Charting The Progression Of Metaverse Studies In Corporate Sectors

Metaverse is a technology-enabled “feeling of presence” in which users perceive virtual worlds and interactions in them as if they are real. It has unleashed a plethora of new opportunities with the potential to transform businesses and management profession globally.

Metaverse provides rich user experience, and hence has found growing interest in its applications tourism, healthcare, education, and marketing. Yet, to date, research efforts on metaverse remain sparse. In our study, we examine how metaverse research has evolved, identify the themes and theoretical background in the extant research on metaverse, and propose a future agenda for metaverse research.

Neal Stephenson first used the term “metaverse” in his novel Snow Crash. It depicted the metaverse as a virtual reality (VR) space that used the Internet and augmented reality (AR) through avatars and software agents.

Early flight simulators, immersive multisensory theatres, and videogames from the 20th century could all create an alternate reality for users, although users could not interact with the virtual objects and developers predefined the content. In the 21st century, immersive and interactive multimedia-style online games often called massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) such as World of Warcraft, Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite and platforms such as Second Life all allow users to control avatars and interact socially in the virtual world.

The precursor to the metaverse concept as we understand it today is the integrated immersive ecosystem with a seamless path between the physical and the virtual world with the use of avatars and holograms to work, interact, and socialize through simulated shared experience as Mark Zuckerberg has highlighted. In contrast to virtual worlds from the past where users can watch their avatars interact with other users’ avatars, researchers today conceptualize the metaverse as a technology-enabled “feeling of presence” in which users perceive virtual worlds and interactions in them as if they are real.

We unveil eleven major themes that can guide future business innovations while considering the challenges and risks that the metaverse poses. These themes, include among others, metaverse for education, metaverse for teamwork and collaborations, user perspectives of metaverse, emerging metaverse applications and innovation and entrepreneurship through metaverse.

Through our research, we illustrate the necessity to develop deeper theoretical connections for obtaining better insights since the extant research on the metaverse lacks strong theoretical foundations. While very few of the existing articles base their research on theory or theoretical models such as the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), even fewer have contributed to actual theory building in the metaverse context. Ultimately, through this work, we develop a future research agenda that can provide a firm theoretical foundation for metaverse research and new avenues to explore underexplored domains in this topic.

To uncover a spectrum of challenges and risks, future researchers should conduct research inquiries that focus on critical areas around the metaverse, such as data security, privacy, legal compliance, and reputation management. Indeed, businesses need to deeply understand these challenges to not only survive but also thrive in virtual business realm.

For instance, the metaverse collects and processes a huge amount of personal data with potential implications for user privacy, which can increase privacy concerns and may also negatively affect metaverse adoption. Researchers could also examine how the metaverse converges with business domains in an educational context. Accordingly, they could focus on illuminating possibilities for collaborative ventures, skill cultivation, and pioneering practices. Additionally, it is important to investigate user expectations, perceptions, apprehensions and preferences regarding the application of metaverse for various business activities. Businesses need to grasp users’ perspectives to navigate and succeed in the ever-evolving metaverse landscape.

Our research adopted an evidence-based approach to examine state-of-the-art of metaverse research to unveil new directions for practitioners on future business focus agenda and recommendations for researchers on future research agenda to enhance the metaverse’s business potential. First-generation metaverses consist of social virtual worlds (SVWs) (such as Second Life, Habbo Hotel, and Entropia Universe) that promote social interactions and user empowerment and whose emergent structures users create under minimum constraints and gaming virtual worlds (GVWs) (such as World of Warcraft), which typically feature pre-defined structures.

Second generation metaverses are a more recent phenomena, aligning with Mark Zuckerberg’s vision according to which, over and above gaming and socializing, metaverses facilitate myriad activities such as sports, education, and shopping beyond what one can imagine today. In line with the idea of these second-generation metaverses, many metaverse studies have not used blockchain technology to transfer digital assets and were likely conducted on software not integrated with such technology. Future research should consider the business implications of the integration of next generation technologies with metaverses and incorporate these future studies while evaluating the state-of-the-art.