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Currently, attention to customer experience management is one of the most important management approaches in the business field. Focussing on improving customer experience and having a customer experience management strategy is one of the actions that service providers can take to improve their marketing performance by providing superior experiences to customers. The nature of customer experience is very important for the retail industry, especially for sportswear stores, because sports products are mostly experience-oriented and can be classified as a general experience. Despite the importance of consumption experience in consumer behaviour studies, the design of sports customer experiences has received less attention from researchers. Therefore, this chapter seeks to answer the question of what aspects of creating and developing customer experience in sportswear retail stores are. To answer this question, this chapter attempts to identify the areas of creating customer experiences in sports stores by using the views of sports marketing experts through qualitative research and using content analysis techniques. The findings indicate that sports stores try to provide the best experience for their customers by considering six aspects of human resources and employees, products, interior design, exterior space, technology and interaction and communication in their strategic marketing plans and investing in creating and developing these aspects. They create a distinct experience for customers and provide a basis for purchasing, satisfaction, loyalty and other positive marketing consequences for customers.

Although the needs and desires of customers are different, obtaining positive and negative experiences is an inevitable consequence of consuming products and services purchased by the consumer. The nature of these experiences is very important for the retail industry and in particular sports stores, as the intangible experience includes the main essence of the products and services provided by businesses; in other words, sports products are mostly experience-oriented and can be classified as an overall experience. Despite the importance of the consumer experience as a dominant and effective paradigm in consumer behaviour, the design of sports customer experience has received less attention from researchers. Therefore, the present study seeks to answer the question of what aspects of creating and developing the customer experience in sports and recreational complexes are. To answer this question, this chapter attempts to identify the areas of creating customer experiences in sports and recreational environments by examining the case of the Enghelab sports and recreational club (in Tehran, Iran) using qualitative research methods and interviewing experts in this field and using the content analysis technique. The findings indicate that cognitive, functional, comprehensive, human, physical, functional, aesthetic, sensory, social, emotional and communal components are the most important components of creating and enhancing customer experience in sports and entertainment complexes.

Therefore, the owners, managers and marketing unit of these collections should invest in the creation and development of these components in the design of their strategic marketing plans in order to provide a memorable experience for the customer during their journey and finally be able to benefit from the subsequent positive consequences such as customer satisfaction, word-of-mouth advertising, loyalty and return intention.

The adoption of metaverse in manufacturing holds significant benefits, but there are several barriers to its seamless integration. This paper aims to identify such barriers and prioritize them in a manner that allows industrial leaders to strategize for smooth adoption.

In this study, we applied two-stage methods, first the identification and validation of barriers through an empirical study applied to Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). A purposive sampling technique and snowball sampling facilitated data collection from these expert sources. Through snowball sampling, additional contacts working in the metaverse field were reached, resulting in 235 possible respondents; the survey yielded 104 completed responses. Thereafter, the best-worst method (BWM) was used to measure and rank the barriers.

The study results show that the two most critical barriers are “Lack of data security and privacy” and “Lack of integration compatibility with existing systems.” Such findings inform industry leaders of specific recommendations for structural changes, training programs, necessary technological investments and collaborative efforts to overcome these barriers.

This work adds significantly to academic discussion by prioritizing barriers towards integrating metaverse technology in manufacturing. In addition, this strategic methodology aids in critical appraisal and ranking of barriers for successful adoption. This study also identifies key barriers but acknowledges that other unexamined factors might be lurking in the background, such as virtual economy, financial risks and cross-border legal issues.

The study’s conclusions cannot be generalized to the other sectors, thus indicating the necessity of carrying out a comparative multi-sector study in the future.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study on systematic prioritization of barriers to adopting metaverse technology in manufacturing is the original contribution of the authors.