Mapping the Evolution of Metaverse Research in Business Domains: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Directions

In an increasingly digital world, the metaverse offers new opportunities and presents novel challenges for business applications. With growing interest in its applications in various business sectors such as tourism, healthcare, education, and marketing due to the rich user experiences it can provide, the metaverse has begun to gather increasing research attention. Yet, to date, research efforts in this area remain sparse. In this paper, we systematically review 151 papers on metaverse and answer three research questions on how metaverse research has evolved, identify the themes and theoretical background in the current metaverse literature, and propose a future agenda for metaverse research. We unveil 11 major themes guiding future business innovations around metaverse and emphasize the need to develop deeper theoretical connections to obtain better insights on metaverse applications. We also uncover various unexplored domains such as privacy implications and adoption of metaverse, technostress caused by increased use of metaverse, metaverse applications in various educational contexts, and the metaverse's effect on student wellbeing. Further, we discuss the future research agenda for metaverse to enable its business potential and managerial impact.