Metaverse in services marketing: an overview and future research directions

Although it is still at the inception stage, the Metaverse is likely to revolutionize service marketing and management by disrupting existing business strategies, consumer norms, and marketing practices. However, most of the existing research focuses on the co-creation of metaverstic experiences in terms of interaction, but not on the co-creation of the purchase experience process of the actual products and services. This study proposes a conceptual framework that explains how and why the Metaverse will have significant impacts on creation and delivery of service experiences, the marketing of those experiences, and the co-creation of the purchase experience process through the provision of functional and hedonic benefits to various stakeholders. This study also discusses the potential of Metaverse in mitigating decision risks attributed to uncertainties associated with service experience offerings, information overload, and confusion in the marketing ecosystems and customers' service experience journey. Since the adoption of the Metaverse will have significant implications for all stakeholders while presenting challenges, implications of the Metaverse and the associated challenges are discussed. This study also provides a research agenda to investigate the possible impacts of the Metaverse on service industries.