News Archive

UWA Business School

Assistant Professor Wade Halvorson, from The University of Western Australia Business School, was awarded the Pearson Education Prize for the best case study paper at the July 2010 Academy of Marketing Conference. The Academy of Marketing annual conference is the largest academic marketing conference in the United Kingdom, and was held this year at Coventry University Business School.

The case study, ‘Cashing in on the Green Dots: Marketing Ireland in Second Life,' concerns Virtual Dublin, a very successful online business in the virtual world Second Life. It will soon be published in the Journal of Marketing Management.

This follows hot on the heels of The University of Western Australia's Second Life presence and its founder, Jay Jay Jegathesan from the UWA School of Physics, being nominated in the top 10 for the 2010 Linden prize for contributions to Art, Architecture, Research and Teaching in Virtual Worlds.

Assistant Professor Halvorson, who uses Second Life as a teaching tool for Bachelor of Commerce and Masters by Coursework students, said, ‘This means that Second Life businesses can be taken seriously. The case study presents a viable business model that works in the virtual world and that increased our knowledge in this field.  Virtual world businesses have seen exponential growth in the revenue of virtual products reaching a staggering $US2 billion.'

Assistant Professor Halvorson said the paradigm-breaking moment occurred while he was completing his PhD at a Swedish University. He was using Second Life to conduct classes with his students in Perth, who were logged in at the UWA Sky Theatre within Second Life while simultaneously being addressed by a guest lecturer from Vancouver, Canada.

‘It opened up the world to my students. We have students at the computer labs conducting international consumer behaviours. This allows me to conduct tutorial studies on branded communities such as at Harley Davidson Island in Second Life and give students exposure to community members without leaving their desktops.'

After its official launch on the 2nd of October 2009 by UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Robson, the UWA presence in Second Life has seen a meteoric rise and is now recognised leader in the virtual world, with its many activities captured in this very popular blog .

Contacts: Wade Halvorson (0418 942 462) Jay Jay Jegathesan (0417 180 564)