Abstract
The digital transition has transformed the organisational and creative dynamics of communication agencies, generating new market demands and redefining the role of creative professionals. This study investigates how agency creatives perceive the impact of digital platforms and the internet on professional practices, creative autonomy and strategic decision-making. Adopting a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven experienced professionals working in Portuguese communication agencies. The corpus was analysed using the Iramuteq software, which enabled Descending Hierarchical Classification, Correspondence Factor Analysis, similitude mapping and word cloud visualisation. Results reveal that digitalisation is not perceived merely as a technological update, but as a structural force that intensifies production cycles, imposes data-driven evaluation and reshapes the symbolic value of creativity. Although digital tools expand expressive possibilities, they simultaneously restrict time for conceptual exploration and increase performance pressures. The findings demonstrate that contemporary creativity has become a negotiation between artistic intention and measurable market outcomes. The study concludes that sustaining creative autonomy requires organisational reform, interdisciplinary learning and strategic anticipation of digital trends. Insights highlight the need for agency models that protect creativity while embracing technological innovation.

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Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) are emerging as key enablers of decentralized, sustainable, and consumer-driven energy systems. Beyond environmental benefits, RECs possess significant potential to enhance resilience against extreme weather, price volatility, and infrastructure fragility. This article integrates resilience and relia bility constraints directly into the planning and operation of RECs, assessing their impact on system cost, sizing, and dispatch. Two optimization models are developed: a design model that sizes community assets (PV and BESS) using varying resilience indicators, and an operational model that minimizes costs while monitoring reliability. The analysis introduces two resilience metrics, deterministic hourly autonomy and average autonomy, and eval uates them using real-world data from the Caxias Living Lab. Results demonstrate that average resilience can be increased with minimal cost impacts due to non-linear trade-offs, whereas strict hourly resilience requires signifi cant storage investment. Furthermore, a Value of Lost Load (VoLL) reliability indicator is shown to cost-effectively trigger maintenance events. This framework offers actionable guidance for designing sustainable, adaptive, and economically viable energy communities.

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This study examines how leading skatewear brands construct symbolic meaning and digital identity on Instagram by analyzing content typologies, message structures, textual features and engagement patterns. A quantitative content analysis was conducted on one hundred and twenty posts from six major brands (Vans, Nike SB, Stussy, Element, Dickies and Carhartt WIP), selected according to digital relevance and recency. Data collection included interaction metrics, publication formats, caption use and specific textual elements, enabling the identification of systematic visual and textual communication patterns. A structured coding grid was applied to classify all variables under analysis. The study contributes to understanding the processes through which brands translate cultural values into symbolic digital narratives, demonstrating how Instagram operates as a primary environment for meaning making, identity signaling and community formation within the urban fashion ecosystem. Results confirm the centrality of visual composition, cultural references and textual economy in shaping symbolic coherence and perceived authenticity. Two dominant communicational profiles emerge: cultural and aspirational brands that rely on emotionally driven narratives associated with art, music and public figures, and pragmatic or institutional brands that adopt functional and objective messaging. Variations in the use of emojis, hashtags and captions indicate differentiated strategies for visibility enhancement and audience engagement. Overall, the findings advance the literature on digital branding, symbolic identity construction and communicational meaning making within social media environments applied to skatewear brands.

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With the growing popularity of DevOps culture among companies and the corresponding increase in Microservices architecture development-both known to boost productivity and efficiency in software development-an increasing number of organizations are aiming to integrate them. Implementing DevOps culture and best practices can be challenging, but it is increasingly important as software applications become more robust and complex, and performance is considered essential by end users. By following the Design Science Research methodology, this paper proposes an iterative framework that closely follows the recommended DevOps practices, validated with the assistance of expert interviews, for implementing DevOps practices into Microservices architecture software development, while also offering a series of tools that serve as a base guideline for anyone following this framework, in the form of a theoretical use case. Therefore, this paper provides organizations with a guideline for adapting DevOps and offers organizations already using this methodology a framework to potentially enhance their established practices.

Abstract
PurposeWithin the sports industry, fan tokens have appeared as an instrument for fostering fan engagement and empowering them to participate in club-related decision-making processes via voting mechanisms (e.g. voting rights in decisions like the design of the equipment or the bus, and the ability to win rewards such as VIP experiences with the players).Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the technology acceptance model and consumer behaviour theories, a conceptual model was established to analyse the relationship of perceived ease of use, usefulness, and financial value, brand love, brand engagement, trust, social influence and its influence on the intention to purchase fan tokens. This study also analyses the generation of positive electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) derived from the intention to purchase fan tokens. To achieve the proposed objective, a quantitative study was conducted, collecting data through an online survey from football fans with an interest in fan tokens. The conceptual model was analysed using partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling (SEM).FindingsResults show that the financial perceived value was the dimension that most contributed to explaining the purchase intention. It was also found that perceived ease of use, trust in fan tokens and brand engagement positively influence the intention to buy fan tokens. Furthermore, findings demonstrate that purchase intention positively drives e-WOM, highlighting that fans' behavioural intentions extend beyond adoption to active digital advocacy.Originality/valueResults offer effective insights for both researchers and sports practitioners, while also presenting an original conceptual model applicable to diverse sports contexts and crypto assets-related research.