The role of the metaverse in the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises

The Metaverse is attracting significant investment and promises to transform value creation and business competitiveness. While Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are exploring its use to overcome resource limitations and enhance operations, its role in facilitating internationalization remains unclear. This study fills a research gap by investigating how the Metaverse can support SMEs in overcoming internationalization challenges through value creation, capture, and delivery. A Metaverse-based framework was developed and validated using a three-round Delphi approach with international business professionals and Metaverse specialists. This study confirmed that the Metaverse offers SMEs distinct opportunities to enhance value creation, capture, and delivery in the internationalization process. In value creation, it supports broader product offerings (e.g. digital twins), improved efficiency, and co-creation through superior knowledge management and deeper insights into consumer preferences. For value capture, the Metaverse enables access to new revenue models, demand forecasting through simulation, and better resource utilization, helping SMEs overcome regulatory and cultural barriers. In terms of value delivery, immersive interactions and real-time communication facilitate international collaboration, improve customer engagement, and extend global market reach. Overall, the Metaverse helps SMEs address internationalization challenges linked to firm size, resource constraints, and market complexity, ultimately strengthening their competitive advantage in international contexts.