From Avatars to Allies: Exploring Team Collaboration in the Metaverse

Abstract

This paper explores the application of virtual reality (VR) technologies in the metaverse for team collaboration, focusing on its advantages over traditional videoconferencing. We examine the opportunities the metaverse offers for virtual teams’ collaborative tasks and the factors that enable effective team collaboration. A lab experiment comparing Meta Horizon Workrooms (a VR platform for virtual meeting rooms) with Zoom demonstrated higher immersion, social presence, and collaboration scores for the virtual environment among the participants. Furthermore, we identify that the metaverse offers novel possibilities for virtual interaction and enables greater focus on tasks and team members compared to videoconferencing. We conclude that the metaverse successfully enhances virtual team collaboration, promoting innovative teamwork and knowledge sharing. However, further exploration of this technology, including attention to nonverbal communication and suitable usage scenarios, is suggested. These findings provide organizations with a foundation for considering the implementation of VR collaboration platforms in the metaverse.