Spatial Marketing Research: Leveraging 3D Virtual and Interactive Spaces to Study Marketing Phenomena
Abstract
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.
Keywords
spatial marketing; metaverse; virtual worlds; virtual reality; mixed reality; marketing research; digital twins.