Enhancing supply chain resilience and realizing green sustainable development through the virtual environment of the metaverse

This study explores how the virtual environment of metaverse generates benefits to drive firms' rational choice in mutual trust building, and further ensures the green knowledge sharing intention maintaining for continuous enhancing supply chain resilience and realizing green performance, further promoting environmentally sustainable development. A conceptual framework is formulated by incorporating the natural resource-based view, knowledge-based view, and rational choice theory. This framework is supported and validated using PLS-SEM. The findings of the analysis reveal that the virtual environment of the metaverse can create a sense of physical proximity, effectively managing communication distance and influencing firms' emotional attitude during interactions. Furthermore, the metaverse facilitates sensory feedback, thereby strengthening emotional expression. Based on these observations, supply chain firms are likely to adopt rational thinking and demonstrate rational behavior, making choices that foster mutual trust. As trust is established, it promotes the sharing of green knowledge, strengthens supply chain resilience, facilitates the achievement of environmentally friendly performance in the green supply chain, and contributes to the sustainable development of the environment. This study makes valuable contributions to the existing literature concerning the integration of green supply chain and the metaverse.