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This study aims to analyze the determinants of small and medium enterprise (SME) sustainability through online marketing technology innovation.

The study was conducted through a survey in Siak Regency and Dumai City, Riau Province, Indonesia. The study population is small entrepreneurs doing online marketing. The determination of this survey area is by considering: the use of online marketing technology in this area is relatively more developed than other regions; Siak Regency and Dumai City are very prospective to be used as small business development areas based on online marketing; and the sample was determined by purposive random sampling with the criteria of small entrepreneurs who have tried to do online marketing for at least six months. Based on these criteria, there are 301 small entrepreneurs who conduct online marketing as a sample.

The sustainability of SMEs is directly and indirectly influenced by government support, human resource quality, innovation costs, economic conditions and business partners through online marketing technology innovations. Online marketing strategy through targeting, segmentation and positioning marketing strategies. Implementation of online marketing technology innovation models: increased government support; improvement of human resources; provision of innovation cost allocation; government policies in maintaining economic stability; and increase in business partners.

Limited access to data can limit the interpretation of correlations between the variables studied. This limitation is because the available data is limited to certain periods and certain geographical regions. In addition, research time constraints limit the ability to conduct more in-depth interviews and obtain additional data relevant to the topic being studied.

Practical implications: 1) Targeting marketing strategy is a staged strategy to select a target market. The target market for SME products is intermediary consumers (agents) and end consumers; 2) Segmenting marketing strategy is a stage strategy to determine market segments. The market segment of SME products is based on consumer characteristics, namely, the local market and markets outside the region. SME product market segments based on consumer response characteristics, namely, market segments based on product benefits and consumer loyalty; 3) Positioning marketing strategy is a strategy for the development stage of each product detail placement and the development of a 4P mix strategy, namely, product, price, place and promotion.

The implementation of this research policy is: increased government support in facilitating online marketing; increased human resources in online marketing; provision of cost allocation of innovation in online marketing; government policy in maintaining economic stability; and increased business partners in online marketing. Model implementation requires mentoring and training through cooperation with business partners.

The sustainability of SMEs requires online marketing technology innovation. These findings can help provide an alternative solution to the weak resources of SMEs. With the discovery of the determining factor for the sustainability of SMEs, it can accelerate the SME digitalization program.

AI-powered digital human avatar influencer (DHAI) is a digitally created character with a human-like appearance and noteworthy social media presence. They mimic human behavior through form, behavior and emotional realism. However, there have been varied viewpoints in the literature about the effect of DHAI realism on consumer response. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of form, behavioral and emotional realism on consumer engagement and parasocial relationships that further affect attachment toward DHAI and brand, with the moderating effect of content authenticity.

Using a cross-sectional design, 426 respondents in India were asked to visit the Instagram page of a specific DHAI identified through a pretest study. The authors used the Smart PLS 4.0 version to examine the hypotheses.

Accordingly, based on the social presence theory, the findings of the quantitative study indicated that DHAI’s form, behavioral and emotional realism positively influence customers’ engagement with DHAI, but only the behavior and emotional realism of DHAI positively affect the parasocial relationship. Further, perceived DHAI’s content authenticity moderates the effect of DHAI engagement and parasocial relationship on DHAI sentimental attachment.

This study provides novel and practical insights for developing DHAI by considering realism characteristics for enhanced customer engagement, parasocial relationship and attachment toward DHAI and brands.

With the evolving landscape of technology and innovations, metaverse has revealed a huge potential for changing the world. Gradually, it has expanded its wings to different sectors, including higher education. The key purpose of this research work is to synthesize the existing literature on metaverse in higher education and develop future research directions for researchers.

The present study uses the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)” technique to recognize relevant articles from the database, i.e. SCOPUS. Furthermore, it conducts a “bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review” to explore the research area of metaverse in higher education.

The findings reveal that the synthesis and analysis of existing literature led to the identification of an intellectual structure, which resulted in the formation of four clusters. These clusters are defined as attributes related to metaverse applications in higher education, sustainable management of complex learning practices, customization of the teaching–learning process through the metaverse and model development. The theoretical structure informs the co-word analysis and thematic map, identifying four themes: the basic theme, motor theme, niche theme and decline theme. Finally, the social structure is assessed in terms of the author’s network and collaboration across countries.

The study investigated the conceptual structure by developing a thematic map and social structure by measuring the relationship between country–author collaboration through bibliographic coupling (BC). The study also identified future research avenues based on the “TCCM (theory, context, characteristics, and methodology)” framework for future researchers and practitioners.

The research study thrives on enlarging the review scope to measure the metaverse’s role in higher education. Though bibliometric studies have been developed in the metaverse, no study has attempted to measure the relationship between metaverse in higher education using bibliometric and TCCM framework. Thus, developing a synthesized work provides a comprehensive picture of the research domain.

With the rapid diffusion of the metaverse into all aspects of businesses and the education industry, scholars have predominantly focused on examining its projected benefits and harms, yet have overlooked to empirically explore its unpredictable nature, which offers an exciting realm of unexplored challenges and opportunities.

This research adopts a qualitative research design in the form of 24 interviews from a single EdTech to investigate the possibility of unexpected developments resulting from the integration of the metaverse into its solutions.

Three noteworthy observations have emerged from the analysis: technological obsolescence, resource allocation imbalance, and monoculturalism.

This research pioneers an empirical exploration of the latent outcomes stemming from metaverse adoption within EdTechs, while also introducing a novel theoretical framework termed “meta-governance,” which extends the Edu-Metaverse ecosystem.

This study investigates the impact of social cognitive theory (SCT) constructs and perceived risks on university students’ trusting intentions towards Metaverse-based educational platforms in the UAE. By examining factors such as self-efficacy, outcome expectations and vicarious learning (from SCT), alongside perceived risks like performance, time, social and security concerns, this research addresses critical gaps in understanding trust dynamics in educational technology.

A quantitative survey was conducted with 176 university students who experienced a Metaverse-based classroom prototype. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the relationships between SCT constructs, perceived risks and trusting intentions.

The results demonstrate that SCT constructs significantly enhance trust by fostering self-efficacy and providing positive learning experiences. Conversely, perceived risks reduce trust, emphasizing the need to mitigate security concerns and usability barriers to improve adoption. These insights underline the dual importance of managing risks and promoting psychological readiness among students.

The findings offer actionable guidance for educators, policymakers and developers to design secure, user-friendly Metaverse platforms that align with educational objectives. The study emphasizes the importance of addressing perceived risks, enhancing student engagement and fostering trust to enable effective technology adoption in education.

This research provides a novel perspective on trust in Metaverse-based education by integrating SCT constructs with risk perceptions, offering a comprehensive framework to guide the successful implementation of immersive learning environments.