01359nas a2200169   4500000000100000000000100001000000100002008004100003100001600044700001400060700001900074245007600093856007800169300001400247490000700261520092100268       2014                            d1 aIsto Huvila1 aStefan Ek1 aGunilla Widén00aInformation sharing and the dimensions of social capital in Second Life  uhttp://jis.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/01/10/0165551513516711.abstract  a237–2480 v403 aEarlier research has shown that the virtual world of Second Life is an environment that fosters the emergence of social capital. The central finding of this study is the pertinence of emotional communication and information sharing in the emergence of social capital in Second Life, and consequently, the significance of emotional intelligence as a basis for successful social and informational exchange. The emergence of social capital in Second Life is deeply affected by the dialectic of the conflicting expectations and experiences of the environment. The emergence of social capital in Second Life may be described as a process of accumulation of emotional intelligence that forms a basis for the exploitation of available structural and relational affordances of social and information exchange. The study is based on qualitative analysis of open-ended data collected using a web survey of Second Life users.