Metaverse Marketing: Growing the Tree of Science in Global Business

Abstract: Despite the fast-paced interest observed in the global business environment in the metaverse, still commercially and academically, it is in its formative stage. There are still diverse views on the conceptualization of metaverse as the field is still developing. Multinationals, global brands, practitioners, and scholars are exploring the role of the metaverse in various domains including marketing. The applications of marketing theories are yet to be tested in the metaverse domain. The sub-streams of marketing, like branding, advertising, retailing, customer experience and others, are yet to be evaluated for adoption for its utility, and efficacy. This paper attempts to present a bibliometric survey and systematic literature on metaverse marketing using the Tree of Science tool (ToS) and a bibliometric tool. Descriptive and thematic analysis on a sample of 48 Scopus-indexed papers is conducted. This study identifies state-of-the-art literature and evolving themes of metaverse marketing like - retailing, branding and customer experience. We found key contributors’ to metaverse literature in various segments like author - Buhalis D., country - South Korea, and institute – Bina Nusantara University. Keywords: Metaverse, Marketing, Branding, Bibliometric, Tree of Science, Global Business JEL Classification Number: M15, M31