With the digitalization of production and consumption environments, consumers are no longer merely targets of marketing, but key players in creating value jointly with companies by participating in various decision-making processes. Much virtual content in particular, such as fashion shows, exhibitions, games, social activities, and shopping, which fashion brands implement in virtual worlds, cannot be completed without consumers’ active engagement and interaction. Thus, this study considers consumers’ participation in virtual content provided by fashion brands as value co-creation in virtual worlds. This study aims to examine how consumer (i.e., consumer smartness) and fashion firm (i.e., perceived intellectual capital) factors influence value co-creation behavior intention in virtual worlds. Data were collected from 410 consumers in their 20s nationwide through an online survey, and a higher-order structural equation modeling analysis was conducted to test the research model. The results showed that both consumer smartness and perceived intellectual capital positively influenced customer participation behavior and citizenship behavior intentions. Specifically, perceived intellectual capital had a greater impact on value co-creation behavior in the virtual world than consumer smartness. The findings provide empirical evidence that the fashion firms’ intangible assets and consumers’ competence in the digital shopping environment encourage their intentions to co-create value in virtual worlds.

I. Introduction
Ⅱ. Literature Review
    1. Value co-creation in virtual worlds
    2. Influence factor of value co-creation
    3. Individual factor: Consumer smartness
    4. Firm factor: Intellectual capital
Ⅲ. Methods
    1. Data collection and analysis
    2. Respondents profiles
Ⅳ. Results and Discussion
    1. Testing the validity of measurement
    2. Testing the research model
    3. Discussion
Ⅴ. Conclusion
References
Appendix 1. Measures

• Soo-kyoung Ahn(Associate Professor, Dept. of Clothing & Textile, Chonnam National University, Korea) | 안수경 (전남대학교 의류학과 부교수)
• Eunjeong Ryou(Professor, Dept. of Clothing and Textiles, Changwon National University, Korea) | 류은정 (창원대학교 의류학과 교수) Corresponding author