Mapping the Evolution of Metaverse Research in Business: A Systematic Review

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 professions globally.

- Sourya Joyee De

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 professions globally. Metaverse provides rich user experience, and hence has found growing interest in its applications in 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 theaters, 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.