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INTEREST CATEGORY: INNOVATION AND TECH
POSTING TYPE: Calls: Journals

Author: Pantea Foroudi

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Special Issues

International Journal of Information Management

Metaverse disruption: Supernatural Transformations of Businesses and their Stakeholders

Business has been profoundly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic (Bagozzi et al., 2022; Foroudi et al., 2021; Izadi et al., 2021), and they are concerned for future pandemics. Floating in the metaverse is the best way to succeed in future pandemics, which entails stakeholder management, knowledge of the capital markets, and complex approval processes. In recent years, several studies have demonstrated the critical role of digital technologies in the post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery and extenuation of the limitations to physical environments. For example, virtual reality programs may provide users with temporary escape tools (Pillai et al., 2021) that could contribute to the improvement of customers/tourist confidence (Debusmann, 2020; Shiau et al., 2022).

Businesses benefit from human-machine interaction during pandemics and after (Pillai et al., 2021; Trkman and Černe, 2022). Moreover, companies are increasingly creating virtual experiences, products, and services by using the metaverse (Dincelli and Yayla, 2022). The worldwide metaverse market is expected to reach $760 billion by 2026 (Lapienytė, 2022). It is viewed as the next evolution of the internet. However, its success as “an innovative, dynamic ecosystem depends on its ability to converge physical and synthetic customer experiences seamlessly” (Heller et al. 2022, p.2). Through the metaverse, digital representations of people can interact with one another in a variety of ways (Ukko et al., 2022). Additionally, virtual communities can be created through the metaverse using devices such as virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses, and smartphone apps (Clement, 2022, Nvidia, 2021). A metaverse is transforming the pandemic-hit business (Forbes, 2022). Therefore, practitioners are increasingly considering metaverse technology as a tool to showcase their offerings, and helping, for instance, customers plan better holidays (Campbell, 2022), search better hotels, and live new experiences. This could involve two people traveling to the same city while being in two separate cities (Traveldaylynews, 2022), virtual flying, kayaking, and participating in expeditions. It is expected that the metaverse will be a new way for tourism to connect with tourists and, therefore, provide them with unique experiences and opportunities (Campbell, 2022).Timeline

Abstract submissions: 1 July 2023
Date of abstract decisions: 1 August 2023
FINAL deadline for paper submissions: 1 November 2023
Decisions and revisions: February 2024