Examining the barriers to the adoption of the metaverse in construction projects: lessons learned from the UK

Purpose – Adopting the metaverse in construction has significant potential for digitalizing this sector, integrating physical and digital reality. However, several complex and interconnected barriers hinder its adoption. This paper aims to examine these interrelationships to promote the metaverse adoption in construction. Design/methodology/approach – A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)-guided literature review was conducted to identify existing barriers to metaverse adoption, followed by the employment of the fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory method to analyze the interrelationships among the identified barriers. Findings – The analysis revealed a hierarchical structure of barriers, comprising five primary and 17 secondary barriers. Among them, the strongest causal main barriers were political barriers (MB1), particularly the “Lack of standardization policies”, and cultural barriers (MB5), with “Internal cultural conflict” emerging as the most critical sub-barriers. Practical implications – The findings provide several practical guidelines for industry practitioners by pinpointing the most causal barriers hindering the adoption of metaverse technologies in construction. Originality/value – Unlike previous studies that treated adoption barriers in isolation, this study systematically explores their interdependencies for the first time, providing advanced understandings and supporting strategic decision-making for the integration of the metaverse in construction.