Enhancing Consumer Wellbeing: Special Issue of the Journal of Business Research

Enhancing Consumer Wellbeing with Immersive Technologies

Special Issue, Journal of Business Research

Submission deadline: 01 May 2025

This special issue aims to contribute to our current understanding of how immersive technologies can impact consumer wellbeing, which refers to the overall state of individuals’ quality of life and satisfaction derived from their experiences and lifestyle choices. The concept of wellbeing encompasses various dimensions, including physical and mental health, psychological wellbeing, social connections, economic security, and environmental consciousness (Lee & Sirgy, 2008; Hilken et al., 2022; McLean et al., 2023). Consumer wellbeing can be measured objectively through different indicators or subjectively (Eshaghi et al., 2023). Subjective wellbeing refers to an individual’s assessment of their emotional responses and experiences, both positive and negative, and their global and domain-specific evaluations of life satisfaction. In short, it reflects a person’s cognitive and affective evaluations of their life (Diener et al., 2002). From a broader perspective, we can also consider that consumer wellbeing must reflect the holistic impact of consumption patterns on both individuals and society.

Despite these promising opportunities, the mass adoption of immersive technologies is still lagging, and several authors have called for more empirical research in this emerging field (Dwivedi et al., 2022). Recent evidence also points to potential damaging effects or risks of immersive technologies on individuals’ physical health (e.g., motion sickness, cybersickness), mental health (e.g., addiction) or social interactions (e.g., malicious behaviors, harassing). Furthermore, the uncertainty raised by recent global events, such as geopolitical and civil conflicts, the Covid-19 pandemic, the exacerbated increase in the cost of living, and climate change, demands careful consideration from an academic, practical, and policy-making perspective.

In this context, companies and stakeholders alike must no longer look only at transactional (e.g. satisfaction) or relational (e.g. engagement, loyalty) outcomes of their target audiences, but also seek to improve the long-term wellbeing of consumer and the society as a whole. With the aim of making further progress in this direction, this special issue is being developed.

How VR, AR, and Mixed Realities can redefine user experiences

Technological developments have driven major economic and social progress, radically improving consumer welfare. In the disruptive era of the Industry 4.0, immersive technologies -Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Augmented Virtuality (AV), and Pure Mixed Reality (PMR)- are shaping new environments that result in hybrid consumer experiences (Flavián et al., 2019). These technological innovations are not only transforming the way we interact with the world, but also offer the promise of radically improving our experiences and welfare. More importantly, they can pivot the focus from the mere utility and functionality of new technologies to actually improving the holistic wellbeing of individuals and society as a whole.

Previous research has acknowledged the potential benefits of immersive technologies in many context, including arts (e.g., Belk et al., 2022), tourism (e.g., Orús et al., 2021), education (e.g. Sahin & Yilmaz, 2020) or healthcare (e.g. Patrício et al., 2020). From the individual’s perspective, immersive technologies can significantly alter conventional experiences (e.g., AR enhanced relaxation experiences), create experiences that replace face-to-face activities (e.g., attending a VR conference), or generate completely new experiences with intrinsic value (e.g., a birds-eye exploration of a destination using Google Earth VR) (Flavián et al. 2019; Rauschnabel, 2021). This research underscores the transformative power of these technologies in fostering personal growth, enhancing emotional stability, and encouraging a deeper connection with one’s environment and community.

Towards the generation of more satisfying, safe and sustainable experiences

This special issue is open to research articles that investigate the implications for consumer wellbeing derived from the use of immersive technologies based on three key themes. First, immersive technologies can help create satisfactory experiences, leading to meaningful and transformative outcomes that increase consumers’ satisfaction, happiness, and quality of life. Satisfactory experiences can be achieved by adding value to the consumers. For example, a potential tourist can pre-experience a destination with VR that anticipates the real experience and thus improves decision making (Flavián et al., 2019). Consumers play a more dynamic and autonomous role in their experiences with immersive technologies (Rafaeli et al., 2017), leading to higher value perceptions (Hoyer et al., 2020). Immersive technologies stimulate and enhance multisensory experiences (Flavián et al., 2021) and possess a wow-effect (Hinsch et al., 2020) that can generate satisfactory experiences and improve wellbeing. Immersive technologies can reduce the costs of consumption activities (e.g. a VR driving test that replaces a physical test; attending virtual events in the metaverse), which may alleviate the cost-of-living crises and create affordable experiences. Other authors show positive effects of immersive technologies on alleviating social anxiety and improving social skills (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2023).

Second, immersive technologies can potentially generate safe experiences. Undoubtedly, recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts have increased consumers’ concerns about their physical safety and protection in public spaces. Thus, immersive technologies can minimise physical contact (e.g., AR digital menus and avatars instead of humans in frontline services; Bolton et al., 2018) and avoid crowded places (e.g., VR meetings or virtual events; Yung et al., 2022). Furthermore, not only physical safety, but also other types of mental and psychological risks (e.g. anxiety, depression, addiction, harassment, diminished reality; Dwivedi et al., 2022; Hilken et al., 2022) should be analysed. Ensuring consumer safety in the transmission and use of personal information gathered through immersive technologies is a key question to be investigated (Cowan et al., 2021). Despite the potential ethical issues that immersive technologies may have (Carter & Egliston, 2020), little attention has been paid to their implications for customer protection.

Third, customer experiences with immersive technologies should be designed to promote sustainable experiences. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development proposed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an urgent call for action for peace and prosperity for the people and the planet. Immersive technologies can be vehicles through which companies help achieve these goals, especially those related to reducing inequalities (e.g. greater accessibility to overcome physical, mental, or economic barriers; Guttentag, 2010; Gretzel & Stankov, 2021), protecting and conserving the environment (e.g. increasing awareness, reducing the carbon footprint; Fauville et al., 2020), promoting responsible consumption (Azmat et al., 2023; Hilken et al., 2022), and improving social justice (Rastegar et al., 2021). However, recent research has warned about the potentially damaging impact of immersive technologies on the environment (Kshetri & Dwivedi, 2023).

Expected contributions and potential research questions

This special issue welcomes studies that analyse key consumer wellbeing dimensions (e.g., cognitive and affective evaluations, satisfaction, happiness and quality of life) derived from the use of immersive technologies in a wide variety of contexts. At the same time, firm considerations, experience design efforts, and shifts in performance metrics to target consumer wellbeing outcomes when implementing immersive technologies are areas that require systematic research. Methodological richness, including both qualitative and quantitative empirical research, is also appreciated. Theoretical, conceptual, and critical papers are also welcomed if they contribute to a better understanding of the implications of innovative technologies for customers, services, and society in general.

A potential list of topics that merit exploration would include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

Broader Impacts of Immersive Technologies

• The role of immersive technologies in enhancing consumer wellbeing (physical or mental health, emotional and psychological satisfaction, happiness, quality of life).

• Analysis of the multifaceted dimensions of consumer wellbeing, examining consumer satisfaction of physical, social or emotional needs.

• The potential positive or negative impact of immersive technologies on subjective wellbeing (physical risks, mental health problems, social issues, etc.).

• Influence of immersive technologies on consumers’ physical, mental, and social health.

• Positive and negative effects of immersive technology applications on different types of wellbeing (personal, emotional, mental, physical, social, professional, etc.)

Ethical Aspects of Immersive Technologies

• The role of inverse technologies in removing inequalities and integrating the most disadvantaged or disabled users.

• Positive and negative aspects associated with the collection and use of personal data in the personalisation of experiences in virtual environments.

• The role of immersive technologies in promoting sustainable behaviours (reduction of pollution or consumption of non-renewable resources, better care of the environment, healthy consumption patterns, etc.).

• Challenges and opportunities of immersive technologies to enhance customer experience and wellbeing in different contexts (education, public services, health, tourism, art, etc.).

• Consumers’ awareness, concerns, worries, and responses to gathering personal information when using immersive technologies.

User Responses to Immersive Technologies

• Impact of immersive technologies (isolated or combined) on user perceptions, intentions, and real behaviour.

• Cognitive, emotional, behavioural, sensorial, or social responses to immersive user experiences.

• Positive and negative effects of body-technology integration: embodiment, ergonomics, wellbeing, comfort, mental stimulation, etc.

• Changes in realism, immersion, and other user perceptions by incorporating new sensory stimuli (smell, touch, or taste) into the visual and auditory stimuli.

• Drivers and barriers to the adoption of immersive technologies.

Guest Editors:

Carlos Flavián, Professor of Marketing; University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain, cflavian@unizar.es

Park Taichon, Associate Professor; University of Southern Queensland, Australia, thaichon@usq.edu.au

Carlos Orús, Associate Professor; University of Zaragoza, Huesca, Spain, corus@unizar.es

Manuscript submission information:

Submission portal opens: February 1, 2025

Paper submission deadline: May 1, 2025

To submit to this special issue, click here.

Please make sure you select the Article Type VSI Immersive Technologies when submitting your paper. All submissions will go through the JBR regular double-blind review process and follow the standard norms and processes.