Working Papers.

Working Paper Science #4

Spatial Marketing Research: Leveraging 3D Virtual and Interactive Spaces to Study Marketing Phenomena

Sebastian Hohenberg, Thorsten Hennig-Thurau, Ronny Behrens, Patrick Wöhnl & Hanna Pott

Research on spatial technologies is expanding rapidly but remains fragmented across diverse literature streams such as metaverse studies, virtual retail simulations, and virtual twins. As a result, their full value for marketing science remains unclear, limiting broader adoption. To overcome this limitation, the authors introduce spatial marketing research as a comprehensive approach for studying marketing phenomena within three-dimensional, virtual, and interactive spaces (3VIS). Drawing on an extensive literature review, they identify four distinct value streams through which 3VIS can advance marketing research: as a research object, application, method, and economical means. To help scholars realize this potential, the authors develop a methodological framework grounded in activity theory, which conceptualizes 3VIS through three core elements: 3D environments (e.g., virtual worlds), interacting entities (e.g., avatars), and access devices (e.g., headsets). This framework clarifies key trade-offs, such as open vs. closed virtual worlds, generic vs. customized entities, and 2D vs. 3D access. The authors further extend this framework into a step-by-step process model that helps researchers design 3VIS studies tailored to research projects’ idiosyncratic validity demands, data needs, and resource constraints. Collectively, the paper contributes (1) a value creation typology and (2) a methodological framework to enable more impactful spatial marketing research.

This work has been included in the Working Paper series of the Marketing Science Institute and can be accessed here!

Working Paper Industry #3

Navigating the Enterprise Metaverse: How Virtual Reality Affects Business Agility and Meeting Outcomes.

Nilusha Aliman, Thorsten Hennig-Thurau & André Henke

Team meetings have been at the heart of businesses worldwide for a long time, regardless of industry and region. While precedent research has pointed at advantages and challenges of using virtual reality (VR) for team meetings, such as higher closeness and increased exhaustion, it is largely unclear which effects dominate in real-world conditions. With a focus on business agility, as an organization’s ability to adapt and respond quickly to developments and market conditions, but also studying other meeting outcomes, this research reports two studies in which managers of a public German organization use either videoconferencing or VR headsets for agile meetings. The findings suggest that in terms of business agility and other outcomes of interest, entering the enterprise metaverse with VR headsets can be worthwhile for suitable meetings. Based on these insights, the authors offer a six-step process which guides managers’ decision when and how to make the most out of metaverse meetings.

This work has now been accepted for publication in the scholarly journal Business Horizons and can be accessed here!

Working Paper Industry #2

Was das Metaverse für Unternehmen wirklich bedeutet: Reale Wertschöpfung mit der Virtuellen Welt von heute.

Thorsten Hennig-Thurau & Björn Ognibeni

Seit Facebook Meta heißt, ist das "Metaverse" in aller Munde. Einige warnen vor einem Hype, andere wittern neues Geschäft. Tatsächlich bergen die virtuellen 3-D-Welten große Chancen für Unternehmen – in drei Bereichen.

Download full text here (abgedruckt im Harvard Business manager 7/2022 unter dem Titel „Auf ins Metaverse“)

Working Paper Science #1

The Value of Real-Time Multisensory Social Interactions in the Virtual-Reality Metaverse

Framework, Empirical Probes, and Research Roadmap

Thorsten Hennig-Thurau, Nilusha Aliman, Alina Herting, Gerrit Cziehso, Raoul Kübler & Marc Linder

Real-time multisensory social interactions (RMSIs) between people are at the center of the virtual-reality “metaverse,” a new computer-mediated environment in which people act and communicate with each other in real-time via avatars in virtual “worlds” accessed through virtual-reality devices. This research investigates whether RMSIs in the virtual-reality metaverse can generate more value for interactants in terms of interaction outcomes (interaction performance, evaluation, and emotional responses) than those on the 2D internet (e.g., Zoom meetings). The authors present a tentative theoretical framework of how RMSIs in the virtual-reality metaverse versus on the 2D internet affect interaction outcomes through interactants’ intermediate conditions. The results of subsequent extensive empirical probes are in line with several aspects of the framework, but contradict the idea of a general superiority of RMSIs in the virtual-reality metaverse. The authors thus combine theory and empirical insights for developing a refined framework that serves as roadmap for future research.

This work has in the meantime been published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, where it also won the award for the Best Article of the year 2023. It can be accessed here!