The metaverse, which offers a new, immersive environment outside traditional Internet platforms, has altered digital interactions. Companies seek knowledge in this massive virtual world since customers are increasingly adopting it for various purposes. This study uses the embodied social presence theory as the conceptual framework to draw the knowledge on customer experience in metaverse.
Structural equation modeling analyzed 289 data points to investigate how interactivity, nonverbal communication, presence, agency, context and environment, and embodiment affect customer experience in the metaverse.
The study findings interestingly suggest that the agency, the moderator, has a significant but negative effect on the relationship between embodiment and customer experience in the metaverse environment. Further, the study brings out an intriguing outcome, which states that the embodiment in metaverse alone is insufficient but requires environmental context to provide customer experience.
Our study contributes to the existing body of knowledge and offers valuable insights to companies looking to improve customer experience in a metaverse environment.
Using embodied social presence theory (ESPT), the study challenges and expands the existing framework of physicality in the metaverse, which is limited to physical presence. It embraces embodiment and environmental context to reconceptualize “presence” in the metaverse.
