Flow Online: Lessons Learned and Future Prospects

Although the flow construct has been widely studied over the past decade in marketing and related fields, it has proven to be an elusive construct to measure and model. In this paper, we examine two of the most important themes in flow research in the last decade: the conceptualization and measurement of flow in online environments and the marketing outcomes of flow. In addition, while the unique characteristics of the Internet contributed to our belief that flow was an important construct for understanding consumer use of the Web in 1996, the environment of the Web itself has changed radically over the past decade. Thus, we consider the current context of the Internet, including virtual worlds, for the role and application of the flow construct, as well as important related constructs that will be useful for understanding compelling experiences in the contemporary online environment. © 2009 Direct Marketing Educational Foundation, Inc. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.