Beyond the physical world... Digital entrepreneurship opportunities in the metaverse

Considering the pervasiveness of technology, this article offers an understanding of how the metaverse can impact digital entrepreneurship. The objective will be to gather professional evidence on how the revival of this new technology can bring entrepreneurial development. Through a qualitative study approach based on applying the metaverse in digital business contexts and analysing 533 practitioner sources from the NexisUni database, it will be possible to identify this emerging technology's concepts and application techniques. The research adopts a qualitative methodology based on a mixed thematic and content review using tools such as ATLAS.ti and Leximancer. Our study finds three relevant macro-topics for metaverse and digital entrepreneurship (Technology, Immersive and Design) and eight concepts (Private Solutions, Digital Twins, Gamification, Public Solutions, New Business Worlds, Co-design, Collaborative Spaces and Stakeholders' participation). The uncovered elements demonstrate professionals' interest in a new mode of digital entrepreneurship using the metaverse. This highlights the commitment of companies and entrepreneurs toward discovering new services delivered in virtual and parallel worlds that find the creation of digital twins as their essence.