Transforming market-based organizational learning in the decentralized metaverse: Implications for B2B metaverse marketing strategy

Abstract

Decentralized metaverse marketplaces, enabled by blockchain and related distributed technologies, are fundamentally reshaping how B2B organizations learn, adapt, and formulate marketing strategies. This exploratory study examines this transformation and finds that organizations must expand their learning processes and unlearn outdated assumptions, developing new capabilities tailored to decentralized metaverse marketplaces to learn and develop marketing strategies in decentralized metaverse environments. Based on 15 in-depth interviews with expert informants with deep knowledge of blockchain-based decentralized marketplaces, our findings suggest the importance of an inclusive learning orientation that engages both internal and external stakeholders, leveraging distributed behavioral data to deepen market insights and inform adaptive strategies. We propose a decentralized market-based organizational learning (DMBOL) framework that includes dynamic co-creation and participatory value-sharing, emphasizing community-driven knowledge acquisition and co-creation. Theoretically, the study extends organizational learning, stakeholder alignment, inter-organizational learning, and B2B marketing literature by explaining how learning, coordination, and value creation evolve in decentralized markets. Managerially, it offers guidance for designing inclusive, trust-building, and participatory B2B metaverse marketing strategies in the metaverse environments.