Metaverse Integration in Business and Management: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

This article aims to examine how the metaverse is reshaping business and management by providing a review of existing literature, identifying critical research gaps, and proposing a novel conceptual framework—the Metaverse Ecosystem Model—that integrates technological, human, and sustainability dimensions with strategic business outcomes in the Web3 era. The article will embrace a conceptual knowledge and literature review that articulates conceptual underpinnings, marketing and consumer behaviour, sectoral uses, and sustainability/workforce/boundaryless futures. This was synthesised directly into the creation of the Metaverse Ecosystem Model that connects three pillars (technological infrastructure, workforce skills, and energy and sustainability) to the business opportunities, challenges, and quantifiable results. The review shows that, although the metaverse can be used to conduct immersive marketing, operational efficiency via digital twins, sustainable industrial use, and inclusive development in emerging economies, the studies are disjointed and siloed. Among the critical areas of gaps, there are the lack of integrated frameworks between the foundational enablers and outcomes and the scarcity of empirical focus on long-term sustainability and workforce readiness. The suggested Metaverse Ecosystem Model fills these gaps by showing causal relationships between the three pillars via opportunities and constraints to innovation, new business models, and high customer engagement. It represents the first comprehensive framework of the ecosystem, specific to business and management, which provides managers and policymakers with a useful roadmap to responsible adoption.