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Do Virtual Worlds Provide Measurable Value? Insight for Enterprise with Dr. Mitzi Montoya

Can we measure the effectiveness of virtual worlds for business? How do we know whether virtual meetings are better than a teleconference, a live meeting, or a Web cast? How do you put a number on how a virtual world ‘feels’ as a business tool?

Dr. Mitzi Montoya, a leading business researcher, has been measuring the effectiveness of virtual worlds and with her colleague Dr. Anne Massey, has developed a measurement scale called “Perceived Virtual Presence” to help assess the value of interaction in virtual worlds. When Montoya and her research team announced the PVP scale late last year, she said the more “present” users feel in virtual worlds, the greater the effectiveness of training, collaboration, education or presentation.

In a recent interview, Dr. Montoya described PVP:

“PVP is the whole idea of projecting yourself into the [virtual] environment. We talk about it along three dimensions. We talk about feeling immersed in the environment or feeling like you are there. It is also about being absorbed in whatever task you are supposed to be working on. And then it is being engaged with the other people so that you have the sense that the avatar that you are looking at is the other person that you are working with. Those are the three dimensions: environment, task and people orientation. There are measures to those relationships. Technically, how you get there is you ask people a battery of questions and try to identify the underlying dimensions that are behind what people are saying.”

Dr. Montoya talks about this research and other initiatives to understand the utility of virtual worlds for training, collaboration and presence.

In the Spotlight with Tony O’Driscoll
Our enterprise correspondent Tony O’Driscoll opens the show with insight into how organizations and researchers are assessing the value of virtual worlds.

Connecting the Dots: ThinkBalm Immersive Internet Business Value Study
The Immersive Internet is a collection of emerging technologies combined with a social culture that has roots in video games and virtual worlds. Success in the consumer virtual world and video game markets has driven experimentation with immersive technology in the workplace. During the past year, the idea of using immersive technology at work has gained some traction and anecdotal success has led to questions about business value. To try to answer these questions about the business value of using immersive technologies in the workplace, ThinkBalm surveyed 66 Immersive Internet practitioners and conducted 15 in-depth interviews. The ThinkBalm Immersive Internet Business Value Study, Q2 2009, contains ThinkBalm’s research findings and analysis.

Erica Driver, Principal at ThinkBalm, discusses the results of the ThinkBalm Immersive Internet Business Value Study, Q2 2009 in the Connecting the Dots segment of the show.

Transcript:
A full transcript of this episode is available on SlideShare.

Guest Biographies

Mitzi Montoya

Mitzi Montoya (PhD Marketing and BS Engineering, Michigan State University), is Professor of Marketing and Innovation Management in the Business Management Department, College of Management, North Carolina State University.

At NCSU, Mitzi teaches graduate courses in service and product innovation, marketing strategy, management of technology, and product management in the MBA program. She has also taught undergraduate marketing principles. Mitzi is currently the Marketing Area coordinator in the Business Management Department at NCSU and executive director of the Service & Product Innovation Initiative in the College of Management.

Mitzi’s research interests lie at the intersection of technology and marketing. Her research focuses on innovation processes and strategies and the role of technology as an enabler of decision-making. Her publications have appeared in Management Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, MIS Quarterly, and the Journal of Product Innovation Management, among others. She has been the recipient of competitive research grants from the National Science Foundation, Advanced Practices Council of the Society of Information Management, Product Development and Management Association, as well as foundation grants from several firms.

Mitzi is a frequent presenter in executive education programs and consults on topics including marketing management and strategy, new business development, product development, product lifecycle management, and innovation strategy. Her industry experience includes work with companies such as Dow Chemical Company, IBM, MeadWestvaco, Spirent Communications, Raytheon, Martin Marietta Materials, EDUCAUSE, ABB, John Deere, DaimlerChrysler, Allied-Signal, Cotton Incorporated, among others.

Tony O’Driscoll

Tony O’Driscoll, Ed.D., is a professor of practice at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business where he also serves as executive director of Fuqua’s Center for IT and Media; a research center dedicated to understanding the strategic, structural, and business model issues emerging from these vibrant and volatile industry sectors.

His research has been published in leading academic journals such as Management Information Sciences Quarterly, the Journal of Management Information Systems, and the Journal of Product Innovation Management. He has also written for respected professional journals such as Harvard Business Review, Strategy and Business, Supply Chain Management Review and Chief Learning Officer magazine.

You can keep up with Tony’s musings on his popular “Learning Matters” blog.

Erica Driver

Erica Driver is a co-founder and principal at ThinkBalm. She is a leading industry analyst and consultant with 15 years of experience in the IT sector. She is quoted in mainstream and industry trade press including the Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CIO, and Computerworld. Prior to co-founding ThinkBalm, Erica was a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, where she launched the company’s Web3D coverage as part of her enterprise collaboration research. She was also the co-conspirator behind Forrester’s Information Workplace concepts and research.

While at Forrester, Erica served as a strategic advisor to a wide range of clients including Alcoa, Bell Canada, Dominion Resources, GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, Marriott, Microsoft, Raytheon, Roche, the United Nations, and the U.S. General Services Administration. Prior to her tenure at Forrester, she was a Director at Giga Information Group (now part of Forrester) and an analyst at Hurwitz Group (now Hurwitz & Associates). She began her career in IT as a system administrator and Lotus Notes developer. Erica is a graduate of Harvard University.