AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction
Abstract
Driven by advances in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI), the metaverse has begun to reshape digital marketing while raising complex ethical challenges. We conducted a systematic literature review to analyze 50 peer-reviewed literature reviews (2019–2024) from Scopus and AISeL with a focus on digital marketing, branding, and the metaverse. We mapped objectives, themes, contribution types, publication outlets, and methodologies based on which we identified most contributions as theoretical (68%) followed by empirical (16%), methodological (12%), and opinion based (4%), while PRISMA emerged as the dominant reporting standard. Through a meta-synthesis, we identified and analyzed four core ethical dimensions: privacy, transparency, authenticity, and fairness. By integrating insights across fragmented domains, the review highlights how these ethical challenges intersect and require interdisciplinary responses that involve marketers, platform providers, policymakers, and consumers. We advance theoretical implications by linking immersive marketing to foundational perspectives such as privacy theory, media richness, self-determination, and algorithmic transparency while also outlining nine actionable implications for practice and future research. In doing so, we establish a foundation for responsible, inclusive, and sustainable digital marketing in the metaverse.
DOI
10.17705/1thci.00245
Recommended Citation
Khalid, M.,
Pappas, I.,
Mahmoud, M.,
&
Rizou, S.
(2026).
The Convergence of Digital Marketing, Ethics, and the Metaverse: An Integrative Systematic Literature Review of Reviews.
AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, 18(2), 269-318.
https://doi.org/10.17705/1thci.00245
DOI: 10.17705/1thci.00245
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