3D online environments: ethical challenges for marketing research

Date10 August 2015
Published date10 August 2015
Pages218-234
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-01-2014-0003
AuthorIoannis Krasonikolakis,Nancy Pouloudi
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information management & governance
3D online environments:
ethical challenges for
marketing research
Ioannis Krasonikolakis
Southampton Business School, University of Southampton,
Southampton, UK, and
Nancy Pouloudi
Department of Management Science and Technology,
Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: to provide an overview of related studies and to
highlight research gaps and questions that need to be addressed. Research conducted in
three-dimensional (3D) online environments constitutes a different research context, not least because it
involves the recruitment of avatars in the research process. Researchers need to appreciate better the
ethical concerns that arise in this novel, fast-evolving context and how these concern different
stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs an interdisciplinary desk-research approach.
It critically reviews related literature, highlights the involved stakeholders, discusses ethical issues
from a marketing research perspective and concludes with a discussion of related studies and research
gaps, providing direct future research avenues.
Findings – The characteristics of the 3D online environments and the behaviour and experiences of
their users set the boundaries and guide the way regarding the ethical research in this context.
Research limitations/implications The paper does not present primary empirical results,
instead it reviews and critiques related literature in 3D online environments and sets the agenda for
future research.
Practical implications The paper provides ethical guidelines and identies blurred areas in
conducting or participating in research in 3D online environments.
Originality/value – Based on earlier studies and examples of ethical concerns when studying 3D
online environments, this paper emphasises the parameters that should be taken into consideration in
current and future research studies.
Keywords Stakeholders, Virtual worlds, 3D online environments, Ethical issues and guidelines,
Marketing research
Paper type Viewpoint
1. Introduction
This paper presents a review of studies conducted in Virtual Worlds (VWs) and in
three-dimensional (3D) online environments, which investigate the ethical issues in this
context. Of particular interest to our review is marketing research taking place in these
innovative IT-enabled environments, since they are relatively recent and therefore set
new challenges for conducting ethical research. The issues presented in this paper apply
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
JICES
13,3/4
218
Received 29 January 2014
Revised 16 November 2014
Accepted 19 March 2015
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.13 No. 3/4, 2015
pp.218-234
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-01-2014-0003
to other related disciplines that follow similar qualitative and quantitative
methodologies for conducting research.
VWs emerged in the early 2000s, rst as gaming-oriented or social networking
platforms (Messinger et al., 2009). VWs are 3D environments where users interact
through avatars, which constitute their representatives (Krasonikolakis et al., 2011).
While at their inception VWs were embraced primarily by virtual gaming communities,
a considerable number of VWs soon adopted characteristics and applications of social
networks and e-commerce (Messinger et al., 2009). For example, “residents” of those
environments develop their own virtual houses (interior and exterior decoration), means
of transport, clothing, organise entertaining events, set goals that should be achieved by
the members of the community or even develop their own virtual stores where they sell
virtual or real products/services (V-Commerce). The commercial activity in VWs
prompted real-world businesses and retail stores to consider these environments as a
new, alternative retail channel (3D-Commerce). Moreover, there were cases where
real-world brands developed a 3D version of their websites to exploit the characteristics
offered by this technology to enhance customer experience and better meet their
consumers’ needs. In this paper we focus on these latter types of VWs and 3D online
environments, excluding purely game-oriented environments such as World of
Warcraft from the scope of this research.
3D online environments are gaining momentum and for that reason academia call for
further research (e.g. Novak, 2010, pp. 29-31) as it is believed that new ethical,
technological, legal and other issues will arise (Hendaoui et al., 2008, pp. 89-92). VWs are
considered a new alternative marketing channel that has been labelled “V-Marketing”
(Hendaoui et al., 2008, p. 89). In this novel environment, academics and practitioners are
interested in how existing theories, methodologies and social and ethical research are
applied, particularly in the marketing eld (Messinger et al., 2009, p. 224). The
disciplinary orientation, the methodological preferences and the basic research
questions are, according to McKee and Porter (2009, p. 7), the key dimensions for
researchers studying these environments. This paper reviews ethical studies in 3D
online environments, emphasising the role and behaviour of users, researchers,
practitioners and ethical committees. An additional aim of this paper is to provoke
discussion among researchers regarding the ethical concerns and principles for
conducting research in marketing, information systems and related disciplines.
Reviewing the literature, we note that there is limited and sometimes controversial
discussion, at least in marketing, about the ethics of conducting research. On the one
hand, there is a stream of academic researchers and practitioners that signal the
dilemmas in terms of troubling ethical behaviour (Lund, 2001,p.65;Chonko and Hunt,
2000, pp. 237-238). They primarily focus on two dimensions: the strategy followed in
conducting marketing studies and the unethical use of research data (Philips, 2010,
pp. 275-256). On the other hand, Aggarwal et al. (2012, p. 463) claim that in the past 20
years, both academics and practitioners have been sensitised about ethical issues and
disapprove of unethical conduct in the research process orchestration or in the misuse of
data.
One of the reasons why the ethics that researchers follow when they investigate
marketing phenomena matter is their impact on markets. For example, there is a case
study in South Korea (Lee, 2005) where ethical marketing inuenced groceries markets
(Tsukamoto-Wagner, 2009, p. 41). Yet, Anker et al. (2010, p. 518) consider that even one
219
3D online
environments

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