Metaverse Entrepreneurship: Navigating Business Opportunities in Virtual Economies

Abstract

The metaverse transformed into a virtual (digital) ecology and thereby changed virtual economy entrepreneurship and virtual business ecosystems. This study discusses the contribution of metaverse entrepreneurial behaviour to the development of new business models and BSs' application to the implementation of disruptive technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain. Since scalable immersive product offerings can now be presented to anyone in the world using the metaverse, entrepreneurs no longer need to be restricted by geographical limitations on the place in which product is sold through the metaverse. However, despite the optimism, the review raises many substantive issues related to technology, law/regulation, and access chasm. In this study, the mediating and moderating role of virtual platform dynamics is also more deeply discussed, e.g., the moderating effect of technological change and experience (technology diffusion (i.e., technological readiness of the IT adopter), involvement, motivation) which have been proposed in the literature to enable attainment of objectives of entrepreneurial ventures in the metaverse (i.e., IT acceptance, consumerism, entrepreneurial activity). In the current paper, based on a theoretical framework, some causal effect paths which justify the direct, mediated and moderated effect paths between metaverse entrepreneurship and business opportunity are explored. Despite the findings not trivializing the paradigm shift that the metaverse warps, it also highlights the need with which the regulatory and framework future to be proposed by platform, middleware and good business practice should be considered. This study makes a new contribution to the literature on digital entrepreneurship, offering policymakers, entrepreneurs, and researchers the knowledge to take advantage of and overcome the issues and opportunities associated with the metaverse.