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Abstract The Metaverse is emerging as an important component of the evolving digital economy, yet existing research remains fragmented and lacks cross-cultural comparison. This study employs bibliometric analysis and a systematic literature review to compare research trends using data from the Web of Science (WOS) and CSSCI databases. The findings reveal distinct trajectories: research published in international journals emerged earlier and evolved from virtual worlds to mixed reality and AI, whereas Chinese-language research gained momentum later and has focused primarily on blockchain, digital twins, and policy-oriented applications. To integrate these perspectives, this paper constructs a theoretical framework based on the Input-Process-Output (IPO) model. The framework maps technological and policy drivers as inputs, the five-layer Metaverse architecture as the process mechanism, and multidimensional societal impacts as outputs. Finally, the paper proposes future research directions to guide the field’s development.
Han et al. (Wed,) studied this question.