Identifying and Evaluating the Effective Fields of Metaverse in Financial Flexibility: Future Perspectives of the Capital Market

Purpose: Over the past decade, there has been increasing attention to business interactions in parallel worlds based on virtual spaces, particularly with the rising acceptance of such transformations during the COVID-19 pandemic (Gupta et al., 2024). These changes have significantly impacted various fields, including corporate financial management, as organizations like Facebook, Coca-Cola, and Disney have integrated Metaverse applications into their financial decision-making processes (Kumar et al., 2023). For example, in July 2021, Facebook announced an investment of at least $10 billion over the next five years to develop operations in the Metaverse. The company even rebranded itself as Meta to reduce financial costs and establish itself as a leading competitor in the emerging field (Kraus et al., 2022).
Method: The nature of any research in the humanities can be categorized based on its results, objectives, and data type. Accordingly, this study is developmental in nature as it examines a phenomenon that lacks sufficient theoretical coherence to serve as a measurement tool, as identified through a review of previous research. The qualitative section of this study aims to identify the effective dimensions of the Metaverse in financial flexibility. From an objective standpoint, this study is exploratory, as the expansion of Metaverse functions in financial management is an emerging phenomenon. Using grounded theory, the study seeks to present the dimensions of this concept in a multidimensional model. From a data-type perspective, this research adopts a mixed-methods approach. In the qualitative phase, data collected through interviews underwent three stages of coding—open, axial, and selective—to identify the factors influencing the Metaverse at the level of capital market companies. In the quantitative phase, scenario-based analysis was conducted using the "row i-column j" matrix and Scenario Wizard software. This phase defined potential scenarios related to the study context and expanded possible outcomes through mathematical function matrices.
Findings: Given the absence of a coherent theoretical framework for implementing the Metaverse to enhance the financial flexibility of capital market companies, grounded theory analysis was employed in the first phase. Through 12 interviews and three stages of coding, three main categories, six core components, and 35 conceptual themes were identified. A Delphi analysis confirmed the reliability of these components. To develop future scenarios for implementing financial Metaverses, a linkage matrix was used to identify the most influential key components by determining the inputs and outputs of the matrix model through the MicMac matrix. The results revealed two primary dimensions: the strategic capacities of the Metaverse and its systematic implementation. These dimensions serve as the foundation for evaluating scenarios of financial flexibility based on the Metaverse. The reciprocal matrix identified the scenarios that best describe the phenomenon under investigation.
Conclusion: The study aimed to identify and evaluate the effective dimensions of the Metaverse in financial flexibility, focusing on future perspectives of the capital market. The results indicate that the most favorable scenario, termed "Meta-Jurassic," represents a balanced integration of the Metaverse’s strategic capacities and systematic implementation. According to this scenario, capital market companies require structural insights when adopting Metaverse technologies aligned with their operational nature to achieve reliable and sustainable financial flexibility. Given the nascent state of this technology in developing economies like Iran, rapid adoption without sufficient technological and strategic infrastructure is not advisable. Instead, companies should align their strategic and systemic capacities with the Metaverse’s functionalities to create competitive advantages and enhance financial flexibility.