Abstract
Technological developments are presenting new ways for companies to organize their businesses and offer new products, services, and experiences to their customers. The Metaverse allows the participation and interaction of individuals in immersive experiences that merge virtual and real worlds. The adoption of metaverse platforms by companies worldwide is growing steadily, with the potential to change business in various industries, including tourism. However, the literature on the Metaverse applied to tourism is very scarce. This chapter addresses this gap by exploring a case study of the implementation of a Metaverse strategy by a Portuguese wine brand, Sandeman, as part of their wine tourism experience offerings. The case study is built on secondary data, observation, and interviews with tourists. © 2025, IGI Global Scientific Publishing. All rights reserved.

Abstract
This study investigates the use of 9-ending pricing strategies in e-commerce by analyzing over 50,000 shoe prices. Using web scraping and a logit model from a German online retailer, the research assesses how product attributes influence the adoption of 9-ending prices. Key findings reveal that 9-ending prices are predominantly used for female and newly introduced products, as well as for items with lower and standard prices. The study also explores the effects of exclusivity and sustainability on pricing strategies, showing that their impact varies with different 9-ending price categories. Overall, this research demonstrates the complex nature of 9-ending pricing strategies, with the 9-zero removal model supporting all hypotheses, whereas the 99c and 95c models show differential effects. This extends our understanding of pricing tactics in online retail and highlights the significance of product attributes for marketing and sales strategies.

Abstract
The main aims of this chapter were to explore metaverse branding by identifying the main trends and contributions in extant literature. Through a bibliometry and the critical analysis of the main contributions in the literature, the chapter proposes a metaverse branding conceptualization, which shows how immersive metaverse experiences that provide multi- dimensional value enhance brand engagement, which leads to increased brand awareness, brand love, satisfaction, trust, and brand equity. These factors ultimately drive online and offline purchases and strengthen brand loyalty. Overall, this chapter and the proposed framework provide relevant insights for both managers defining metaverse branding strategies, and researchers interested in these topics. © 2025, IGI Global Scientific Publishing. All rights reserved.

Abstract
The Metaverse is attracting significant investment and promises to transform value creation and business competitiveness. While Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are exploring its use to overcome resource limitations and enhance operations, its role in facilitating internationalization remains unclear. This study fills a research gap by investigating how the Metaverse can support SMEs in overcoming internationalization challenges through value creation, capture, and delivery. A Metaverse-based framework was developed and validated using a three-round Delphi approach with international business professionals and Metaverse specialists. This study confirmed that the Metaverse offers SMEs distinct opportunities to enhance value creation, capture, and delivery in the internationalization process. In value creation, it supports broader product offerings (e.g. digital twins), improved efficiency, and co-creation through superior knowledge management and deeper insights into consumer preferences. For value capture, the Metaverse enables access to new revenue models, demand forecasting through simulation, and better resource utilization, helping SMEs overcome regulatory and cultural barriers. In terms of value delivery, immersive interactions and real-time communication facilitate international collaboration, improve customer engagement, and extend global market reach. Overall, the Metaverse helps SMEs address internationalization challenges linked to firm size, resource constraints, and market complexity, ultimately strengthening their competitive advantage in international contexts. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Abstract
We introduce a novel multilingual hierarchical corpus annotated for entity framing and role portrayal in news articles. The dataset uses a unique taxonomy inspired by storytelling elements, comprising 22 fine-grained roles, or archetypes, nested within three main categories: protagonist, antagonist, and innocent. Each archetype is carefully defined, capturing nuanced portrayals of entities such as guardian, martyr, and underdog for protagonists; tyrant, deceiver, and bigot for antagonists; and victim, scapegoat, and exploited for innocents. The dataset includes 1,378 recent news articles in five languages (Bulgarian, English, Hindi, European Portuguese, and Russian) focusing on two critical domains of global significance: the Ukraine-Russia War and Climate Change. Over 5,800 entity mentions have been annotated with role labels. This dataset serves as a valuable resource for research into role portrayal and has broader implications for news analysis. We describe the characteristics of the dataset and the annotation process, and we report evaluation results on fine-tuned state-of-the-art multilingual transformers and hierarchical zero-shot learning using LLMs at the level of a document, a paragraph, and a sentence.

Abstract
This study investigates the characteristics of variable and invariable tag questions in monologues, comparing their usage in British English and European Portuguese. Through a corpus-based analysis, this paper provides valuable insights into the grammatical and functional properties of these linguistic constructions in spoken monologues in both languages. The findings reveal that tag questions are less frequently used in monologues than in dialogues, reflecting their interactional nature. However, their occurrence is notably higher in European Portuguese than in British English across both monologic and dialogic speech. Furthermore, tag questions in European Portuguese exhibit greater frequency and diversity in monologues, whereas in British English, they are less common and exclusively consist of variable tag questions. While some differences in the functional and grammatical features of variable and invariable tag questions were identified, these variations were not particularly pronounced. The analysis also highlights the limited availability of tag questions in the monologues dataset in English, underlining the need for further research to comprehensively explore these constructions across languages.