Exploration of the Critical Factors Influencing the Development of the Metaverse Industry Based on Linguistic Variables

Recently, the development of the Metaverse has emerged as a pivotal concern within both industrial and academic realms. The future development of the Metaverse industry is shrouded in uncertainty, complexity, and a dearth of technical and economic information. To address these challenges, this paper integrates the fuzzy Delphi method and fuzzy DEMATEL based on linguistic variables to explore the critical factors of the Metaverse industry. In accordance with the proposed methodology, a case study is presented to explore the critical factors of the Metaverse industry in Taiwan. The results of the empirical analysis demonstrated that the order of importance for the three principal dimensions is as follows: “infrastructure”, “consumer behavior”, and “user experience”. From the perspective of causality, “infrastructure” can be considered a driving dimension, whereas “user experience” can be regarded as a passive dimension. Regarding the critical factors, it can be observed that “virtual and real integration”, “equipment lightweight”, and “network communication” act as driving factors, exhibiting a high degree of correlation with the advancement of the Metaverse industry. Therefore, the proposed method not only possesses a robust theoretical foundation but also offers tangible practical value in the real world.