The Metaverse in Supply Chain Management: Application and Benefits

Abstract

Businesses are keen to implement new technologies like virtual reality, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, big data, etc. as they see profitable business applications. The supply chain and the larger business community have been paying attention to Metaverse as one of the technology disruptions. The metaverse is being enhanced by several variables, including mobile-based always-on access and virtual currency linkage with reality. Additionally, the growth of the Metaverse and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) has taken the metaverse to a new level. This paper performs a comprehensive analysis of the metaverse's attributes, uses, and prospects in global supply chains. The current metaverse-focused study discloses the state of the research and outlines future research goals by reviewing and analysing recent articles that reveal metaverse uses across multiple supply chain activities. It has been demonstrated that the metaverse has several features that help businesses improve supply chain efficiency and customer engagement, including increased visibility into operations, facilities, inventory, and capacity. These characteristics fuelling the metaverse's application in supply chain management and logistics operations. The study further found that metaverse-related research has been extremely growing in the areas of healthcare, retail, and infrastructure, while there is still scope for study in the field of supply chain security and traceability. Finally, it is emphasized that metaverse-related research in logistics, supply chain operations, and agriculture supply chains has the potential to be explored.