Potential of the Industrial Metaverse – A Taxonomic Approach

The metaverse is often regarded as the next successor of the current internet, and also for the industrial sector, the metaverse has the potential to enhance physical-digital approaches like the Industrial Internet of Things and facilitate the shift from Industry 4.0 to 5.0. To move away from context-specific value and comprehensively grasp its potential, we develop a classification model following the research question: “[RQ] Which dimensions and characteristics are suited to holistically describe use cases of the Industrial Metaverse?” To address, we pursue a taxonomic approach leveraging the reliable taxonomy development method by Nickerson et al. (2013) based on real-world uses cases of the Industrial Metaverse. Guided by the theory of the affordances, the resulting model classifies use cases by (1) IT artifact- (dominant building block, technology materiality, technology origin), (2) Organization- (lifecycle context, environmental context, role of the human) and (3) Affordances- (lifecycle value-add, sustainability pillar, value objective, value direction, impact) -related dimensions. Keeping review- and classification-related limitations in mind, we contribute a “theory for analysis” for science and a “tool to understand and innovate” for practice.