The popularity and applications of the metaverse are expected to skyrocket in the near future, thanks to the entry of major players (Facebook, Microsoft, EA, and even McDonalds) in the industry. As ab opinion piece in The Drum puts it "many experts predict that the metaverse will change the way we live and work in the future, and it would be extremely negligent not to recognize the trend and continue to engage with it". Could someone suggest some preliminary studies that could be carried out using consumer data collected through online surveys? Thanks in advance.
Chances are that technology adoption and acceptance theories will soon be applied to figure out what might be the antecedents for individuals to use the metaverse. I just hope that the operationalization of the respective constructs will be done in a meaningful way; otherwise we will just get the usual and fairly tautological results saying that "people will use it because it is useful". Having said that, it might be interesting to investigate privacy concerns and potential privacy violations. This can be done with or without technology acceptance models.
One interesting aspect worth investigating could be to study the consumer's willingness to sell their personal data in the metaverse era. There has been some works done by the Economists where the price which would be willing to accept their personal data like Facebook contacts.
Benndorf, Volker, and Hans‐Theo Normann. "The willingness to sell personal data." The Scandinavian Journal of Economics 120.4 (2018): 1260-1278
But I suspect we might notice some new aspects if we are to do the same experiments which these two folks did in the Metaverse space. For example, in Metaverse, users might have to let the data leave their personal circle (i.e. personal devices) for efficient content rendering.
As a provocation, I have no doubt that the "Metaverse" provides a unique market which will attract economic analysis from many angles, including managerialist and behaviourist theories; the opinion of The Drum has relevance, but is hardly in itself scientific. However, the suggestion that "the metaverse will change the way we live and work in the future", can only, in the short/medium run, be applicable to a fraction of the global population. Anecdotally at least, it is often said that the internet still only reaches around 50% of the global population; many forms of work do not, and will not require the internet. The metaverse has a role, and it will provide a fascinating field of study. It will be negligent for some not to realise this; however, for many, negligence is far too strong an adjective for what will remain for some time a marginal (in a global sense) phenomenon.
Thank you all! All of these are thoughtful replies and make perfect sense.
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