Abstract
This paper explores the main challenges and barriers to VR/AR adoption and categorizes common activities performed with these technologies, explaining each specific factor affecting them. After reviewing literature on metaverse retailing, channel strategies, VR/AR technologies, and user experiences, a conceptual framework was developed. Data from the “Voice of the Consumer: Digital Survey” (2020–2024) in over 20 countries was analyzed, using Pearson’s correlation, factor analysis, and multiple linear regressions. The results point that key challenges for VR/AR adoption include security, privacy, content, price, headset-free experiences, digital fatigue, and poor experiences. Gaming is the most common VR/AR activity, while metaverse retailing activities like shopping and virtual try-ons have fewer users. Practical considerations drive metaverse retailing, unlike gaming, which is mainly hedonic. Privacy concerns, safety risks, poor experiences, and lack of knowledge surprisingly increase VR/AR usage for metaverse retailing, indicating informed consumers or threshold characterization of these variables. Additional insights were found for tourism, hospitality, and gaming activities. Theoretical implications, insights, and potential actions for retailers and tech companies are discussed, along with limitations and suggestions for further research. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025.

Abstract
While place attachment has been a hot research topic in tourism, place meanings generally have received less attention from researchers. By bridging environmental psychology to the context of tourism, this research employs schema theory to explore how the home environment influences place meanings perceived in foreign destinations by tourists belonging to the same cultural group, i.e., Chinese and Macau outbound tourists in Europe. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the findings show that there is much overlap in both groups' place meanings regarding Europe as they are culturally Chinese. Nonetheless, the Portuguese symbolic settings of their home environment are profoundly integrated in the Macau interviewees' autobiographical memories and self-identity, which turns them into "vicarious insiders" of Portugal prior to their actual visits, thus rendering Portugal a specifically meaningful destination. This study makes theoretical contributions to the tourism place literature and provides practical implications regarding meaning marketing for destination management organizations.

Abstract
Vicarious experiences in tourism possess significant marketing implications. While numerous studies have explored how various forms of vicarious experiences can impact an individual, the role of different time spans as a key factor determining the extent of said impact has been neglected in prior research. To address this gap, the present study thus bridges environmental psychology with the context of tourism and applies the theory of mental representations. An experiment (n = 359) was designed to examine differences in select mental representation dimensions (cognitive, affective, conative, and sensorial) among male and female Chinese college students who have zero/medium/maximum durations of constant vicarious experiences related to European destinations in their home environment. The results indicate that the medium duration of constant vicarious experiences leads to the most positive changes in cognitive and conative dimensions, while the longest constant vicarious experiences produce desirable affective dimension outcomes. Moreover, male college students seem to be more susceptible to the influences of such constant vicarious experiences.

Abstract

Abstract
The classic literature about innovation conveys innovation strategy the leading and starting role to generate business growth due to technology development and more effective managerial practices. The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) however reverts this paradigm in the context of Industry 5.0. The focus is moving from how innovation fosters AI to how AI fosters innovation. Therefore, our research question can be stated as follows: What factors influence the effect of AI on Innovation Capacity in the context of Industry 5.0? To address this question we conduct a scoping review of a vast body of literature spanning engineering, human sciences, and management science. We conduct a keyword-based literature search completed by bibliographic analysis, then classify the resulting 333 works into 3 classes and 15 clusters which we critically analyze. We extract 3 hypotheses setting associations between 4 factors: company age, AI maturity, manufacturing strategy, and innovation capacity. The review uncovers several debates and research gaps left unsolved by the existing literature. In particular, it raises the debate whether the Industry5.0 promise can be achieved while Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) remains out of reach. It explores diverging possible futures driven toward social manufacturing or mass customization. Finally, it discusses alternative AI policies and their incidence on open and internal innovation. We conclude that the effect of AI on innovation capacity can be synergic, deceptive, or substitutive depending on the alignment of the uncovered factors. Moreover, we identify a set of 12 indicators enabling us to measure these factors to predict AI's effect on innovation capacity. These findings provide researchers with a new understanding of the interplay between artificial intelligence and human intelligence. They provide practitioners with decision metrics for a successful transition to Industry 5.0.