Entrepreneurship at the virtual world of second life: Avapreneurship

Entrepreneurship is considered as the process of creating a new value, in which adequate labor and time are spent, financial, physical and social risks are taken and monetary rewards, personal satisfaction and independence are acquired. Entrepreneurship has become a widely discussed issue in recent years and particularly the entrepreneurs who could carry their enterprises to a good level have begun to come to the forefront as successful entrepreneurs and win the appreciation of the society. Meanwhile, the academia has been analyzing the characteristics of entrepreneurs perpetually and it has been scrutinizing the entrepreneurs and their enterprises in terms of entrepreneurship competencies. Virtual entrepreneurship, which is introduced as the entrepreneurship of the new century, is defined as making a project and providing the customers with the project at the virtual world by expecting some financial benefits. In the last 20 years, the development and widespread use of the internet and other communication tools have led entrepreneurs to have a share in the virtual environment. When the three dimensional virtual worlds are examined, it is seen that Second Life, which contain gradually expanding user content sharing and social communication network features of the internet and many other possibilities in itself, has become a new area of opportunities for entrepreneurs. In this context, this study tries to search the entrepreneurship stories of avatars which are active in Second Life. Thus, two main goals were determined for the study. The first of these was to determine the profiles of users who act as entrepreneurships in Second Life, one of the most popular virtual worlds. The second of these was to provide information on how and why the entrepreneurs in Second Life began entrepreneurship and to determine the methods and manner of work of entrepreneurs who perform successfully in the virtual world platform. The data was collected by two different methods in the scope of this study. Firstly, a questionnaire was given and one-to-one interviews were done with some successful entrepreneurs of the ones with whom were got in touch by the questionnaire. So as to obtain the data, the questionnaire was given to 87 Second Life avatars who were volunteers to participate in the study and who have entrepreneurship activities in Second Life between 15 June, 2013 and 30 August, 2013. 5 entrepreneur avatars who were successful in Second Life were interviewed by using one-to-one technique. As a result of the study, it was seen that the avatars who were active in Second Life do not have necessary skills about business administration. On the other hand, it was observed that they overcame these deficiencies by the help of their knowledge and experiences about computer hardware. The results of one-to-one interviews revealed that more time must be spent in Second Life and new and different products must be produced expeditiously in order to become a successful virtual entrepreneur. Keywords: Avatar, Avapreneurship, Entrepreneurship, Virtual World, Second Lif