Virtual Reality (VR) has become a trendy IT topic in the past few years. When Steven Spielberg turned Ernest Cline’s popular novel, Ready Player One, into a film, VR became known to an audience of millions. Still, few people are aware that core VR technology has been available since the 1960s (e.g., Sutherland 1965), as high equipment costs and insufficient quality have long been barriers to its broad adoption (Valmaggia 2017). Many had already declared VR ‘‘dead’’ (Slater and Sanchez-Vives 2016, p. 1), as VR was ‘‘over-hyped’’ for a long time (Walsh and Pawlowski 2002, p. 298) and stuck in the ‘trough of disillusionment’ of Gartner’s Hype Cycle (see, e.g., Linden and Fenn 2003). However, with the emergence of affordable, consumergrade VR headsets for gaming and entertainment, VR is experiencing a second spring. VR’s development is far from finished, but since its arrival on Gartner’s ‘slope of enlightenment’ in 2016, VR has become mature enough no longer to be part of Gartner’s Hype Cycle. Simply put, VR simulates a virtual environment that immerses users to the extent that they have the feeling of ‘‘being there’’ (Bowman and McMahan 2007, p. 36). Researchers from several disciplines, including computer science, engineering, and the social sciences (see, e.g., Freina and Ott 2015), have been studying VR technology for several decades, but as Walsh and Pawlowski (2002, p. 297) noted from the viewpoint of Information Systems (IS) research, ‘‘much of the reported research on VR is technological rather than social, leaving only a limited understanding of its behavioral and organizational impacts.’’ As a result, IS researchers’ interest in VR has been increasing (see, e.g., Cavusoglu et al. 2019; Parvinen et al. 2018). The market for VR technology has been growing along with the technology’s rapid development. Its global market size is estimated to increase from US$ 7.3 bn in 2018 to US$ 120.5 bn in 2026 (Fortune Business Insights 2019). However, a significant part of the VR market share is consumer software, particularly video games, as VR headsets like Facebook’s Oculus Quest and HTC’s VIVE are about to revolutionize gaming and entertainment. Still, companies such as IKEA, Volkswagen, and Takeda have also started to use VR technology, so this article discusses VR’s potential applications from the viewpoint of nongaming industries. In addition, it reviews the history of VR and distinguishes it from related concepts. Finally, the article provides an overview of VR research and explains why IS researchers are challenged to develop a research agenda. Accepted after one revision by Christof Weinhardt.

中文翻译：

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虚拟现实

虚拟现实 (VR) 已成为过去几年的热门 IT 话题。当史蒂文·斯皮尔伯格将欧内斯特·克莱恩的流行小说《玩家一号》改编成电影时，VR 被数以百万计的观众所熟知。尽管如此，很少有人意识到核心 VR 技术自 1960 年代以来就已经可用（例如，Sutherland 1965），因为高设备成本和质量不足长期以来一直是其广泛采用的障碍（Valmaggia 2017）。许多人已经宣布 VR“死了”（Slater 和 Sanchez-Vives 2016，第 1 页），因为 VR 被“过度炒作”了很长时间（Walsh 和 Pawlowski 2002，第 298 页）并陷入困境Gartner 炒作周期的“幻灭低谷”（参见，例如，Linden 和 Fenn，2003 年）。然而，随着用于游戏和娱乐的经济实惠的消费级 VR 耳机的出现，VR 正在经历第二个春天。VR 的发展远未完成，但自从 2016 年到达 Gartner 的“启蒙斜坡”以来，VR 已经足够成熟，不再是 Gartner 炒作周期的一部分。简而言之，VR 模拟了一个虚拟环境，让用户沉浸在“身临其境”的感觉中（Bowman 和 McMahan 2007，第 36 页）。来自多个学科的研究人员，包括计算机科学、工程和社会科学（参见 Freina 和 Ott 2015），几十年来一直在研究 VR 技术，但正如 Walsh 和 Pawlowski（2002，第 297 页）从从信息系统 (IS) 研究的观点来看，“大部分报道的 VR 研究是技术性的而不是社会性的，对其行为和组织影响的理解有限。”因此，IS 研究人员对 VR 的兴趣一直在增加（参见，例如，Cavusoglu 等人，2019 年；Parvinen 等人，2018 年）。随着VR技术的快速发展，VR技术市场也在不断扩大。其全球市场规模预计将从 2018 年的 73 亿美元增加到 2026 年的 1205 亿美元（财富商业洞察 2019）。然而，VR 市场份额的重要组成部分是消费软件，尤其是视频游戏，因为 Facebook 的 Oculus Quest 和 HTC 的 VIVE 等 VR 耳机即将彻底改变游戏和娱乐。尽管如此，宜家、大众和武田等公司也开始使用 VR 技术，因此本文从非游戏行业的角度讨论 VR 的潜在应用。此外，它还回顾了 VR 的历史并将其与相关概念区分开来。最后，这篇文章概述了 VR 研究，并解释了为什么 IS 研究人员面临制定研究议程的挑战。Christof Weinhardt 修订后接受。