The meaning of virtual entrepreneurship in social virtual worlds

•Users regard virtual business as game-like work.•They also try to achieve self-actualization by running virtual businesses.•Friendly relations with customers are a prominent trait of virtual businesses.•Virtual entrepreneurship is widely legitimated in social virtual worlds.

In order to expand our understanding of user innovation and entrepreneurship in emerging Web environments, this study examines users’ entrepreneurial cognition in virtual space. We explore this topic in the social virtual world of Second Life, where user-to-user sales of virtual goods have spurred new entrepreneurial ventures and a burgeoning in-world economy. Although users’ consumption of virtual goods has been examined in several studies, user entrepreneurship, or the creation/sales of virtual goods, has received scant attention. The study elicits the social representations of ‘virtual entrepreneurship’ of entrepreneurs in those worlds. To understand the meanings of virtual entrepreneurship we conducted interviews with 24 virtual entrepreneurs. Using core-periphery analysis, we identified a structure of the representation of virtual entrepreneurship consisting of 3 core conceptual components (Self-supporting, Widespread virtual business, and Social nature of business) and 12 peripheral concepts. This exploratory research contributes initial insights into the cognitive underpinnings of entrepreneurship in the emerging virtual economy.