worry or puzzle over individual items. It is your first impressions, the immediate feelings about the items that we want to study. On the other hand, please do not be careless, because we also want your true impressions. Please be sure to follow the instructions while filling it in. There is no time limit to answer this questionnaire even though we have estimated the length to about 30 minutes.

Considering confidentiality measures taken, your participation to this research should not cause you prejudice nor benefit you directly. Your answers will eventually provide insights for the development of knowledge concerning virtual worlds and avatars. All data collected for the current research will serve for the realization of a Master thesis and could be used for future researches. All information collected in the questionnaire will stay strictly confidential, except the avatar, and will be used only for the diffusion of global results into scholarly and professional forums.

You are absolutely free to refuse to participate to this project, and you can decide at anytime to stop answering the questions. To fill in this questionnaire will be considered as your commitment to participate to this research. A confidentiality commitment has been signed by the researchers involved in this study. If you have any questions concerning this research, you can contact the main researcher, Mr. Jean-François Bélisle, via the e-mail address indicated below.

The HEC Montreal Research Ethics Committee (CER) has stated that the data collection linked to the present study respects ethical norms in research towards human beings. For any interrogations concerning ethical questions, you can contact the secretary of this committee at (+1) 514-340-6257 or at cer@hec.ca.

Thank you for your precious participation. Your opinion is highly valued.

I hereby acknowledge I have read and understood the terms of service concerning the present research
I understand that answering this questionnaire is my commitment to participate to this research

 I acknowledge being 18 years old or more

 

Jean-François Belisle M.Sc. Student HEC Montréal jf.belisle@hec.ca

Under the supervision of : Jacques Nantel Professor HEC Montréal jacques.nantel@hec.ca