Unveiling the Impact of Flow Experience on Consumers’ Purchases in the Metaverse

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The term “metaverse” refers to a shared 3D virtual world that incorporates the immersion component of the metaverse through the usage of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) services. This study investigated the connections between consumers’ perceptions of metaverse media attributes, their metaverse flow experiences, their behaviour, emotive and cognitive responses, and ultimately their purchases in the metaverse. This research is based on the theory of interactivity media effects and flow theory to investigate online purchases on the metaverse platform. 491 customer responses received through the Google survey were analysed through partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling (SEM). This study highlighted that metaverse media characteristics like interactivity, augmentation, vividness and navigability had a significant influence on the flow experience of customers, whereas synchronicity was found to have an insignificant influence on the flow experience. Additionally, this study validated that metaverse flow induced affective responses and behavioural responses. However, this study rejected the influence of metaverse flow experience on cognitive response and metaverse purchase. The study adds a novel aspect to the knowledge of consumer behaviour about purchases made in the metaverse. Marketers can learn more about the metaverse flow elements that increase purchases through the metaverse platform by stimulating affective, cognitive and behavioural responses. This study presents a metaverse medium to marketers and offers a structural model of consumer navigation behaviour in the metaverse that integrates the idea of flow and marketing consequences.