Extended Reality and Metaverse - Immersive Technology in Times of Crisis

Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics Timothy Jung M. Claudia tom Dieck Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro   Editors Extended Reality and Metaverse Immersive Technology in Times of Crisis

Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics

Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics brings the most current research presented at conferences and workshops to a global readership. The series features volumes (in electronic and print formats) of selected contributions from conferences in all areas of economics, business, management, and finance. In addition to an overall evaluation by the publisher of the topical interest, scientific quality, and timeliness of each volume, each contribution is refereed to standards comparable to those of leading journals, resulting in authoritative contributions to the respective fields. Springer’s production and distribution infrastructure ensures rapid publica- tion and wide circulation of the latest developments in the most compelling and promising areas of research today. The editorial development of volumes may be managed using Springer Nature’s innovative EquinOCS, a proven online conference proceedings submission, management and review system. This system is designed to ensure an efficient timeline for your publication, making Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics the premier series to publish your workshop or conference volume. This book series is indexed in SCOPUS. More information about this series at https://link.springer.com/bookseries/11960

Timothy Jung • M. Claudia tom Dieck • Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro Editors Extended Reality and Metaverse Immersive Technology in Times of Crisis 123

Editors M. Claudia tom Dieck Timothy Jung Creative AR and VR Hub Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester, UK Manchester, UK Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro University Institute of Lisbon Lisbon, Portugal ISSN 2198-7246 ISSN 2198-7254 (electronic) Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics ISBN 978-3-031-25389-8 ISBN 978-3-031-25390-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25390-4 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface The seventh International XR Conference was held in Lisbon, Portugal, in April 2022. It was a special experience as it allowed the XR community to gather for the first time in person after a three-year break. The COVID pandemic has highlighted the importance of technological advances, allowing people to continue meeting realistically online through virtual chats and meeting platforms, collaborate on projects and continue with online training and education. However, it has also highlighted the desire and need for real experiences and the importance of human– human interaction. This book will provide the reader with latest research on XR that emerged throughout the COVID pandemic and will be a valuable resource to gather the latest trends in AR, VR, MR and XR. Timothy Jung M. Claudia tom Dieck Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro v

International XR Conference 2022 Scientific Committee Manchester Metropolitan University Louisiana Tech University Danielle Allen University of Amsterdam Barry Babin ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and Zeph van Berlo Ricardo Bilro BRU Universität der Bundeswehr München Katrin Brunner Manchester Metropolitan University Justin Cho University of Edinburgh Kirsten Cowan Manchester Metropolitan University Ella Cranmer PwC Jeremy Dalton Manchester Metropolitan University M. Claudia tom Dieck Manchester Metropolitan University Ernest Edifor University of Zaragoza Carlos Flavian Universidad de la Rioja Alba García-Milon ISCTE- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and João Guerreiro BRU Dai-In Han Breda University of Applied Science Ronald Haynes University of Cambridge Sarah Jones De Montfort University Timothy H. Jung Manchester Metropolitan University Richard Koeck University of Liverpool Safak Korkut University of Applied Sciences and Arts Nina Krey Northwestern Switzerland Nynke van der Laan Rowan University Jennifer Locander Tilburg University Sandra M. C. Loureiro University of Mississippi ISCTE- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and BRU vii

viii International XR Conference 2022 Adele Magnelli ETT Solutions Cynthia Mejia University of Central Florida Luis Miguel ISCTE- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa Jorge Nascimento ISCTE- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and Mário Passos Ascenção BRU Filipa Rosado-Pinto Haaga-Helia AUS ISCTE- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and Alexandre L. Prim Philipp A. Rauschnabel BRU Aline Simonetti Cooperativa Central Ailos Anneroos R. Smink Universität der Bundeswehr Muenchen Sebastian Stadler Universitat de València Alasdair Swenson University of Amsterdam Aleksei Tepljakov Hochschule Ansbach Mariapina Trunfio Manchester Metropolitan University Pasi Tuominen Tallinn University of Technology Shuang Wu University of Naples Parthenope Liangchao Xue Haaga-Helia AUS Rowan University Loughborough University

Contents Marketing, Retail and Storytelling 3 27 What is the Metaverse? Challenges, Opportunities, Definition, and 39 Future Research Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Justin Cho, Mandy Claudia tom Dieck, and Timothy Jung 59 72 “Opening and Closing Virtual Reality” The Effects of Openness on Interpretation of and Attitude Towards Virtual Reality Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stephen Smith, Marnix van Gisbergen, and Fabio Campos AR In-Store Solutions for Different Fashion Retail Environments: Retailers’ Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Liangchao Xue, Christopher J. Parker, and Cathryn A. Hart How Cognitive Flexibility Affects Sense of Power in a Coffee Virtual Setting: The Moderating Role of Personality Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro, João Guerreiro, and Joana Villar The Great Unknown: How Brand Familiarity Affects the Relationship Between Augmented Reality and Brand Attitude in the Retail Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E. J. Morren, P. E. Ketelaar, and A. R. Smink Augmented Reality (AR) Brand Storytelling: The Role of Flow in Attitude Formation and Associative Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zeph M. C. van Berlo and Dimitrios Stikos Learning, Training, and Education 87 Mobile Augmented Reality for Learning Phonetics: A Review (2012–2022) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rahma M. Tolba, Taha Elarif, Zaki Taha, and Ramy Hammady ix

x Contents Mooting in Virtual Reality: An Exploratory Study Using Experiential 99 Learning Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Justin Cho, Timothy Jung, Kryss Macleod, and Alasdair Swenson If You Believe, You Will Receive: VR Interview Training for Pre-employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Anthony Kong, Ray Tak -Yin Hui, and Jeff Kai-Tai Tang Models, Category and System Foundational Models for Manipulation Activity Parsing . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Daniel Beßler, Robert Porzel, Mihai Pomarlan, and Michael Beetz Categorising Virtual Reality Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Ricard A. Gras CDT-GEM: Conversational Digital Twin for Geographic Emergency Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Seungyoub Ssin, Junseong Bang, and Woontack Woo Tourism and Cultural Heritage Towards User Experience Guidelines for Mobile Augmented Reality 141 Storytelling with Historical Images in Urban Cultural Heritage . . . . . . Silviu Vert, Oana Rotaru, Diana Andone, Miruna Antonica, Adina Borobar, Ciprian Orhei, and Victor Holotescu The Impact of Augmented and Virtual Reality for Sustainable Tourism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Jorge Nascimento and Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro Serious Game Reality and Industrial Museum: The ‘Bryant and May Match Factory’ Project in the Peoples’ History Museum (UK) . . . . . . . 157 Timothy Jung, Mariapina Trunfio, and Salvatore Campana Creating Virtual Reality Stories for Cultural Heritage Through 168 Student Contest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diana Andone, Silviu Vert, Marius Tataru, Silviu Berzescu, and Vlad Mihaescu An Interactive and Immersive Walk-Through Experience of the 178 Digitally Reconstructed Southern Decumanus of Jerash Using 3D Photogrammetric Processes and VR Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nemeh Rihani A Study on the Application of Historic Building Information Modeling (HBIM) for XR Cultural Heritage Tourism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Jongwook Lee and Boram Kim

Contents xi Development of the Capital City of Taebong Kingdom Metaverse and King Gungye Artifical Intelligence Digital Human . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Jin Ho Park and Hyoung Ki Ahn Health and Wellbeing Possibilities of Rehabilitation and Telerehabilitation of Patients with 231 Moderate and Severe Course of COVID-19 Disease Using Virtual Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ján Lacko and Eugen Ružický Effect of Virtual Reality Based Nursing Skills on the Performance 243 Ability, Performance Confidence, and Practice Satisfaction of Nursing College Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yonghwa Lee, Minjeong Suh, and Timothy Jung VR and EEG Combined Self-monitoring Platform of Cognitive Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Bohee Lee and Tae-Heon Lee Art, Design and Theatre Experiences Cinematic Virtual Reality: How Emotional Responses Vary Across 265 Movie Genre and Technological Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mariana Berga Rodrigues, Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro, and Miguel Sales Dias On the Influence of Virtual Reality Technology (VR) on Animation Art Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Ying Wu An Industry in Crisis: Virtual Mediums for Theatre and Live Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 James Simpson AR Development and Design Integration of Smart Glasses for Knowledge Transfer in Industrial Remote Maintenance: Learnings from Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Anuja Hariharan, Monika Risling, Artur Felic, and Tobias Ostertag Development of Gamified Guide System for Art Exhibition Using Augmented Reality Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Chun-I. Lee, Fu-Ren Xiao, and Tai-Wei Kuo

xii Contents XR and Human Behaviour Arousing Real or Real Threat? How Realism in Avatars Affects the 319 Perception of Virtual Reality Pornography and Relationships for Heterosexual Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eunice Cijntje and Marnix S. van Gisbergen Being There Creating Home for Migrant and Refugee Women Using Participatory Design Approaches Through Virtual Reality . . . . . . . . . . 332 S. Rezaei Rashnoodi and M. S. van Gisbergen Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Marketing, Retail and Storytelling

What is the Metaverse? Challenges, Opportunities, Definition, and Future Research Directions Justin Cho(B), Mandy Claudia tom Dieck, and Timothy Jung Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK [email protected] Abstract. Interest in the Metaverse has recently surged due to the transforma- tional opportunities and experiences that it offers to customers and businesses across the globe. However, the extant literature on the Metaverse is inconsistent, with no existing literature synthesis or consensus among studies on the definition of the Metaverse. This study provides a scoping review of Metaverse research, identifying the trends, definitions, and characteristics of the Metaverse concept. After providing a review of Metaverse research in all subject areas, the study nar- rows its focus to the business and management field, providing a more detailed review of the trends, characteristics, opportunities, and challenges of the Meta- verse in this specific context. The findings from the literature are used to propose the Metaverse Research Model which conceptualizes and problematizes the liter- ature, providing insight into the key concepts related to the Metaverse and offering guidance in terms of future research directions. Keywords: Metaverse · Definition · Future trends · Extended reality · Research agenda · Scoping review 1 Introduction Since Facebook’s announcement to change its name to “Meta” and the recent acqui- sition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, there has been an increased awareness and interest in the opportunities and characteristics of the Metaverse. But what actually is the Metaverse? This paper provides an introductory but comprehensive insight into the novel concept by exploring extant research and examining the evolution of the Metaverse throughout recent years. The rise of digital technologies has brought about change in many ways (Loureiro et al. 2021). Choi and Kim (2017) express these changes through their study on museum exhibitions. Functionally, museums have shifted their focus from preserving physical objects towards adding educational and informational content to enhance the exhibition experience (Choi and Kim 2017). Spatially, museums have evolved beyond the physical space, and information on objects can be distributed online (Choi and Kim 2017; Yoo 2010). The impact of technology is also portrayed by Bourlakis et al. (2009) in their review of the evolution of retailing, with the expansion of retailing space bringing about © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 T. Jung et al. (Eds.): XR 2022, SPBE, pp. 3–26, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25390-4_1

4 J. Cho et al. new opportunities. In this way, the proliferation of smart technologies and the internet has greatly impacted the way in which society functions, as well as the lifestyles of people (Agarwal and Lucas 2005; Li et al. 2001). Research has shown that students born after 1990 often prefer to use technology-facilitated forms of learning and that people are now much more accustomed to using technology in their everyday lives (Turner 2015; Park et al. 2021). Furthermore, COVID-19 has further encouraged the use of online forms of communication, sending many ‘offline’ aspects of society ‘online’ (Park et al. 2021). Amidst these changes, the introduction of massive multiplayer online role-playing Games has resulted in the rapid development of virtual worlds – immersive virtual spaces in which users can interact with one another through the use of avatars (Bourlakis et al. 2009). These virtual worlds facilitate online communication and interaction that is much more immersive than traditional forms of multimedia – creating a digital world founded upon social interactions and digital information (Hadjistassou 2016; Papagiannidis et al. 2008). With the increasing availability of smartphones and immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), the border between the physical and virtual worlds has been blurred even further (Garrido-Inigo and Rodriguez-Moreno 2012; Agar- wal and Lucas 2005). The combination of virtual worlds and 3D immersive technologies has introduced a new digital concept - what is now called the ‘Metaverse’. The Meta- verse is described as having ever-increasing potential for various uses (Malaby 2006). Studies have investigated the use of the Metaverse in areas beyond gaming, including education (Diaz 2020), retail (Bourlakis et al. 2009) project facilitation (Owens et al. 2011), and marketing (Ives and Junglas 2008). Although the concept of the Metaverse has been used in research for quite some time, its definition seems to have gradually changed over the years. In light of the recently booming interest in the Metaverse, there is a need to form a coherent and comprehensive definition upon which future research can be founded upon. Despite this, there has been very limited research on what the Metaverse actually means in the year 2022. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a scoping review on the Metaverse by reviewing the relevant research that has been published to date. Scoping reviews have been exten- sively conducted within the medical (e.g. Courtin et al. 2017; Fusar-Poli et al. 2020) and education field (e.g. Brewer et al. 2019; Hariharasudan and Kot 2018; O’Flaherty and Phillips 2015). However, there has been limited use of scoping reviews within the busi- ness and management or management information systems context. According to Pham et al. (2014, p. 371), “a scoping review of a body of literature can be of particular use when the topic has not yet been extensively reviewed”, strengthening the need to conduct scoping reviews around the area of metaverse to gain an initial understanding. Munn et al. (2018) emphasized in their study that scoping reviews are particularly appropriate to explore the general body of literature and clarify topics of relevance within a given topic. Consequently, the scoping review is the most appropriate approach to answer the following four research questions: (1) What is the definition of the Metaverse? (2) What research has been done so far in the area of the Metaverse? (3) What are the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of the Metaverse?

What is the Metaverse? 5 (4) What are the future directions of the Metaverse? This paper will firstly provide a descriptive analysis of the overall published studies related to the Metaverse, describing the various definitions used as well as the general trends seen in the research. The paper will then narrow its focus to the business and man- agement field, discussing the potential challenges and future directions of the Metaverse. Lastly, a research model is proposed, outlining the current state of research, providing a working definition of the Metaverse, and recommending future research directions. 2 Methodology In order to address the breadth of the research questions whilst also proposing the chal- lenges and future directions of the Metaverse in business, this paper adopts a two-stage methodology. Firstly, this paper presents a scoping review of the overall literature on the Metaverse, covering all contexts, geographical locations, and types of publications. Secondly, the paper will dive deeper into the research published in the business and man- agement field, providing an in-depth analysis on the potential challenges of the adoption of the Metaverse and the future directions of Metaverse research. A scoping review is usually conducted to collect data and evaluate the state of research on a particular topic (Arksey and O’Malley 2005). More specifically, scoping reviews aim to provide a general insight into the research content of a broad and diverse database (Whittermore and Knafl 2005; Williams et al. 2017). These reviews are often conducted prior to more detailed systematic reviews, which are commonly used to provide much more focused analyses of thoroughly researched topics (Munn et al. 2018; Whittermore and Knafl 2005; Williams et al. 2017). Arksey and O’Malley (2005) explain that scoping reviews are often used to explore broad research questions on topics that have not yet been reviewed, and that seeing as the aim of these reviews is to provide an overview of a diverse collection of data, quality assessments are usually not conducted. Although systematic literature reviews provide rigorous, in-depth, and relevant analyses of research topics (Tranfield et al. 2003), the aims of the current paper, which focuses on providing a preliminary and foundational understanding of the research area, seemed to be better suited by scoping reviews than systematic literature reviews. Therefore, the five-stage process outlined by Levac et al. (2010) was used: (1) Identifying the research questions (2) Identifying the relevant studies (3) Selecting the relevant studies (4) Charting the data (5) Collating, summarizing, and reporting the results.

6 J. Cho et al. 2.1 Identifying the Research Questions With the rapid proliferation of immersive technologies and their increasing availability across the globe, the world has now turned its focus towards a new technological devel- opment: the ‘Metaverse’. Already, companies such as Facebook (now called “Meta”) have made announcements that they are heavily investing into the Metaverse. However, there is currently very limited research on what the ‘Metaverse’ entails. Furthermore, the existing research on the Metaverse is diverse and scattered. In light of this, the authors have identified the need to review and synthesize the research that has been done so far, as well as discuss the future directions of Metaverse research and any challenges that may arise. Therefore, this paper proposes four research questions: 1) What is the definition of the Metaverse? 2) What research has been done so far? 3) What are the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of the Metaverse? 4) What are the future research directions of the Metaverse? 2.2 Identifying the Relevant Studies In order to capture the breadth of Metaverse research, the search term ‘Metaverse’ was used to search two databases: Web of Science and Scopus. Any studies that included the word ‘Metaverse’ in their titles, abstracts, or keywords were included in the identifica- tion of studies. Due to the language restrictions of the authors, only papers published in English were gathered. In terms of year of publication, no limitations were used. Fur- thermore, seeing as research on the Metaverse is scarce, the authors agreed to include journal articles as well as conference papers in the search process. 2.3 Selecting the Relevant Studies The aim of the current paper is to provide a general scoping review on the diverse Metaverse research that has been published to date. The study identification process yielded very few results in comparison to other topics. Therefore, the authors agreed that all studies found should be included in the final set of data. However, during the process of procuring the full texts of the studies, many conference papers could not be found as they had not been published online. 2.4 Charting the Data Basic information on the studies identified were exported from the databases as CSV files and were recorded using Microsoft Excel. This provided data on the title, authors, abstract, keywords, and the name of the source. Additional data was also extracted and charted from the studies manually, after discussion amongst the authors. This data included the publication year, geographical location of study, type of publication, the context of each study, and the definitions given in relation to the Metaverse.

What is the Metaverse? 7 2.5 Collating, Summarizing, and Reporting the Results The data charted via Microsoft Excel was used to collate and synthesise the descriptive data of the studies. A separate Excel sheet was made to collate each type of data. This information was used to provide an overview of the extant literature on the Metaverse, reporting on the general trends of the research. 3 Scoping review 3.1 Number of Articles The initial keyword search yielded a total of 240 documents. 110 were journal articles and 130 were conference papers. A total of 57 documents were identified as duplicates and were excluded, leaving a total of 183 documents. Whilst searching for the full texts of the documents, a number of studies could not be found. The main reason for this was that many conference papers had not been published online. 55 documents could not be found, leaving a total of 128 documents. Seeing as no exclusion criteria were used according to the aims of the current paper, the final set of data consisted of 128 documents. Considering that a broad and inclusive search process was used, and that no exclusion criteria were applied, a final set of 128 documents is relatively small. This is to be expected, as the ‘Metaverse’ is a relatively new technological development. It is hoped that this review paper can serve as a basis for further research in this area. 3.2 Publications by Year The first study within the dataset was published in 1995. The next study to be published was in 2002. From 2002 onwards, one study was published each year until 2007, when the number of studies published per year began to increase. From 2014, the number of studies published dropped and stayed quite low until 2018, when the number of published studies began to gradually rise again. There was a huge increase in studies in 2021 (n = 18), and five studies have already been published in the first month of 2022. With the recent interest in the Metaverse, it is likely that this trend of increasing publications will continue in 2022 and beyond. It is also worth noting that the publication patterns in Metaverse research have been quite erratic with various ups and downs in the past two decades. This may be explained by the lack of consensus on the constantly changing definition of ‘Metaverse’ (Fig. 1).

8 J. Cho et al. Fig. 1. Publications by year 3.3 Publication Types Of the 128 documents, 60 were journal articles and 68 were conference papers. The relatively low number of published journal articles in the past two decades shows that this area of research is still in its very early stages. However, the encouraging number of conference papers and the recent increase in publications is indicative of its potential to grow. Over 25% of studies (n = 33) were published in the past 3 years (2020–2022). 3.4 Geography of Publications Geographically, studies have been published across a total of 31 countries. Primarily, the majority of studies seem to be based in developed countries such as the US (n = 25), Japan (n = 13), South Korea (n = 12), and the UK (n = 11). This is to be expected as research on the Metaverse is highly dependent on technological advancements. Even amongst these four countries, it is interesting to note that whilst the majority of studies based in the UK were published between 2007 and 2010, the majority of studies based in South Korea were published between 2021 and 2022. The studies based in Japan have been published steadily between 2008 and 2020, whilst the studies based in the US have been published steadily from 1995 to 2021 (Figs. 2 and 3).

What is the Metaverse? 9 Fig. 2. Geography of studies Fig. 3. Yearly publications by country

10 J. Cho et al. 3.5 Contexts A total of 21 different contexts were identified. The most common contexts were com- puter science (n = 29), education (n = 27), and information systems (n = 15). This is also to be expected, seeing as the development of the Metaverse began in the gam- ing sector (Bourlakis et al. 2009) and because the Metaverse itself is a technological development. It is interesting to note that the studies published in certain countries are often very focused on a certain type of context. For example, the three studies based in Brazil are all education studies. Studies in France seem to be focused on information systems, whilst studies in Spain seem to be focused on education and computer science. Looking at the studies published between 2021 and 2022, no specific context seems to be dominant in popularity. This is encouraging as it demonstrates that research on the Metaverse is expanding into many different contexts of research, which is indicative of its growth. Fig. 4. Context of studies 3.6 Definitions There does not yet seem to be a consensus on the definition of the Metaverse in the literature. Instead, the literature is split into two main schools of thought. Firstly, in the conference paper published in 1995, the word ‘Metaverse’ is used interchangeably with ‘virtual world’ (Parr and Rohaly 1995). In this way, many studies seem to use the term

What is the Metaverse? 11 ‘virtual world’ to define the ‘Metaverse’. Owens et al. (2011) states that the Metaverse is a 3D virtual world in which users are able to interact with one another and with the environment. Gadalla et al. (2013) defines the Metaverse as a computer-generated collaborative 3D virtual environment in which users can interact with one another through avatars. More recently, Diaz (2020) also used a similar definition, describing Metaverses as multi-user virtual environments in which the avatars embody the virtual identities of the users, often leading to the formation of virtual societies. In contrast, some studies describe the Metaverse as something that goes beyond vir- tual worlds. Papagiannidis et al. (2008) compares the Metaverse to a ‘VR-based internet’, acting as a co-created virtual extension of our physical universe that embodies multiple real-world concepts such as economics, community, and leisure. Lee et al. (2011) and Choi and Kim (2017) refer to the Metaverse roadmap (Smart et al. 2007) which divides the Metaverse into four dimensions: augmented reality, life logging, mirror world, and virtual world. As seen in Fig. 5, on the spectrums of Augmentation vs Simulation and Intimate vs External, there exist four planes that make up the Metaverse. Augmentation refers to technologies that add a layer of digital information onto the existing physical environment, and Simulation refers to technologies that create simulations of the physi- cal world (Smart et al. 2007). Intimate refers to technologies that focus on the users and their actions, and External refers to technologies that focus on the environment itself (Smart et al. 2007). Fig. 5. The Metaverse roadmap Within the Augmentation/External plane [augmented reality] of the Metaverse, tech- nologies add enhanced and interactive digital information onto the external physical envi- ronment. Within the Augmentation/Intimate plane [life logging], technologies record the actions and everyday lives of the users. Within the Simulation/External plane [mirror world], data from external sources is used to create information-rich virtual reflections

12 J. Cho et al. of the physical world. Lastly, within the Simulation/Intimate plane [virtual world], the development of economic and social aspects of virtual worlds leads to the creation of virtual communities and identities. Although there are two separate schools of thought on what the Metaverse entails, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Many aspects of the definitions overlap. For example, there is an agreement that the Metaverse is the blending of the physical and virtual worlds (Choi and Kim 2017; Owens et al. 2011; Falchuk et al. 2018), and that there is interaction between the user and the worlds, either through the use of avatars (Gadalla et al. 2013; Garrido-Inigo and Rodriguez-Moreno 2012) or augmented reality technology (Lee et al. 2011; Falchuk et al. 2018). Combining the key aspects of the definitions found in the literature, a working definition is proposed. The word ‘Metaverse’ is a combination of the words “meta” [meaning beyond] and “universe” (Lee et al. 2011). In this sense, the purpose of the Metaverse is to take us beyond our current universe, either by the informational enhancement of our physical world or by the creation of completely new virtual worlds. The Metaverse is the blending of the physical and virtual worlds through the use of immersive and information tech- nologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, the internet, and artificial intelligence. Users are able to interact with one another and with the physical and virtual environments through the use of avatars or augmentation technologies, and the various interactions that take place within the Metaverse are portrayed by the four planes (augmented reality, life logging, mirror world, virtual world). 4 Business and Management Papers Scoping Review Having presented a scoping review of the overall research on the Metaverse in all subject areas, the paper now narrows its focus to the business and management field. Specifically, papers in the business, marketing, retail, and cultural heritage were extracted from the original dataset (n = 129) and further data was collected in order to provide a more detailed analysis and to propose future research directions and challenges. A total of 22 business studies were identified. After discussion amongst the authors, it was agreed that the following additional data would be collected in order to address the research questions: theories, methodologies, contexts, applications, and themes related to the Metaverse. A summary of this additional data is presented in Table 1. 4.1 Publications by Year The first study in the business and management field was published in 2008. Starting with 3 publications in 2008, the number of publications dropped slightly in 2009 and 2010. In 2011, the number of publications per year reached a peak of 5. The number of publications per year then began to follow a downwards trend and stayed quite low until 2019. Between 2019 and 2022, the number of publications has begun to follow an upwards trend, with a study on the Metaverse having already been published in the first month of 2022. Similar to the trends seen in the overall Metaverse research, business-related Metaverse research is also likely to continue to see an increase in growth (Fig. 6).

What is the Metaverse? 13 Fig. 6. Publications by year in the business field 4.2 Publication Types Of the 22 business-related Metaverse studies identified, 14 were journal articles and 8 were conference papers. This portrays an interesting contrast with the overall collection of papers, where the distribution between journal articles and conference papers was quite even. The high number of journal articles indicates that the research on business-related Metaverse is overall quite rigorous. 4.3 Geography of Publications The studies have been published across a total of 11 countries. In contrast to the geo- graphical distribution of the overall data set, the business-related Metaverse papers seem to be more evenly distributed across the countries. The geography of studies is shown in Fig. 7 below. 4.4 Theory In a study investigating the roles of telepresence and transportation in virtual marketing, Chen and Yao (2021) use narrative transportation theory. Prior to that, Gadalla et al. (2013) focused on disconfirmation theory to propose a framework that guides retailers in improving their service quality in Metaverse stores. In their study investigating the attitudes of people towards the use of communication technology in online businesses, Gajendra et al. (2012) explored the theory of intrinsic motivation and the theory of communication and social systems. In this way, studies employ theories that are relevant to their research aims. However, very few studies in the business field seem to use theory to design their research. Out of the 22 studies identified, only 3 studies ground their

14 J. Cho et al. Table 1. Scoping review of business and management articles in metaverse research References Theory Methods Context Applications Themes Ando et al. 2013 None mentioned Belei et al. 2011 Branding theory Quantitative, Cultural Second life NA 12 heritage Mixed, 154 Marketing Second life Interactive, Experiential, Bourlakis and None Theoretical Retail Second life Enjoyment, Practical knowledge gain, Papagiannidis 2009 Time consuming, Technical complexity Chen and Yao 2021 Narrative Quantitative, Marketing VR application, Interactive, transportation theory 122 360 video Experiential, New space, Technological Chodos and Stroulia None Theoretical Retail Second life complexity, Time 2008 consuming, Costly Choi and Kim 2017 None Theoretical Cultural VR application Memory, Cognitive heritage Second life attitude, Affective attitude, Behavioral Gadalla et al. 2013 Disconfirmation Qualitative, 31 Retail intentions theory Sense of presence, Gajendra et al. 2012 Communication Qualitative, 30 Retail Second life Interactive, theory and social Meaningfulness, systems, theory of Enjoyment, intrinsic motivation Usefulness, Perceived trust, Hassouneh and None Theoretical Retail Second life Customer Brengman 2015 None None satisfaction Theoretical Cultural Huggett 2019 heritage NA Engagement, product information, responsiveness, enjoyment, ease of use, store credibility Interactive, Informative, Responsiveness, Collaboration, Communication, Participation Responsiveness Enhanced spatial knowledge representation, Experiential, Sense of presence, Co-presence, Knowledge transfer (continued)

What is the Metaverse? 15 Table 1. (continued) References Theory Methods Context Applications Themes Jeong et al. 2022 None Theoretical Marketing mentioned Theoretical Marketing Metaverse Innovative content, Secondary Marketing application using Brand awareness, data Business digital twin Customer loyalty, Theoretical Business technology Satisfaction, Enjoyment Theoretical Kappe and Steurer None Second life, NA 2010 None OpenSimulator Lee et al. 2011 Twitter, Google Social interaction, maps, Secondlife Imitation, Innovation McArthur et al. 2010 None Second life, World Technological of Warcraft Complexity, User experience Papagiannidis et al. None Second life NA 2008 None Theoretical Business Second life NA Sarvary 2008 NA Literature Marketing None Interconnectivity review NA Shen et al. 2021 Theoretical NA NA Steurer 2011 None Theoretical Business Second life, Interactive OpenSimulator NA Thawonmas and None Theoretical Cultural Second life Shuda 2011 None heritage None Theoretical Cultural Second life Thawonmas and heritage Fukumoto 2011 Secondary Cultural OpenSimulator data heritage Wei et al. 2014 Business None Zhou et al. 2018 None research in theory. This may be explained by the fact that Metaverse research is still in its very early stages, as well as the fact that the definition of the Metaverse has been inconsistent within the literature. It is hoped that this paper will encourage the use of theory to design Metaverse applications and research in the future. 4.5 Methodology The majority of studies seem to be theoretical papers (n = 14), with a few empirical papers (n = 5), papers that use secondary data (n = 2), and one literature review. Amongst the theoretical papers, there exists some variation in the type of theoretical contribution made. For example, Bourlakis et al. (2009) provides an overview of the development of retail, ranging from traditional retailing to Metaverse retailing. Other studies such as Chodos and Stroulia (2008) propose a system design for the use of realistic and 3D visualization tools to provide product information. Furthermore, some studies such as Papagiannidis et al. (2008) are centered around discussions of the opportunities, challenges, and ethical considerations of Metaverse research.

16 J. Cho et al. Fig. 7. Geography of studies in the business field The methodologies used in empirical papers are also quite varied, with 2 quantitative studies, 2 qualitative studies, and 1 mixed methods study. In their quantitative study on inferring viewing habits of visitors at Metaverse museums, Ando et al. (2013) collect movement data to analyze visitor behaviors. On the other hand, Chen and Yao (2021) use questionnaires to measure the effect of telepresence and narration on consumers. In their qualitative investigation of factors that affect service quality in Metaverse stores, Gadalla et al. (2013) use focus groups and CIT (Critical Incident Technique). Gajendra et al. (2012), however, conduct interviews to explore the attitudes towards communi- cation technologies in online businesses. Belei et al. (2011) employ a combination of both questionnaires and interviews to explore the impact of using Metaverses to teach marketing. The large proportion of theoretical papers is indicative of Metaverse research being in its very early stages. Particularly, studies that propose practical system designs or frameworks for the implementation of the Metaverse take discussion papers one step further, encouraging empirical data collection and growth in research. The wide variation of methodologies used in empirical papers can be explained by the breadth of contexts and research aims that are covered, which also indicates that research in this area is growing. 4.6 Context Although the papers in this part of the review are all from the business and management field, a number of different contexts were identified in the literature. The number of studies across the different contexts was quite even, with 5 business studies, 6 cultural heritage studies, 6 marketing studies, and 5 retail studies. The business studies seem to be quite generic, providing overviews of the opportunities, challenges, recommendations,

What is the Metaverse? 17 and discussions related to the Metaverse (McArthur et al. 2010; Papagiannidis et al. 2008; Sarvary 2008; Zhou et al. 2018). In contrast, the retail studies are more practical, providing empirical data based on consumer responses (Gajendra et al. 2012; Gadalla et al. 2013) and practical designs for the implementation of Metaverse technology (Has- souneh and Brengman 2015; Chodos and Stroulia 2008). Marketing studies are similar, using empirical or secondary data (Belei et al. 2011; Chen and Yao 2021; Lee et al. 2011) and proposing practical business models or designs. Lastly, studies in the context of cultural heritage consist of a mixture of empirical papers (Ando et al. 2013), system designs (Choi and Kim 2017; Thawonmas and Shuda 2011; Thawonmas and Fukumoto 2011), and discussion papers (Hugget 2019; Wei et al. 2014). 4.7 Applications Data on the type of Metaverse applications used or mentioned in the studies was also collected. Second Life, a 3D virtual world platform that allows users to co-create con- tent (Belei et al. 2011; Bourlakis et al. 2009), was by far the most commonly used or mentioned application (n = 16). Other applications used or mentioned include Open- Simulator (n = 3), World of Warcraft (n = 1), Twitter (n = 1), Google maps (n = 1), and custom-made VR applications (n = 3) and digital twins (n = 1). Many of the studies used or mentioned more than one type of Metaverse application. OpenSimulator can be described as an open source Second Life in the sense that it allows users to co-create their own virtual worlds much more freely (Wei et al. 2014), and World of Warcraft is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game based in a virtual world that is widely known for its advanced virtual economy and trade of virtual goods (McArthur et al. 2010). Although Second Life is currently the most popular Metaverse application that is used, with the emergence of new players in the market such as Meta (Rauschnabel et al. 2022) and the increase in interest towards the Metaverse in general, it is expected that many more Metaverse applications will be developed in the near future. 4.8 Themes Various themes related to the Metaverse were identified in the literature. Although these seem to vary greatly due to the breadth of the contexts and research aims of the studies, some general themes common to a wide range of studies can be found. The most common theme that can be seen in the literature is interactivity/interaction. This theme encompasses both user-environment interaction as well as user-user inter- action. Wei et al. (2014) uses OpenSimulator to add interactive objects to their virtual world, which was found to increase the immersion of users and the effectiveness of cultural transmission. Furthermore, Gajendra et al. (2012) found that platforms such as Second Life facilitate new methods of social interaction, collaboration, and communica- tion, creating business opportunities for the virtual marketing and trade of products. This confirms the fact that interaction is a key aspect of the Metaverse, which is highlighted in the definition proposed in this paper. Many studies also emphasize the experiential aspect of the Metaverse. Belei et al. (2011) investigates the use of Second Life to enrich their marketing curriculum, offering a more interactive and experiential education to narrow the gap between theory and

18 J. Cho et al. practice. In their overview of the technological progression of retail, Bourlakis et al. (2009) explain that consumers have become more experience-oriented, seeking novel and enhanced experiences that Metaverses can provide. Indeed, with the proliferation of fully immersive 3D technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, experience-oriented culture has caused many aspects of society to become more immersive, engaging, and enjoyable (Bourlakis et al. 2009; Jeong et al. 2022; Choi and Kim 2017; Belei et al. 2011). In contrast to the interactive and experiential aspects of the Metaverse, a common barrier/limitation that studies reveal is the technological complexity of the Metaverse. McArthur et al. (2010) explain that although Metaverses can provide various advantages to businesses and educational institutions, the task of having to learn how to use the program interface can act as an entry barrier for many. Furthermore, Belei et al. (2011) state that although the proper use of Second Life can prove to be beneficial to the students’ learning, technical difficulties caused by hardware limitations and the complexity of the application can take away the value that Second Life offers. Although hardware has advanced greatly over the past few years in terms of functionality, if the Metaverse is too complex to use or too difficult to implement into existing aspects of society, its adoption is likely to be significantly hindered. 5 Discussion and Conclusion 5.1 General Discussion So, what exactly is the Metaverse? This is a question many businesses will ask themselves after Zuckerberg’s announcement to reinvent Facebook’s parent company. Zuckerberg has speculated that many new business opportunities will emerge over the next 10 years (Rauschnabel et al. 2022). This study is one of the first to conduct a comprehensive scoping review of Metaverse research, looking at publications from various disciplines in order to fully understand the new phenomenon. Following a thorough a review of the trends, various definitions, and characteristics of Metaverse research, we define the Metaverse as: An augmented digital world that is blending physical and virtual spaces through the use of XR and artificial intelligence-based systems for users to interact, and/or trade virtual goods or services through cryptocurrencies (e.g. NFTs), with one another and other/virtual entities. This definition provides a holistic understanding of the characteristics and opportu- nities of the Metaverse that can be applied in multiple contexts. There are a number of concepts within the definition: (1) XR is hereby described as a term for any form of new reality (see Rauschnabel et al. 2022 for a full discussion). (2) The evolution of the Metaverse towards interconnected, intelligent systems and networks allows for the trading of virtual products and services using non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a form of blockchain technology that can be used to attach financial value to specific virtual assets (Chohan and Paschen 2021).

What is the Metaverse? 19 (3) Other and virtual entities include, but are not exclusive to, virtual businesses, AI- controlled entities, and NPCs (non-playable characters) – which are already playing an important role in the virtual gaming context. This discussion will narrow its focus onto the business context, aiming to evaluate, conceptualize and problematize the existing knowledge (c.f. Heinis et al. 2021). As shown in Fig. 4, there is still limited research within this particular discipline. It is mostly agreed that the Metaverse merges extended realities (XR) such as augmented, virtual, and mixed realities as well as videos into a digital space for online communities and societies to interact. Over time, Metaverse platforms have evolved from virtual extensions of individual users to self-sufficient virtual communities. This has allowed businesses to benefit greatly through the creation of real-world value from virtual products and services (Zhou et al. 2018). However, this does not happen without new challenges and legal issues. The concept of ownership appears to be particularly complex within the Metaverse (Zhou et al. 2018). Businesses that plan to create value through new digital innovations are highly dependent on platform providers. Furthermore, new advice and regulations on an international level are required to ensure that the tension between content creators and platform providers is minimized (Zhou et al. 2018). Trading of virtual content and services is expected to be a lucrative business oppor- tunity, and due to its infancy, there will be opportunities for existing businesses and new entrepreneurs to capitalize on the opportunities as already anticipated by Papagiannidis et al. in 2008. Also, Bourlakis et al. (2009) explored the use of Second Life as a virtual selling place for traditional retailers and found that the Metaverse raises new challenges and issues such as the potential need for competition commissions and international tax- ation strategies. Ethical considerations and social corporate responsibility were already highlighted as an important research area almost thirteen years ago, but recent experi- ences within the augmented and virtual reality research domain have shown that much still needs to be done with regards to establishing legal, social, and ethical guidelines (c.f. Harborth et al. 2021; Knack et al. 2019). One of the earliest and best-known examples of the Metaverse is Second Life. As shown in this review, Second Life is the most applied example of the Metaverse within the business and management context. The past decade has shown that businesses (e.g. Adidas, Hyatt) have engaged with and utilized Second Life in order to enter the virtual landscape (c.f. Hassouneh and Brengman 2015; Papagiannidis et al. 2008). In its early sense, businesses used the systems as a source for co-creation of value (e.g. collect- ing customer feedback about new products or developments) (Lanz et al. 2010) or as a freemium business model (Mäntymäki and Salo 2015) whereby brands sold virtual objects for user entertainment/aesthetic pleasure and to facilitate the creation of a social identity. However, digital advancements, the emergence of XR, intelligent AI technolo- gies, blockchain technology and the increasingly interconnected nature of the internet of things (IoT) create an entirely different ecosystem for virtual worlds (Cranmer et al. 2022). This will lead to enhanced social experiences, value co-creation opportunities, and the improvement of service quality (Gadalla et al. 2013). This is in line with the findings of the scoping review of the business and management papers, with themes

20 J. Cho et al. such as interactivity, experience, and collaboration appearing most frequently through- out earlier publications. In terms of drawbacks, technological complexity was found to be relevant for the Metaverse. These findings open doors for future research in order to help businesses and society at large to overcome challenges and profit from opportunities. From our scoping review of business and management papers, we have conceptual- ized the Metaverse Research model presented in Fig. 8. The proposed model evaluates, conceptualizes, and problematizes the existing knowledge within Metaverse research. The Metaverse Research Model begins with the current state of research on the Meta- verse, drawing from the literature to identify the various opportunities and challenges that organizations may face when engaging with the Metaverse. Using the findings from the scoping review, a working definition that identifies the key aspects of the Meta- verse is proposed. In the center of the Metaverse is the co-evolution of technologies, where the combination of emerging technologies (e.g. XR, AI, cloud-based services, blockchain) provides the technological foundation for the development and advance- ment of the Metaverse. These technologies facilitate each of the three main aspects of the Metaverse: the blending of the physical and virtual worlds (XR, cloud-based tech- nologies), the trade of virtual goods and services (Blockchain i.e. cryptocurrencies), and the social interaction between virtual users/entities (XR, AI, cloud-based technologies). Stemming from the opportunities, challenges, and the newly defined Metaverse, the model then outlines the future research directions that must be taken in order to enable the strategic implementation of the Metaverse. Fig. 8. The Metaverse research model 5.2 Theoretical Contributions This scoping review is one of the first to provide a holistic understanding of the Metaverse within the business and management context. The paper presents two main theoretical

What is the Metaverse? 21 contributions. Firstly, we provide a definition of the Metaverse that can be used as a ref- erence point for future research. In particular, this study highlights the interconnection of XR and AI-based services, blending the physical and virtual worlds and providing users with a platform to interact with one another and other/virtual entities, as well as trade virtual goods and/or services through cryptocurrencies such as NFTs. There is no question that this will open new windows that need to be explored and discussed. Sec- ondly, our proposed Metaverse Research Model has conceptualized and problematized Metaverse research, setting out the directions that future research must take in order to successfully facilitate the strategic implementation of this new concept within the business and management field. In light of the increased interest in the Metaverse and the lack of research or definition in this context, it is hoped that this model will serve as a foundation for future research, as well as a starting point for stakeholders such as businesses in their development of business models and strategies. 5.3 Practical Implications This research has three main practical implications. Firstly, following the future direc- tions presented in this paper, businesses should work on a business model that can successfully encompass the three branches of the Metaverse identified, making good use of NFT technology to facilitate a virtual metaverse economy. Secondly, businesses and other organizations should be wary of the legal and ethical issues that may arise with regard to financial security, social security, and property rights. Thirdly, businesses should seek to make good use of different research methodologies within the Metaverse such as the use of EEG. New research methodologies can enable businesses to gather highly valuable data to provide tailored experiences for consumers and users. 5.4 Limitations and Future Research This paper has a few limitations. Firstly, this paper utilizes a scoping review to sum- marize the extant research on the Metaverse. At its current state, Metaverse research is scarce. Therefore, using a scoping review to summarize and provide an introduction to the relatively unexplored area of research was optimal. Even so, in order to provide an in-depth and rigorous analysis of the literature, future studies should conduct a sys- tematic literature review. Secondly, this paper focused only on the investigation of the Metaverse, solely looking at papers that have used the specific term in their research. The Metaverse is the result of the development of many different technologies, primarily immersive technologies such as augmented and virtual reality. In this sense, the scope of the presented scoping review is limited. However, many excellent literature reviews of the development and use of immersive technologies have already been conducted (Yung and Khoo-Lattimore, 2019; Loureiro et al. 2020; Kavanagh et al. 2017). Therefore, the current paper focused on identifying the general development of the Metaverse and the latest directions of the research in this context. So where do we see the future of Metaverse research? First, business research should use the scoping review presented above to further explore the opportunities and chal- lenges of the Metaverse. This will act as the foundation for businesses to make strategic

22 J. Cho et al. decisions on the potential of the Metaverse for their relevant business sectors and con- texts. As shown in Table 1, the majority of studies within the business and management field are purely theoretical, with very few studies utilizing empirical data. Hence, further research grounded on empirical data is needed in order to fully understand the Metaverse phenomenon and the implications it has for organizations and society as a whole. Second, business research should focus on the development of a Metaverse business model by incorporating key technologies including artificial intelligence, XR technolo- gies and blockchain technology - especially NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). Just as the introduction of virtual worlds and communities have paved a way for new business mod- els (MacInnes 2006) including retail models (Hassouneh and Brengman 2015), market- ing models (Chen and Yao 2021), and more general frameworks (Macinnes 2005), the same must be done for the Metaverse in order to optimize the use of the technology. A paradigm shift from platform economy to Metaverse economy has begun, taking the ownership of the economy from tech giants and platform owners, and giving it to vir- tual social communities to facilitate a creator economy. In light of this, it is critical for both existing businesses and new digital businesses to identify the key success factors of successful business models in the context of the Metaverse, and to also develop and implement these appropriate business models in order to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. Third, business research should pay particular attention to the utilization of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), a type of cryptocurrency that enables users to secure their digital assets and allow free trade of virtual objects in the Metaverse world. Previously, following the introduction of virtual worlds, Sivan (2008) identified how virtual worlds could be used as a novel virtual economy focusing on three aspects: community, creation, and commerce. Virtual economies have been very profitable, with the value of trade of virtual goods exceeding millions of dollars a year (Kappe and Steurer 2010). In order to facilitate such an economy, a virtual currency that can be used across different virtual platforms is required (Kappe and Steurer 2010). In this manner, within the context of the Metaverse, blockchain-based NFT technology is a fundamental aspect of the Metaverse economy and is considered as a competitive alternative to the existing centralized finance systems or transaction systems governed by financial institutions or banks. Businesses must now consider how they can implement and utilize NFTs technology to secure the digital assets of users (including intellectual property) in a way that allows users to freely trade virtual products and services. Fourth, business research should also explore the impact of co-evolution among key technologies in the Metaverse. The concept of co-evolution was originally introduced in the field of biology by Ehrlich and Raven (1964) to define the simultaneous reciprocal evolution of interacting populations (Noailly 2008). This concept of co-evolution is expected to be highly significant in the Metaverse, where the simultaneous development of AI, XR and blockchain technologies are influencing one another and are accelerating the advancement and potential for business-related activities. Fifth, ethical and regulatory issues are another important consideration for business and management research. Businesses will need to address the various social, cultural, and ethical problems that are simultaneously emerging from the development of AI (e.g. virtual avatars), XR, and blockchain (financial/transaction issues) technologies in the

What is the Metaverse? 23 Metaverse. Papagiannidis et al. (2008) notes that, in the context of virtual trade and social interactions within virtual worlds, ethical guidelines must be developed to facili- tate the fair and secure trade of goods and currencies, as well as safe social interactions between often anonymous virtual users. This is even more so the case for the Meta- verse. In conjunction with ethical guidelines developed and enforced by the platform owners themselves, the government’s role in the preparation of appropriate legislation and policy that can address the emerging ethical and regulatory issues will also be key to the facilitation of responsible business in the Metaverse, especially in light of existing ownership rights tensions between platform owners and content creators (Zhou et al. 2018). Finally, a new methodological approach for Metaverse research in the business and management field is required. Considering that businesses can now create more person- alized, meaningful, and unique multi-sensory customer experiences in their own digital universe (Bourlakis et al. 2009), research that can measure experience within the context of a multi-sensory Metaverse is of great importance. However, traditional methods of measuring multi-sensory experiences in the business and management field are mostly based on cognitive-oriented approaches such as self-reports which have often found to be inaccurate (Conner and Barrett 2012). In order to overcome the limitations of the exist- ing methods, alternative hybrid approaches embracing psychophysiological approaches (eye-tracking, electroencephalography, etc.) could be employed to better measure user experience and user behavior in the Metaverse (Bastiaansen et al. 2019). Furthermore, there are issues with the veracity of the behaviour of virtual avatars. Virtual avatars are often used as alternative personalities by users and often lead to the creation of a com- pletely different persona, thereby raising questions as to how data should be collected in virtual contexts (Papagiannidis et al. 2008). References Agarwal, R., Lucas, J.R.H.: The information systems identity crisis: focusing on high-visibility and high-impact research. Manag. Inf. Syst. Q. 29(3), 381–398 (2005) Ando, Y., Thawonmas, R., Rinaldo, F.: Inference of viewed exhibits in a metaverse museum. Paper Presentation 2013 International Conference on Culture and Computing, Tokyo (2013). https:// doi.org/10.1109/CultureComputing.2013.73. Arksey, H., O’Malley, L.: Scoping studies: towards a methodological framework. Int. J. Soc. Res. Methodol. 8, 19–32 (2005) Bastiaansen, M., et al.: Emotions as core building blocks of an experience. Int. J. Contemp. Hospitality Manag. (2019). https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-11-2017-0761 Belei, N., Noteborn, G., de Ruyter, K.: It’s a brand new world: teaching brand management in virtual environments. J. Brand Manag. 18(8), 611–623 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/bm. 2011.6 Bourlakis, M., Papagiannidis, S., Li, F.: Retail spatial evolution: paving the way from traditional to metaverse retailing. Electron. Commer. Res. 9(1), 135–148 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10660-009-9030-8 Brewer, M.L., et al.: Resilience in higher education students: a scoping review. High. Educ. Res. Dev. 38(6), 1105–1120 (2019) Chen, C., Yao, M.Z.: Strategic use of immersive media and narrative message in virtual marketing: understanding the roles of telepresence and transportation. Psychol. Mark. 39(3), 524–542 (2021)

24 J. Cho et al. Chodos, D., Stroulia, E.: Second life gift registry: bringing retail web applications into the meta- verse. Paper Presentation 2008 IEEE Congress on Services – Part 1, Honolulu (2008). https:// doi.org/10.1109/SERVICES-1.2008.72 Chohan, R., Paschen, J.: How marketers can use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in their campaigns. Bus. Horiz. 66, 43–50 (2021) Choi, H., Kim, S.: A content service deployment plan for metaverse museum exhibitions – centering on the combination of beacons and HMDs. Int. J. Inf. Manag. 37, 1519–1527 (2017) Conner, T.S., Barrett, L.F.: Trends in ambulatory self-report: the role of momentary experience in psychosomatic medicine. Psychosom. Med. 74(4), 327–337 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1097/ PSY.0b013e3182546f18 Courtin, E., Knapp, M.: Social isolation, loneliness and health in old age: a scoping review. Health Soc. Care Community 25(3), 799–812 (2017) Cranmer, E.E., Papalexi, M., tom Dieck, M.C., Bamford, D.: Internet of Things: aspiration, implementation and contribution. J. Bus. Res. 139, 69-80 (2022) Diaz, J.E.M.: Virtual world as a complement to hybrid and mobile learning. Int. J. Emerg. Technol. Learn. 15(22), 267–274 (2020) Ehrlich, P.R., Raven, P.H.: Butterflies and plants: a study in coevolution. Evolution 18(4), 586–608 (1964) Falchuk, B., Loeb, S., Neff, R.: The social metaverse: battle for privacy. IEEE Technol. Soc. Mag. 37(2), 52–61 (2018) Fusar-Poli, P., et al.: What is good mental health? A scoping review. Eur. Neuropsychopharmacol. 31, 33–46 (2020) Gadalla, E., Keeling, K., Abosag, I.: Metaverse-retail service quality: a future framework for retail service quality in the 3D internet. J. Mark. Manag. 29(13–14), 1493–1517 (2013) Gajendra, S., Ye, Q., Sun, W., Qi, L.: Communication and online business opportunities in a virtual environment: second life. Int. J. Web Based Communities 8(2), 223–241 (2012) Garrido-Inigo, P., Rodriguez-Moreno, F.: The reality of virtual worlds: pros and cons of their application to foreign language teaching. Interact. Learn. Environ. 23(4), 453–470 (2012) Hadjistassou, S.K.: Culturally afforded tensions in the second life metaverse: from sustainability initiatives in Europe to sustainability practices in the United States. Int. J. Web-Based Learn. Teach. Technol. 11, 14–38 (2016) Harborth, D., Pape, S.: Investigating privacy concerns related to mobile augmented reality apps–a vignette based online experiment. Comput. Hum. Behav. 122, 106833 (2021) Hariharasudan, A., Kot, S.: A scoping review on digital English and education 4.0 for Industry 4.0. Soc. Sci. 7(11), 227 (2018) Hassouneh, D., Brengman, M.: Retailing in social virtual worlds: developing a typology of virtual store atmospherics. J. Electron. Commer. Res. 16(3), 218–241 (2015) Heinis, S., Bamford, D., Papalexi, M., Vafadarnikjoo, A.: Services procurement: a systematic literature review of practices and challenges. Int. J. Manag. Rev. 24(3), 352–372 (2021) Huggett, J.: Virtually real or really virtual: towards a heritage metaverse? Stud. Dig. Heritage 4(1), 1–15 (2019) Ives, B., Junglas, I.: APC forum: business implications of virtual worlds and serious gaming. Manag. Inf. Syst. Q. Executive 7(3), 151–156 (2008) Jeong, H., Yi, Y., Kim, D.: An innovative E-commerce platform incorporating metaverse to live commerce. Int. J. Innov. Comput. Inf. Control 18(1), 221–229 (2022) Kappe, F., Steurer, M.: The Open Metaverse Currency (OMC) – a micropayment framework for open 3D virtual worlds. In: Buccafurri, F., Semeraro, G. (eds.) E-Commerce and Web Technologies, pp. 97–106. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-152 08-5_9

What is the Metaverse? 25 Kavanagh, S., Luxton-Reilly, A., Wuensche, B., Plimmer, B.: A systematic review of virtual reality in education. Themes Sci. Technol. Educ. 10(2), 85–119 (2017) Knack, A., Hoorens, S., Deshpande, A., Gunashekar, S.: Digital age: wearable devices: impli- cations of game-changing technologies in services in Europe. European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (2019) Lanz, L., Fischof, B., Lee, R.: How Are Hotels Embracing Social Media in 2010 (2010). https:// www.hvs.com/staticcontent/library/nyu2010/Journal/articles/SocialMediaIn2010.pdf Lee, S., Trimi, S., Byun, W., Kang, M.: Innovation and imitation effects in Metaverse service adoption. Serv. Bus. 5(2), 155–172 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-011-0108-8 Levac, D., Colquhoun, H., O’Brien, K.K.: Scoping studies: advancing the methodology. Imple- mentation Sci. 5 (2010). Article number: 69. https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-5-69 Li, F., Whalley, J., Williams, H.: Between the electronic and physical spaces: implications for organisations in the networked economy. Environ. Plan. A 33, 699–716 (2001) Loureiro, S.M.C., Bilro, R.G., Angelino, F.J.A.: Virtual reality and gamification in marketing higher education: a review and research agenda. Span. J. Mark. 25(2), 179–216 (2020) Loureiro, S.M.C., Guerreiro, J., Tussyadiah, I.: Artificial intelligence in business: state of the art and future research agenda. J. Bus. Res. 129, 911–926 (2021) MacInnes, I.: Dynamic business model framework for emerging technologies. Int. J. Serv. Technol. Manag. 6(1), 3–19 (2005) MacInnes, I.: Property rights, legal issues, and business models in virtual world communities. Electron. Commer. Res. 6, 39–56 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10660-006-5987-8 Malaby, T.: Parlaying value: capital in and beyond virtual worlds. Games Cult. 1, 141–162 (2006) Mäntymäki, M., Salo, J.: Why do teens spend real money in virtual worlds? A consumption values and developmental psychology perspective on virtual consumption. Int. J. Inf. Manag. 35(1), 124–134 (2015) McArthur, V., Teather, R., Stuerzlinger, W.: Comparing 3D content creation interfaces in two virtual worlds: world of warcraft and second life. J. Gaming Virtual Worlds 2(3), 239–258 (2010) Munn, Z., Peters, M.D., Stern, C., Tufanaru, C., McArthur, A., Aromataris, E.: Systematic review or scoping review? Guidance for authors when choosing between a systematic or scoping review approach. BMC Med. Res. Methodol. 18(1), 1–7 (2018) Noailly, J.: Coevolution of economic and ecological systems. J. Evol. Econ. 18, 1–29 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-007-0067-3 O’Flaherty, J., Phillips, C.: The use of flipped classrooms in higher education: a scoping review. Internet High. Educ. 25, 85–95 (2015) Owens, D., Mitchell, A., Khazanchi, D., Zigurs, I.: An empirical investigation of virtual world projects and metaverse technology capabilities. Database Adv. Inf. Syst. 42(1), 74–101 (2011) Papagiannidis, S., Bourlakis, M., Li, F.: Making real money in virtual worlds: MMORPGs and emerging business opportunities, challenges and ethical implications in metaverses. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 75(5), 610–622 (2008) Park, S., Kim, S., Whang, M.: Individual’s social perception of virtual avatars embodied with their habitual facial expressions and facial appearance. Sensors 21(17), 5986 (2021) Parr, T.J., Rohaly, T.F.: A language for creating and manipulating VRML. Paper Presentation Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on the Virtual Reality Modelling Language, San Diego (1995). https://doi.org/10.1145/217306 Pham, M.T., Rajic´, A., Greig, J.D., Sargeant, J.M., Papadopoulos, A., McEwen, S.A.: A scoping review of scoping reviews: advancing the approach and enhancing the consistency. Res. Synth. Methods 5(4), 371–385 (2014) Rauschnabel, P.A., Babin, B., tom Dieck, M.C., Krey, N., Jung, T.: What is augmented reality marketing? Its definition, complexity, and future. J. Bus. Res. 142, 1140–1150 (2022)

26 J. Cho et al. Sarvary, M.: The Metaverse: TV of the future? Harv. Bus. Rev. 86(2), 30 (2008) Shen, B., Tan, W., Guo, J., Zhao, L., Qin, P.: How to promote user purchase in metaverse? A systematic literature review on consumer behaviour research and virtual commerce application design. Appl. Sci. 11, 11087 (2021) Sivan, Y.: 3D3C real virtual worlds defined: the immense potential of merging 3D, community, creation, and commerce. J. Virtual Worlds Res. 1, 1–32 (2008) Smart, J., Cascio, J., Paffendorf, J.: Metaverse roadmap: pathways to the 3D web: a cross-industry public foresight project (2007). https://www.metaverseroadmap.org/MetaverseRoadmapOverv iew.pdf Steurer, M.E.: A webshop for digital assets in virtual worlds supported by a 3D object representa- tion. Paper Presentation ICCGI 2011: The Sixth International Multi-Conference on Computing in the Global Information Technology, Luxembourg (2011) Thawonmas, R., Fukumoto, A.: Frame extraction based on displacement amount for automatic comic generation from metaverse museum visit log. In: Tsihrintzis, G.A., Virvou, M., Jain, L.C., Howlett, R.J. (eds.) Intelligent Interactive Multimedia Systems and Services, Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol. 11, pp. 153–162. Springer, Heidelberg (2011). https://doi.org/ 10.1007/978-3-642-22158-3_16 Thawonmas, R., Shuda, T.: Frame selection for automatic comic generation from museum playlog in metaverse. Paper Presentation Proceedings of IADIS International Conference Game and Entertainment Technologies 2011, Rome (2011) Tranfield, D., Denyer, D., Smart, P.: Towards a methodology for developing evidence-informed management knowledge by means of a systematic review. Br. J. Manag. 14, 207–222 (2003) Turner, A.: Generation Z: technology and social interest. J. Individ. Psychol. 71, 103–113 (2015) Wei, Y., Tan, X., Qin, X., Yu, X., Sun, B., Zhu, X.: Exploring the use of a 3D virtual environment in chinese cultural transmission. Paper Presentation International Conference on Cyberworlds 2014, Santander (2014). https://doi.org/10.1109/CW.2014.55 Whittemore, R., Knafl, K.: The integrative review: updated methodology. J. Adv. Nurs. 52(5), 546–553 (2005) Williams, B., Reddy, P., Marshall, S., Beovich, B., McKarney, L.: Simulation and mental health outcomes: a scoping review. Adv. Simul. 2(1), 2 (2017) Yoo, D. (2010). Ubiquitous museum and future industry in suwon city. Policy Task Mus Suwon, 34–36. Yung, R., Khoo-Lattimore, C.: New realities: a systematic literature review on virtual reality and augmented reality in tourism research. Curr. Issue Tour. 22(17), 2056–2081 (2019) Zhou, M., Leenders, M.A.A.M., Cong, L.M.: Ownership in the virtual world and the implications for long-term user innovation success. Technovation 78, 56–65 (2018)

“Opening and Closing Virtual Reality” The Effects of Openness on Interpretation of and Attitude Towards Virtual Reality Advertisements Stephen Smith, Marnix van Gisbergen(B), and Fabio Campos BUAS - Breda University of Applied Sciences, Breda, The Netherlands {gisbergen.m,ferreira.f}@buas.nl Abstract. With the increase of Virtual Reality (VR), the importance of advertising within VR has become more relevant. However, it is unclear whether advertising strategies used in traditional media also work in VR. This study is focused on openness in advertisements, an advertisement strategy that refers to the degree of guidance towards the intended message. More open means less guidance and is often used to increase attention and attitude. However, open ads have not been researched in VR before. In this study, VR-advertisements were created and tested that differ in openness. An experiment with 87 participants revealed new ways of creating openness based on positioning and timing of anchoring cues. More- over, the results revealed a negative effect of openness on interpretation, consis- tent with findings in studies using traditional media. Unexpectedly, openness in VR-advertisements did not influence (ad and brand) attitude, possibly due to the newness-effect causing high appreciation for ads in VR. Keywords: VR · Advertising · Openness · Interpretation · Attitude · Attention 1 Introduction With the increasing adoption of Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and 360° video technologies, their efficient use as means for advertising has become an important field of research. At the same time, advertising using those new technologies poses new challenges that deal with whether and how advertising strategies that worked in the traditional media also work in immersive media such as VR. VR, AR and 360° video present an immersive and interactive experience, which are believed to differ from traditional media (Freina and Ott 2015). One reason that VR is believed to offer a different advertising experience is related to the audience being able to easily change viewing perspective connected to a high level of realism, which can impact how information is perceived and processed. Advertising has a basic purpose of communicating a message, usually used to make potential customers aware of a product or service to persuade them to purchase it (Ketelaar and Van Gisbergen 2006). To accomplish this, many advertising strategies can be employed. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 T. Jung et al. (Eds.): XR 2022, SPBE, pp. 27–38, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25390-4_2

28 S. Smith et al. One of those strategies is to create openness in advertisements (Van Gisbergen et al. 2004; Ketelaar et al. 2008). “Openness” describes the extent to which an advertisement offers guidance toward its intended message (Boutlis 2000; Chebat et al. 2001; McQuar- rie 1989; McQuarrie and Phillips 2005; Moriarty 1996; Sawyer 1988). More open means less guidance, decreasing how the advertisement makes the intended message evident. The effect of openness in traditional advertising media has been researched extensively (for an overview, see Ketelaar and Van Gisbergen 2006); however, not when it concerns immersive media like VR. This study investigates the effects of openness of advertising in VR on attention, interpretation, and attitude towards the advertisement (Aad) and brand (Ab). However, to test the effect of openness in VR, it needs to become clear how openness can be manipulated in VR-ads. VR seems to offer more possibilities to guide the consumer towards an interpretation than traditional media, such as print ads that lack sound or commercials that lack the 360° freedom of looking around. After extensive research into the possibilities of creating openness in VR, three versions of a VR advertisement with different degrees of openness were created. The three versions were compared on the effect of attention, interpretation, attitude, and appreciation for advertising in general. 2 Literature Review The concept of openness in advertisements has been studied by several scholars, includ- ing Eco, Ketelaar, Van Gisbergen, Meijers, McQuarrie and several others (Ketelaar and Van Gisbergen 2006; Lagerwerf and Meijers 2008; McQuarrie and Mick 1996; Ketelaar et al. 2013), as there was an increase in open advertisements in the last decades (Van Gisbergen et al. 2004). Open advertisements can add beneficial effects in several situations, such as being employed to generate interpretation diversity. This diversity may lead to the possibility of reaching more different target groups and leading to discussion among consumers, generating explicit interest in the advertisement and, consequently, in the product or brand (Ketelaar and Van Gisbergen 2006). Furthermore, openness can be applied to evoke feelings in non-explicit or open ways as well as increase attention duration and attention for specific cues in ads that can help to decipher the ad, which in turn can lead to better memory of advertising cues such as the brand and product (Ketelaar and Van Gisbergen 2006). VR could stimulate this even more, as the increased experience VR offers might lead to consumers willingly spending more time on advertising (Van Gisbergen 2016). However, VR also offers challenges as it offers less control for the sender (advertiser) in what the audience will see and look at (Syrett et al. 2017). The VR medium itself could be considered inherently open since users, limited by their natural field of view (and constrained by the field of view of the VR device), cannot view the entire 360° space at once. Viewers continuously need to choose where to look and will therefore generate different interpretations depending on what elements of the VR content they observe. The position and timing of appearance of key visuals and verbal copy in a 360° environment can thus be seen as an additional factor influencing openness in VR or 360° recorded content. To solve this, ad creators use several strategies to guide the (viewing) behaviour of the consumer in VR, often used in games as well,

“Opening and Closing Virtual Reality” 29 such as sound triggers (Van Wouwe et al. 2016). Sheikh et al. (2016) studied the effects of techniques to direct viewers’ attention in 360° videos. Their findings show that various visual and audio cues can effectively direct the viewer’s attention within a 360° scene. In addition, a combination of auditory and visual cues was more powerful than visual cues alone because audio cues are less dependent on the focus of attention at the time of the cue (Sheikh et al. 2016). By strategically placing and timing cues in advertisements, advertisers could vary openness in VR-advertisements, a technique also used in this study based on the zone diagram by Alger (2015). Exploring user experiences in VR, Alger used data provided by Oculus and Samsung research (Chu 2014) to construct content zone diagrams that depict areas in the 360° space that are comfortable for viewers to focus on through a VR head-mounted device when seated in non-rotating chairs. Alger (2015) observed that the viewers need to strain their eyes more to focus on close objects, especially if the objects are within 0.5 m distance which is in line with the Oculus VR company recommendation (a minimum distance of 0.75 m). Furthermore, viewers experience the most enhanced stereo-depth and separation between elements when they are between 0.75 m and 10 m away. Alger (2015) also concluded that 77° rotation to each side delimits the zone where viewers can comfortably rotate their heads. An arc of up to 102° rotation is possible but requires the user to stretch their neck significantly (Alger 2015). The zone beyond 102°, named by Alger as the ‘curiosity zone’, directs viewers to physically rotate their body, presumably out of curiosity, to view the environment. In Fig. 1, these zones are depicted. Beyond horizontal angles, Alger (2015) mentions that vertical head movement upwards is comfortable until 20°, and possibly until a 60° maximum. Downwards angles are comfortable until 12° and maximum at 40° because the anatomy of the neck prevents further downward movement (Alger 2015). Fig. 1. Content zone diagram constructed by Alger (2015) Alger’s (2015) content zone diagram was used to place key visuals such as verbal anchoring, prominent visuals, and brand anchoring in an advertisement in different zones to manipulate the level of openness of VR-advertisement. For example, a logo placed in the curiosity zone will only be observed if a viewer rotates physically, meaning that the chance of observing the logo is smaller than if the logo were to be placed directly

30 S. Smith et al. in front of the viewer in the comfortable content zone. A lower chance of observing key visuals such as brand elements can be compared to low brand anchoring or low verbal anchoring, which has been shown to increase openness in print advertisements (Ketelaar and Van Gisbergen 2006). 3 Methodology To test the effects of openness in VR-advertisements on Attention, Interpretation and Attitude, three VR versions of an advertisement for Glassex (a glass cleaning product) with varying degrees of openness were designed. To increase external validity, the design was based on a real print advertisement released in 2004 and created for Glassex glass cleaner by the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson Madrid (ADS SPOT 2022). The ad depicts a fish in a fishbowl wearing a helmet and a bottle of Glasses next to the glass fishbowl. The intended message of the advertisements reads: ‘Cristales Invisibles’ (Invis- ible Crystals), or in other words, Glassex cleans the glass so clean even the fish cannot see the glass anymore (and bump their head to the glass consequently). Developers at the R&D team at Breda University of Applied sciences created the computer-generated VR variant, including sounds, 360° background and adding several animated fish, seaweed, water, and cleaning of the aquarium using the Glasses bottle (see Fig. 2). Moreover, elements in the scene are programmed to behave randomly. For instance, the fish have artificial intelligence rules that cue specific swim and bump animations. Viewers expe- rience the scenes from the point of view of being inside the aquarium without seeing themselves. Research indicates a self-representation is not needed to create positive VR brand effects (Song et al. 2021). Fig. 2. Construction and final environment of the Glassex VR advertisement Three conditions of the advertisement were created: an open version, a semi-closed version and a closed version. The more closed, the more the message and product (usage) is revealed at more ad positions (verbal and product anchoring). The time structure and sequence of events are similar for each advertisement condition. Each version lasts a total of 60 s, from which the first 15 s were intended to introduce the viewer to the scene (letting them get used to VR and the POV); 30 s after the start, a bottle of Glassex sprays the outside of one of the panes in the open version, and two of the panes in the semi- closed and closed versions, after which a sponge wipes the liquid clean. As a result, fish

“Opening and Closing Virtual Reality” 31 start swimming into the glass, causing cracks in the glass in the closed version. These cracks are not visible in the semi-closed and open versions, but helmets appear on the fish in each version of the advertisement. At 50 s, the Glassex logo with bottle appears on at least one of the glass panes, and in the semi-closed and closed version, the logos are accompanied by a slogan that (partly) explains the intended message through verbal anchoring. At 60 s, the scene turns black, indicating the end of the advertisement. Alger’s content zones diagram (2015) was consulted to explore openness in the VR setting, and key elements of the advertisement were placed in different zones. Previous studies have demonstrated that the (near) absence of branding, product and verbal anchoring can increase the level of openness in an advertisement (Ketelaar and Van Gisbergen 2006). For a schematic overview of the placement of the elements, see Figs. 3 and 4. Fig. 3. Positioning of key elements (logo and product) in the VR advertisements Fig. 4. Slogans per condition. Left to Right: Closed/Semi-closed/Open 3.1 Participants The study participants were bachelor’s and master’s students studying at the University of Wageningen. A convenience sampling method was applied, and 87 students participated, of which 49 were male, 37 were female, and 1 did not specify. The proportion of males and females did not differ per condition χ2(4) = 3.779, p = 0.437.

32 S. Smith et al. The ages of the participants ranged from 18 to 33, with 90% between 18 and 25 (81% of the respondents were Dutch). Participants did not differ in VR experience (χ2(2) = 0.2.219, V = 0.16, p = 0.334), which was low in general (between 20–37% had some experience with VR). A Chi-Square test revealed no differences between the proportion of Dutch participants per condition (χ2(2) = 3.304, p = 0.192). This was critical as, through unpublished preliminary studies, it was found that international students were not familiar with the brand Glassex but were more familiar with the international brand Windex. At the same time, Dutch participants did not recognize the Windex brand but were familiar with Glassex. As an additional check, familiarity with the advertised brand Glassex was measured, which revealed no difference between the participants in the three conditions (M = 4.80, SD = 2.28, 1 = the brand is not familiar to me, 7 = the brand is very familiar to me, χ2(2) = 0.233, p = 0.890). 3.2 Design Each participant was asked to first fill in a background information section. Subse- quently, each participant experienced either the open, semi-closed or closed version of the advertisement. Thus, 32 participants were subjected to the closed condition, 30 to the semi-closed condition, and 25 participants to the open condition. Each participant viewed the advertisement in a similar setting and was asked to stand to view the advertise- ment. This is to simulate realistic viewing conditions in which the participant can rotate freely. After viewing the advertisement, participants answered the remaining questions. Participants did not receive time restrictions to fill in the questionnaire. 3.3 Measurements Intended Interpretation was measured using the following question (as in Ketelaar and van Gisbergen 2006; Mick and Politi 1989; Phillips 1997): As you know, advertisers want to sell their products with their advertisements. Besides that, what do you think the advertiser was trying to communicate with this advertisement? Interpretation inability was considered when the participants (a) did not provide a written response, (b) indicated that they did not understand the advertisement, (c) gave a literal description of what was seen in the advertisement (e.g., “I saw a fish tank and Glassex, and the view became clear after a while”), or (d) wrote down a response that had no relation to the advertised brand or product (e.g. by providing an opinion about the advertisement such as “I like the idea”). When participants mentioned short answers that indicated understanding, such as ‘transparent glass’, ‘invisible glass’, or ‘glass that could not be seen (because of the product)’, they were counted as intended interpretation. There was reasonable consistency between the two coders (Cohen’s kappa: 0.66), and differences were resolved through discussion. Aad was measured in two ways (as in Ketelaar and Van Gisbergen 2006) using 4 semantic differential items (like, irritating, appeals, pretty, (a = 0.72, M = 4.99, SD = 1.14, 1 = very negative, 7 = very positive) as well as an overall grade (M = 4.83, SD = 1.09, 1 = very negative, 7 = very positive). Ab was measured as in Phillips (1997) using a 7-point semantic differential (M = 4.02, SD = 1.49 1 = straightforward, 7 = confusing). Attention was measured through memory (aided recall), asking participants if they perceived elements present in the advertisements, such as the

“Opening and Closing Virtual Reality” 33 “Glassex bottle”, “Slogan”, “Cracks” (in the aquarium), “Glassex Cleaning” text, the “Fish”, “Helmets”, “Treasure Chest” and the “Logo”. 4 Findings We divided the findings into three dimensions: Interpretation of the advertisement (intended, inability and difficulty), Attitude towards the advertisement (Aad) and brand (Ab) and Attention (through aided recall of the elements in the VR advertisements). 4.1 Interpretation Results The percentage of participants unable to create an interpretation of the advertisement differed significantly between conditions. In the open condition, the percentage of par- ticipants unable to create an interpretation was substantial (60.0%), while in the closed condition, this percentage was low (25.0%). About half (46.7%) of the participants that had been subjected to the semi-closed condition were unable to create an interpreta- tion of the advertisement. Cramer’s V was moderate. Post hoc Chi-square tests were run to examine pairwise comparisons between conditions. A Bonferroni adjusted alpha level of 0.0167 (0.05/3) was used per test. The pairwise comparisons revealed a signif- icant difference between the open and closed conditions (χ2(1) = 5.763, p = 0.016), and non-significant differences between the open and semi-closed conditions (χ2(1) = 0.511, p = 0.475), and between the semi-closed and closed conditions (χ2(1) = 2.299, p = 0.129). Interestingly, no differences were found in interpretation difficulty (MOpen = 3.6, MSemi-Closed = 4.2, MClosed = 4.2, χ2(2) = 2.585, p = 0.275), and all conditions were seen as average or a little high in complexity. The percentage of participants that created the intended interpretation varied significantly between conditions. Overall, the results indicate low to moderate percentages of participants that created the intended interpre- tation. The results of the closed condition reveal the highest percentage of participants creating the intended Interpretation (34.4%). 10.0% of the participants that had viewed the semi-closed version and 4.0% that had viewed the open condition succeeded in cre- ating the intended Interpretation. Cramer’s V was moderate. Post hoc Chi-square tests were run to examine pairwise comparisons between conditions. A Bonferroni adjusted alpha level of 0.0167 (0.05/3) was used per test. The pairwise comparisons revealed non-significant differences between the open and closed conditions (χ2(1) = 5.057,p = 0.025), between the open and semi-closed conditions (χ2(1) = 3.304, p = 0.082), and between the semi-closed and closed conditions (χ2(1) = 0.11, p = 0.740). Partici- pants were less likely to create an interpretation of the open VR advertisement and were also less likely to create the intended Interpretation of the open VR advertisement com- pared to participants who had watched the closed version of the advertisement. These results are in line with previous findings in research on print advertisements (Dingena 1994; Ketelaar and Van Gisbergen 2006; Ketelaar et al. 2012; Phillips 1997, Warlamount 1995). The results point towards a difference in experienced openness between the three conditions, but the difference was not statistically significant. Nevertheless, the means suggest that the open condition was perceived as more open than the semi-closed and closed conditions.

34 S. Smith et al. 4.2 Attitude Results A Kruskal Wallis H test revealed no significant difference in the advertisement grades given by the open, semi-closed, and the closed conditions (χ2(2) = 1.019, p = 0.601), with a mean rank score of 46.94 for the open condition (n = 25, SD = 1.06), 45.00 for the semi-closed condition (n = 30, SD = 1.18) and 40.77 for the closed condition (n = 32, SD = 1.05). A second Kruskal Wallis H test revealed no significant difference in the attitude towards the advertisement (Aad) scores given by the open, semi-closed, and the closed conditions (χ2(2) = 0.039, p = 0.981), with a mean rank score of 43.68 for the open condition (n = 25, SD = 1.40), 44.73 for the semi-closed condition (n = 30, SD = 1.14) and 43.56 for the closed condition (n = 32, SD = 0.91). The mean Aad scores in terms of the overall grade and attitude scale are above the midpoint for each condition in each metric, in most cases hovering around the 5.0 mark (open: 4.9, Semi-Closed: 5.0, and Closed: 5.1). This is noteworthy considering the Attitude of the respondents toward advertisements, in general, was lower with a mean value of 3.52 (1 = very negative, 7 = very positive), without differences between participants in the three conditions (χ2(2) = 1.120, p = 0.571). 4.3 Attention Results We can group the results in elements that were perceived differently among the three conditions and the elements that were perceived similarly among the conditions. The elements “Glassex bottle”, “Slogan”, “Cracks”, and “Glassex Cleaning” received differ- ent perceived percentages among the conditions, while the elements “Fish”, “Helmets”, “Treasure Chest”, and “Glassex Logo” did not differ significantly among conditions, Table 1. To check if those differences are statistically significant, we run post hoc Chi-square tests to examine pairwise comparisons between conditions, along with a Bonferroni adjusted alpha level of 0.0167 (0.05/3). We will describe the findings of these tests in the following paragraphs. The percentage of participants that had consciously observed the “Glassex Bottle” item was higher in the closed condition (100.0%) than in the open condition (75.0%), but the difference was not statistically significant (χ2(1) = 5.431, p = 0.020). No significant difference (χ2(1) = 0.000, p = 1.000) was found between the closed condition (100.0%) and the semi-closed condition (96,3%). The percentage in the semi-closed condition (96.3%) was higher than in the open condition (76%), but this difference was also not significant (χ2(1) = 3.234, p = 0.072). The percentage of participants that consciously observed the “Slogan” element was statistically significant higher (χ2(1) = 10.232, p = 0.001) in the closed condition (48.1%) than in the open condition (4.2%). No significant difference (χ2(1) = 0.000, p = 1.000) was found between the closed condition (48.1%) and the semi-closed condition (44.4%), Eq. 15. The difference between the semi-closed (44.4%) and open condition (4.2%) was found to be significant (χ2(1) = 8.836, p = 0.003). The percentage of participants that had consciously observed the “Cracks” was sta- tistically significant (χ2(1) = 14.964, p = 0.000) higher in the closed condition (59.3%) than in the open condition (4.2%). The difference between the closed (59.3%) and semi- closed (11.1%) conditions was found to be significant (χ2(1) = 11.696, p = 0.001). The

“Opening and Closing Virtual Reality” 35 Table 1. Perceived elements in the advertisements Element Condition Semi-closed Closed Open 100.0% 96.3% Fish 100.0% 96.3% 100.0% Glassex Bottle 44.4% 48.1% Slogan 75.0% 96.3% 92.6% Helmets 4.2% 85.2% 63.0% Treasure Chest 91.7% 81.5% 81.5% Glassex Logo 75.0% 11.1% 59.3% Cracks 75.0% 77.8% 77.8% Glassex Cleaning 4.2% 45.8% difference between the semi-closed (11.1%) and open (4.2%) conditions was not signif- icant (χ2(1) = 0.159, p = 0.690). The percentage of participants that had consciously observed the “Glassex Cleaning”| item was higher in the closed condition (77.8%) com- pared to the open condition (45.8%), but the results were not statistically significant (χ2(1) = 3.234, p = 0.039). No significant difference was found between the closed (77.8%) and semi-closed (77.8%) conditions (χ2(1) = 0.000, p = 1.000). The percent- age in the semi-closed condition (77.8%) was higher than in the open condition (45.8%), but this difference was not significant (χ2(1) = 4.264, p = 0.039). 5 Conclusion The results indicate that the openness advertising strategy works somewhat similarly in VR to traditional media. Openness, also in VR, seems to increase Interpretation Inability and decrease the creation of the Intended Interpretation. These results are in line with previous research using tradional media (Dingena 1994; Ketelaar and Van Gisbergen 2006; Ketelaar et al. 2012; Phillips 1997; Warlamount 1995). Several reasons for this effect have been suggested, of which one is the composition of the VR advertisement. The question of where in the 360° space key elements, including verbal anchoring and visuals that strengthen the rhetorical content, are positioned plays a role. VR users have more control over what they want to focus on in a scene compared to users watching TV. As such, openness might be a risky strategy in VR when not carefully executed by providing some sort of control is what to look at and when. This seems to be supported by the finding in the research as, on average openness decreased 50% of the objects seen (remember). For this reason, a careful strategy needs to be developed when creating a VR advertisement, elements that are key to the story will need to be placed in areas of the space that consumers are most likely to set their gaze on, and various cues will need to be utilized to direct user attention towards these elements (see also the results around attention). Secondly, this study found no significant effect of openness on Aad and Ab, while previous literature found both positive (Van Enschot 2006) and negative (Ketelaar

36 S. Smith et al. and Van Gisbergen 2006; Warlamount 1995) effects. Scholars have reported both positive effects (Van Enschot 2006) and negative effects (Ketelaar and Van Gisbergen 2006; Warlamount 1995) of openness on the Attitude towards print advertisements, while Van Enschot and Hoeken (2015), studying TV commercials, found that closed or guided commercials, because of the presence of verbal or visual anchoring, were perceived as easier to understand and therefore more appreciated. This latter finding might also explain the difference we found with previous studies from Van Enschot and Hoeken, as for the VR advertising conditions, no difference was found in interpretation difficulty. A question remains of course whether this is due to the content created or whether VR in general is perceived as more complex for instance due to the lack of guidance on what, when and how long to look at compared to for instance television commercials. An alternative could be that it concerns temporary VR difficulty because the participants had no prior experience with VR. The general unfamiliarity of respondents with VR might have influenced results as well is the newness effects of VR that might have increased the attitude in all versions diminishing the effect of openness. This is in line with the finding is that the mean grade and attitude scores were significantly higher in the VR advertisements than the mean of scores towards advertising in general, indicating that possibly the novelty of VR positively influences Aad. 5.1 Considerations for the Advertising Industry VR seems to provide new opportunities as well as threats for using the openness strategy. On the one hand it seems to create more experience and as such pleasure and time to decipher the ad, stimulating as can been seen in a study around branded facebook pages using the openness strategy with rhetorical figures (Van Hooijdonk and Van Charldorp 2019). In this case openness in VR can even decrease feelings of intrusiveness, stimu- lating buying behaviour as was found in mobile advertising using an openness strategy within the retail context (Ketelaar et al. 2018). On the other hand, VR creates a risk of crucial elements that can be overlooked by the audience leading to interpretation inability. This research provided evidence that the composition of VR advertisements influences advertisement understanding. Therefore, advertisement creators need to be mindful of the various content zones in VR and Alger’s content zone diagram (Alger 2015) can be a useful tool when deciding upon the position and movement of the ele- ments in the VR advertisements. It also seems that various characteristics that determine whether an advertisement is open or not in print advertisements could also apply to VR. These characteristics, such “verbal anchoring” helps improving advertisement compre- hensibility and have more versatility in VR. For example, in VR verbal anchoring could take the form of text, but also a voice over with the advantage that audio is omnipresent, while text needs to be positioned in specific points in the VR environment. Nonetheless, it remains unclear whether openness influences attitude in VR advertisements. 5.2 Limitations When we deal with openness of advertisements we are talking about a continuum of degrees and there is no standard to define what people would consider an open or a semi-open advertisement. Therefore, we are subjected to potentially design an “open”

“Opening and Closing Virtual Reality” 37 advertisement that won’t be perceived as sufficiently open. The same can be argued about VR, we have so many factors connected with the experience of using VR, the novelty factor, presence, resolution, interactivity, delay, etc. So, although this research came up with interesting evidence, additional tests varying and controlling features from the VR experience and degree of openness would be interesting. Another limitation, found in similar previous experiments, is that the degree of involvement might influence the results (Ketelaar and Van Gisbergen 2006; Ketelaar et al. 2012)/Once the respondents were “compelled” to watch an advertisement and answer a questionnaire to detail their experiences. In real situations, viewers might choose not to watch the advertisement, missing the message entirely. Another limitation of the study is its “single-exposure design”. Acknowledgements. We would like to thank Joey Relouw and Martin Walker from Breda Uni- versity of applied Sciences for their contributions in creating the VR advertisements as part of a RAAK SIA funding. References ADS spot (2022). https://adsspot.me/media/prints/glassex-glass-cleaner-fish-4686cb618071 Alger, M.: Visual design methods for virtual reality. Ravensbourne (2015). http://aperturescience llc.com/vr/VisualDesignMethodsforVR_MikeAlger.Pdf Boutlis, P.: A theory of postmodern advertising. Int. J. Advert. 19(1), 2–24 (2000) Chebat, J.C., Charlebois, M., Gelinas-Chebat, C.: What makes open vs. closed conclusions adver- tisements more persuasive? The moderating role of prior knowledge and involvement. J. Bus. Res. 53(2), 93–102 (2001) Chu, A.: VR design: transitioning from a 2D to a 3D design paradigm. In: Samsung Developer Conference, vol. 19, November 2014 Dingena, M.: The Creation of Meaning in Advertising: Interaction of Figurative Advertising and Individual Differences in Processing Styles. Thesis Publishers, Amsterdam (1994) Eco, U.: The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts. Indiana University Press, London (1979) Freina, L., Ott, M.: A literature review on immersive virtual reality in education: state of the art and perspectives. In: Proceedings of eLearning and Software for Education (eLSE), Bucharest, 23–24 April 2015 (2015). https://doi.org/10.12753/2066-026X-13-131 Ketelaar, P.E., Van Gisbergen, M.S., Bosman, J.A., Beentjes, H.: Attention for open and closed advertisements. J. Curr. Issues Res. Advert. 30(2), 15–25 (2008) Ketelaar, P.E., Gisbergen, M.S.V., Beentjes, J.A.: Interpretation of highly visual ‘open’ advertise- ments in Dutch magazines. J. Vis. Literacy 31(1), 23–52 (2012) Ketelaar, P.E., Van Gisbergen, M.S.: Openness in Advertising: Occurrence and effects of open advertisements in magazines. [Sl: sn] (2006) Ketelaar, P., Maesen, S., Linssen, E.J.M., Van Gisbergen, M.S.: The effectiveness of openness in advertising for familiar and unfamiliar brands across different nationalities. J. Euromarketing 22(1–2), 5–23 (2013) Ketelaar, P.E., et al.: “Opening” location-based mobile ads: how openness and location congruency of location-based ads weaken negative effects of intrusiveness on brand choice. J. Bus. Res. 91, 277–285 (2018) Lagerwerf, L., Meijers, A.: Openness in metaphorical and straightforward advertisements: appreciation effects. J. Advert. 37(2), 19–30 (2008)

38 S. Smith et al. McQuarrie, E.F.: Advertising resonance: A semiological perspective. In: Hirschman, E.C. (ed.) Interpretive consumer research, pp. 97–114. Provo UT: Association of Consumer Research (1989) McQuarrie, E.F., Mick, D.G.: Figures of rhetoric in advertising language. J. Consum. Res. 22(4), 424–438 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1086/209459 McQuarrie, E.F., Mick, D.G.: Visual and verbal rhetorical figures under direct processing versus incidental exposure to advertising. J. Consum. Res. 26, 37–51 (2003) McQuarrie, E.F., Phillips, B.J.: Indirect persuasion in advertising: how consumers process metaphors presented in pictures and words. J. Advert. 34(2), 7–20 (2005) Mick, D.G., Politi, L.G.: Consumers’ interpretations of advertising imagery: a visit to the hell of connotation. In: Hirschman, E.C. (ed.) Interpretive Consumer Research, pp. 85–96. Association for Consumer Research, Provo (1989) Moriarty, S.E.: Abduction: a theory of visual interpretation. Commun. Theory 6, 167–187 (1996) Phillips, B.J.: The impact of verbal anchoring on consumer response to image ads. J. Advert. 29, 15–24 (2000) Phillips, B.J.: Thinking into it: Consumer interpretations of complex images. J. Advert. 26, 77–86 (1997) Phillips, B.J., McQuarrie, E.F.: Beyond visual metaphor: a new typology of visual rhetoric in advertising. Mark. Theory 4, 113–136 (2004) Sawyer, A.G.: Can there be effective advertising without explicit conclusions? Decide for yourself. In: Nonverbal Communication in Advertising, pp. 159–184 (1988) Sheikh, A., Brown, A., Watson, Z., Evans, M.: Directing attention in 360-degree video. In: Proceedings of IBC 2016, p. 29 (2016) Song, H., Kim, J., Nguyen, T.P., Lee, K.M., Park, N.: Virtual reality advertising with brand experiences: the effects of media devices, virtual representation of the self, and self-presence. Int. J. Advert. 40(7), 1096–1114 (2021) Syrett, H., Calvi, L., van Gisbergen, M.: The oculus rift film experience: a case study on under- standing films in a head mounted display. In: Poppe, R., Meyer, J.-J., Veltkamp, R., Dastani, M. (eds.) INTETAIN. LNICSSITE, vol. 178, pp. 197–208. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-319-49616-0_19 Van Enschot, R.: Retoriek in reclame. Waardering voor schema’s en tropen in tekst en beeld. [Rhetorics in advertising. Appreciation of schemes and tropes in print and pictorials]. F&N Boekservice, Nijmegen (2006) Van Enschot, R., Hoeken, H.: The occurrence and effects of verbal and visual anchoring of tropes on the perceived comprehensibility and liking of TV commercials. J. Advert. 44(1), 25–36 (2015) Van Gisbergen, M.S., Ketelaar, P.E., Beentjes, J.W.J.: Changes in advertising language? A content analysis of magazine advertisements in 1980 and 2000. In: Neijens, P.C., Hess, C., van den Putte, S.J.H.M. (eds.) Content Media Factors in Advertising, pp, 22–36 (2004) Van Gisbergen, M.S.: Contextual Connected Media: How Rearranging a Media Puzzle, Brings Virtual Reality into Being. NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences (2016) van Hooijdonk, C., van Charldorp, T.: Sparking conversations on Facebook brand pages: investigating fans’ reactions to rhetorical brand posts. J. Pragmat. 151, 30–44 (2019) Van Wouwe, M., Doicaru, M.M., Bastiaens, O.S.P., Van Gisbergen, M.S.: From Hitchcock to the 360 degree film: the effect of the narrative technique of suspense on narrative engagement, spatial presence and enjoyment in a 360 degree film. In: EuroVR, November 2016 Warlamount, H.G.: Advertising images: from persuasion to polysemy. J. Curr. Issues Res. Advert. 1, 19–31 (1995)

AR In-Store Solutions for Different Fashion Retail Environments: Retailers’ Perspectives Liangchao Xue1(B), Christopher J. Parker1, and Cathryn A. Hart2 1 School of Design and Creative Arts, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK [email protected] 2 School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK Abstract. Fashion retail has faced immense changes in the rapid development of e-Commerce. This has created significant uncertainty for traditional shopping, and Covid-19 worsens this situation. To improve the consumer shopping experience and increase sales revenue for fashion retailers, we need to reveal what category of AR solution is most useful for different fashion retail environments. We prove that the fashion retail market is ill-prepared to use AR through 13 semi-structured interviews with high-street retailers, high-end retailers, and UX/AR designers. AR aims to offer a seamless shopping experience for high-street consumers by prioritising the functional purpose but animating AR in an exciting way in a high- street store, enabling consumers to obtain an efficient and enjoyable shopping experience. Designing high-end AR retail environments should focus more on hedonic value by telling a brand/trend story, enabling consumers to engage with the story and have human interaction to ensure a superior service. Keywords: Augmented reality · User experience · Shopping experience · Retailing 1 Introduction As the COVID-19 crisis continues, retailers face immense challenges as they attempt to return to regular operations as consumer behaviours have adjusted dramatically during lockdowns. Critically, a broader range of consumers has adopted e-Commerce as their primary shopping method (Calugar-Pop and Lee 2020). As such, retailers must offer a heightened sense of service, greater product information, and scaled-back product ranges as consumers make difficult decisions regarding their needs versus their desires (Puttaiah et al. 2020). Innovative technologies are also evolving the purchase process, particularly with Augmented Reality (AR), social media-based shopping, and chatbots. Early AR adoption in retailing includes virtual try-on such as ‘Magic Mirror”, which uses motion capture technology (Javornik et al. 2016) to simulate the appearance of garments in a single form and rotate the model in front and back views. Where demand remains, it may shift across channels, requiring retailers to rethink their offerings (McGarrigle 2020). Particularly in times of crisis, consumers may avoid touching the product to protect themselves, retailers © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 T. Jung et al. (Eds.): XR 2022, SPBE, pp. 39–51, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25390-4_3