Digital platforms increasingly support collective action initiatives, yet coordinating geographically dispersed users through digital interfaces remains challenging, particularly in threshold settings where success requires critical mass participation. This study investigates how avatar-based social representation in Virtual Reality (VR) influences coordination in threshold collective action problems. Through a randomized controlled experiment with 188 participants organized in 94 pairs, we examine whether brief avatar exposure affects perceived co-presence and coordination outcomes in a two-player threshold public goods game implemented as a real-effort recycling task. We manipulate a single design feature: participants either briefly interact through avatars before the main task (Pre-Task Avatar treatment) or complete an equivalent activity individually without peer visibility (No Pre-Task Avatar treatment). Our findings reveal that minimal avatar exposure significantly increases perceived co-presence and improves strategic coordination, though not through increased contribution quantity. Participants exposed to peer avatars achieve higher social welfare by coordinating to avoid wasteful over-contribution beyond the threshold. Additionally, we identify VR presence-the sense of 'being there' in the virtual environment-as a stronger predictor of task performance than co-presence itself. This research contributes to Information Systems theory by establishing causal pathways from specific design features to presence to coordination outcomes, demonstrates VR as a rigorous experimental methodology for IS research, and provides actionable insights for designing collaborative platforms supporting sustainability initiatives and threshold collective action problems.

翻译：数字平台日益支持集体行动倡议，然而通过数字界面协调地理分散的用户仍然具有挑战性，特别是在需要临界质量参与才能成功的阈值情境中。本研究探讨了虚拟现实（VR）中基于虚拟化身的社会表征如何影响阈值集体行动问题中的协调行为。通过对94组共188名参与者开展的随机对照实验，我们检验了在作为真实努力回收任务实施的双人阈值公共物品博弈中，短暂的虚拟化身暴露是否会影响感知的共在感和协调结果。我们操纵单一设计特征：参与者或在主要任务前通过虚拟化身进行简短互动（任务前虚拟化身处理组），或在没有同伴可见性的情况下单独完成同等活动（无任务前虚拟化身处理组）。研究结果表明，极少的虚拟化身暴露能显著提升感知共在感并改善策略协调，但并非通过增加贡献数量实现。暴露于同伴虚拟化身的参与者通过协调避免超过阈值的浪费性过度贡献，从而实现了更高的社会福利。此外，我们发现VR临场感——即对虚拟环境中“身临其境”的感知——比共在感本身更能预测任务表现。本研究通过建立从特定设计特征到临场感再到协调结果的因果路径，为信息系统理论作出贡献；展示了VR作为IS研究的严谨实验方法论的潜力；并为设计支持可持续发展倡议和阈值集体行动问题的协作平台提供了可操作的见解。