Kimberley Guo
Project overview
The metaverse is a convergence ecosystem enabling users to live in an alternative virtual world using emerging technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR). It provides users with seamless immersive experiences, allowing avatars and holograms to interact and partake in socialising, gaming, shopping and receiving online therapy etc. Over the past few decades, the revolution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has significantly improved the efficiency of business, medical, education and entertainment industries by transitioning conventional offline services to online platforms. And now the emerging metaverse is starting to amalgamate and optimise these existing technologies and services through an immersive virtual ecosystem. The metaverse has been regarded as the next-generation internet paradigm with unprecedented potential to impact digital transformation and social change.
In recent years, the metaverse has expanded significantly, with the global market expected to surpass 1.3 trillion dollars by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of 44.5%. The positive market performance and prospects reflects growing consumer demand and purchasing willingness in this domain. However, the consumer research of the metaverse is still in its infancy, the underlying psychological factors affecting consumers’ willingness to for pay the metaverse is still underdeveloped, especially in relation to well-being themes. In this project, firstly, we are aiming to investigate the metaverse usage around recovery experiences (psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery and control), to explore the consumer’s intention to utilise the metaverse for recovering from work stress and fatigue through flow experience. Secondly, we seek to identify recovery’s underlying contribution to subjective well-being to enhance consumer’s willingness to pay for metaverse offerings.