My Physical-Digital Self: Exploring the Detrimental Effects of the Metaverse on Relationship & Identity Development

The metaverse, which is the next iteration of the internet--an immersive, virtual world--poses a threat to the essential human need for healthy relationship and identity development. Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of isolation and virtual socialization led many to prefer physical experiences, despite society’s overall dependency on and connectedness to the internet and technological devices. Framed by Maslow’s hierarchy of human psychological needs, Turkle’s analysis of the human relationship to earlier forms of virtual reality, and Foucault’s principles of caring for and knowing the self, this paper argues that the metaverse will be detrimental towards developing participant’s relationship and identity, because of its inability to satisfy needs for substantial relationships, in comparison to physical experiences, and because of its production of a virtual self that inhibits self-actualization. The analysis of the major players in the origins, the present-day, and the future of the metaverse, such as Second Life, The Sims, Fortnite, Meta (formerly Facebook), Microsoft, Unity, and Decentraland, reveals that these companies are not prioritizing and facilitating healthy relationship and identity development in their metaverse strategies. My gallery installation project, My Physical-Digital Self, helps conclude the paper, serving as an artistic expression and manifestation of the ideas explored in this paper. Despite the hype and innovations around the metaverse, this technology is at risk of replicating the harmful effects of virtual engagement on relationship and identity development, which already existed and were especially realized as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic

Chapter 5 How is consumption changing?

The unprecedented Covid-19 crisis revealed the scale and scope of a new type of economy taking shape in front of our very eyes: the digital economy. This book presents a concise theoretical and conceptual framework for a more nuanced analysis of the economic and sociological impacts of the technological disruption that is taking place in the markets of goods and services, labour markets, and the global economy more generally. This interdisciplinary work is a must for researchers and students from economics, business, and other social science majors who seek an overview of the main digital economy concepts and research. Its down-to-earth approach and communicative style will also speak to businesses practitioners who want to understand the ongoing digital disruption of the market rules and emergence of the new digital business models. The book refers to academic insights from economics and sociology while giving numerous empirical examples drawn from basic and applied research and business. It addresses several burning issues: how are digital processes transforming traditional business models? Does intelligent automation threaten our jobs? Are we reaching the end of globalisation as we know it? How can we best prepare ourselves and our children for the digitally transformed world? The book will help the reader gain a better understanding of the mechanisms behind the digital transformation, something that is essential in order to not only reap the plentiful opportunities being created by the digital economy but also to avoid its many pitfalls

The Adoption of Digital fashion as an End-product: A Systematic Literature Review of Research Foci and Future Research Agenda

With the advancement of 3D design software, “digital fashion” has evolved from a retail and design tool for physical fashion to a virtual-only end-product sold to consumers in wholly digital form. As many brands are now developing digital fashion end products as a new revenue stream, given its potential to reduce some levels of overconsumption of physical clothing, it warrants academic attention. However, the literature has predominantly defined digital fashion as a tool rather than an end-product, resulting in an incomplete definition of digital fashion. This hinders scholars’ ability to fully comprehend and explore this emerging product category. This article aims to synthesize the current marketing/management literature on digital fashion and investigate the theories, context, characteristics, and methodology of digital fashion as an end-product. This study contributes to the literature by providing a comprehensive industry-accepted definition of digital fashion within a conceptual framework, categorizing six different types of digital fashion end-products, and establishing a future research agenda that will lead to new research streams

3D Analytics: Opportunities and Guidelines for Information Systems Research

Progress in sensor technologies has made three-dimensional (3D) representations of the physical world available at a large scale. Leveraging such 3D representations with analytics has the potential to advance Information Systems (IS) research in several areas. However, this novel data type has rarely been incorporated. To address this shortcoming, this article first presents two showcases of 3D analytics applications together with general modeling guidelines for 3D analytics, in order to support IS researchers in implementing research designs with 3D components. Second, the article presents several promising opportunities for 3D analytics to advance behavioral and design-oriented IS research in several contextual areas, such as healthcare IS, human-computer interaction, mobile commerce, energy informatics and others. Third, we investigate the nature of the benefits resulting from the application of 3D analytics, resulting in a list of common tasks of research projects that 3D analytics can support, regardless of the contextual application area. Based on the given showcases, modeling guidelines, research opportunities and task-related benefits, we encourage IS researchers to start their journey into this largely unexplored third spatial dimension

Consumer Purchase Behavior of Online Professional Sports Merchandise

The purpose of this study was to find out whether shoppers browsed online then purchased in a store or purchased online. There had been limited empirical research and knowledge about online shopping behavior in relation to professional sports merchandise. Therefore, this study looked at consumer behavior and the use of websites to purchase professional sports merchandise. Most of all when research was analyzed the author found some shortcomings that overlooked buyers who researched products online, and then purchased in stores. To achieve the goal of this study, a survey was administered to 100 undergraduate and graduate students from Concordia University, Saint Paul in the United States. It was discovered that 51% of shoppers browsed online, researched the product, read reviews, and then purchased at a brick and mortar store. Recommendations on future studies of professional sports apparel would be beneficial seeing as 94% of consumers purchase professional sports apparel, based on results from the survey that was administered. A second recommendation would be to uncover whether shoppers used a hand held device such as a cellphone or tablet to research, compare prices, or read reviews in a store before the consumer purchased merchandise

Coming to your senses: exploring the role of touch in physical and digitally immersive consumption experiences

This dissertation consists of two empirical papers in which I examine the Need for Touch (NFT)in two settings where the ability to touch is disrupted, exploring the role of touch and other senses in physical and metaverse consumption experiences. In the first paper, I investigate the pandemic\u27s influence on consumer shopping behaviors, focusing on the coping mechanisms for reduced tactile interactions. The research uses an exploratory, inductive sequential design to chronicle shopping experiences through longitudinal interviews and autodriving. The findings reveal two primary themes: Shopping as a Reprieve and Fear of Shopping. This research underscores the intricate connection between grieving and the sensory deprivation of touch in traumatic events like COVID-19. In the second paper, I adopt a mixed-method approach that combines short-form interviews and a 2x2 between-subjects design experiment to test whether the physical touch of a featured product before a virtual encounter affects brand attitudes, examining the moderating role of the NFT. A multiple linear regression analysis shows a significant interaction between the physical touch condition and the NFT on brand attitudes. Individuals with high-NFT reported lower brand attitudes, while low-NFT participants express enhanced positivity towards the brand. This paper contributes insights into the interplay between tactile experiences and the NFT on the formation of attitudes toward brands encountered in digitally immersive environments

Metaverse in fashion industry development: applications and challenges

This article studies the peculiarities of using metaverse in fashion industry. Given the technical limitations, the metaverse is being considered as a marketing tool in this industry. There are several key areas for fashion brands in virtual worlds: branding, goods, virtual fashion, and digital skins, distribution channels and logistics, interaction with consumers, and customer information. Fashion companies using the metaverse are aiming to promote their products and connect with consumers by creating and/or expanding product concepts in a virtual world, building brand trust and attracting new customer groups. Increased costs of customer acquisition through paid digital marketing increase brand interest in the metaverse as an alternative channel. Benefits of the metaverse for the fashion industry include limitless online format for product and brand concept development, reaching new customer groups, a new level of multi-channel approach companies are developing, expanding the space for testing new products, developing customer experience, holding their attention, etc. In spite of meta universe's advantages for the fashion industry, at the moment it doesn't have a mass application in the sphere of fashion brands, there are only a limited number of active clients in virtual worlds. The article marked some problems of the development of the technology in the industry. The results of the research let us conclude that the metaverse is perspective for the fashion industry development, and it is necessary to solve the mentioned problems, as well as to work out concrete mechanisms on the legislative level and on the level of company strategy, which minimise the risks of fashion brands' presence in metaverse and maximally will satisfy the consumers' desire in virtual reality

Digital Marketing and Sustainability in the Era of Climate Change: PLS-Structural Equation Modeling Approach

This paper aimed to examine the Buying behavior and awareness among the active community of 4.54 billion web-based users (59% of the Global populace) and their concerns over the issue of Climate Change, environment-friendly practices, recyclable packaging, safe and human-grade products, and services appeal to the sensitivity and culture of the digitized platform users. The online survey method was used to collect data from 482 participants via an online questionnaire. This study derived data from an ethically/commercially motivated online survey (n = 482) (used PLS-SEM Modeling for the analysis of complex latent variables) from the UK, USA, Canada, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, to determine general domestic buying/consumption patterns and preferences; most narrowly related with the concern/responsibility/awareness of disruptive climate change. The studys findings established positive relationships between Clients and conceptions patterns of everyday buying for contributing to climate change and environment-related consumer buying practices. The study suggests both challenges assumed wisdom about environment-related user behavior patterns and suggest future projected gaps for 2030-2050 for future research. The experts perspectives offer an inclusive chronicle on vital facets of this imperative topic as well as views on related issues plus artificial intelligence, driven social and digital Green Marketing complexities, gaps, and limitations in the contemporary research, bonding Green Marketing with buying complexities, climate change and especially clients transformed online buying behavior

Shaping the metaverse into reality: multidisciplinary perspectives on opportunities, challenges, and future research

The term metaverse is described as the next iteration of the Internet. Metaverse is a virtual platform that uses extended reality technologies, i.e., augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, 3D graphics, and other emerging technologies to allow real-time interactions and experiences in ways that are not possible in the physical world. Companies have begun to notice the impact of the metaverse and how it may help maximize profits. The purpose of this paper is to offer perspectives on several important areas, i.e., marketing, tourism, manufacturing, operations management, education, the retailing industry, banking services, healthcare, and human resource management that are likely to be impacted by the adoption and use of a metaverse. Each includes an overview, opportunities, challenges, and a potential research agenda