DEVELOPMENT OF A METAVERSE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT SCALE: AN EMPHASIS ON AR EXPERIENCES

Abstract

In the rapidly evolving digital era, the metaverse is revolutionized customer engagement through immersive, multi-dimensional experiences. This research delves into the metaverse, propelled by advancements in Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and blockchain technologies. AR, in particular, offers a novel context for customer engagement, transcending traditional boundaries between reality and virtuality. This study focuses on AR as a key driver in the metaverse, acknowledging its burgeoning role as an innovative marketing tool and its predicted growth in the global market. Amidst this backdrop, the study addresses the critical need for effective measurement of customer engagement within these augmented environments. Recognizing the limitations of existing engagement scales, which often lack the capacity to capture the complexities of virtual interactions, this research aims to develop a Metaverse Customer Engagement Scale. The scale's development involved a systematic, multi-stage process. It started with extracting engagement factors from the literature, followed by Delphi surveys refining 73 items, and a pilot test for questionnaire restructuring. The scale was further refined through exploratory factor analysis and then validated via confirmatory factor analysis in a secondary survey. The final scale comprises 12 dimensions -‘Conscious Acquisition’,‘Delight’, ‘Activation’,‘Proficiency’,‘Interaction’,‘Usefulness’,‘Immersive Experiences’,‘Concentration', 'Adaptability’,‘Empowerment’,‘Sharing’ and ‘ Endorsement ’ - totaling 63 items. In summary, this study contributes to the understanding of customer engagement in the Metaverse by presenting a well-rounded, theoretically informed, and empirically tested scale. This scale not only enhances academic insights into virtual environment engagement but also provides practical tools for developing more effective customer engagement strategies in the Metaverse. Key Word: Metaverse Customer Engagement, Scale development, Augmented reality(AR)