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Little is known about the overall meaning of the Chernobyl exclusion zone (CEZ) from the visitors’ point of view. Conceptualizing the zone as a storyscape and its narratives as intangible heritage resources, this study aims to investigate the visitors’ engagement with these resources and the resulting articulations from the engagements as translated into verbal and visual storytelling.

Participant observation and participant generated images in combination with in-depth interviews with different types of tourists were conducted. This paper uses the photographs chosen by the interviewees themselves as a photo essay to explore the evocation of stories through narrative engagement.

Through participant-oriented research, this study identified three dominant storytelling themes through which visitors focus their understanding of the CEZ. Visitors’ narrative engagements and visual storytelling co-produce the site and entail fluid and even conflicting narrative articulations about the CEZ and its cultural significance.

The discoveries of this study stem from a unique developing heritage site. This study provided a more nuanced understanding of the different visitor categories in the CEZ and their group-specific ways to articulate, imagine and co-produce the storyscape of Chernobyl.

Gaining insight into the verbal and visual storytelling of tourists will contribute to the discussion of narrative consumption of different consumption profiles in tourism sites in addition to the mediation and construction of entangled memory spaces.

This study aims to investigate how co-evolutionary interactions between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and local actors shaped resource-intensive industry development over several decades, examining the economic, industrial and social implications of these interactions. It details the long-term effects of MNEs’ activities on the host country’s economic and social development and unfolds the path-dependent sequence and mechanisms of occurrence.

In a historical case study of Uruguay’s forest-based pulp sector during the 1970s to 2023, the authors analyze data from interviews with local industry actors and from company archives, academic publications and public environmental organizations.

The findings untangle the path-dependent co-evolution between MNEs’ activities and local actors and the resulting gradual development of the local industry. The increasing commitment of MNEs to the host country and their engagement with business and social communities impact the development of the industry’s technology basis, activity networks, identity and market. Spillovers and linkages occur in these interactions, driving industry development processes forward. The authors also reveal how MNEs attempt to address the social and environmental tensions associated with their operations to support their long-term presence in the host country.

The authors contribute to the MNE-assisted development literature by untangling the specific mechanisms of MNEs’ engagement in local industry development over a long-term period and elaborating on its industrial and social implications. The authors enhance knowledge about spillovers by capturing a wide range of spillover and linkage effects and assessing their long-term impacts on industry development.

The authors offer insights into how policymakers can tailor instruments for attracting MNEs by adopting a long-term perspective regarding the implications for local development and accounting for economic, industrial and social impacts. This approach can maximize beneficial outcomes from MNEs’ presence and limit tensions between MNEs and local actors.

This historical case study illustrates the complexity of MNEs’ engagement with local actors over time, including various tensions and positive developments. It illustrates the importance of social acceptance in achieving quality linkages between local and foreign actors.

This historical analysis untangles the path dependency in the long-term impacts of MNE-assisted development, illustrating the value of a temporal perspective.

The metaverse is considered an evolution of the Internet, and it engages users with digital content more seamlessly due to its enhanced immersion and diverse applications. The current study examines factors affecting the intention to adopt the metaverse. Existing studies on metaverse were found insufficient in explaining users’ intention to adopt metaverse, for which the companies are investing vast amounts of money for its implementation. The study fills the research gaps in the literature and applies the UTAUT2 (Unified Theory Of Acceptance And Use of Technology) and PAD (Pleasure, Arousal, Dominance) theory in the SOR (Stimulus-Organism-Response) framework. The study proposes a conceptual model by including effort expectancy, hedonic motivation, social influence, security personalization as stimuli, arousal, dominance, pleasure, immersive experience and perceived value as organismic variables and intention to adopt metaverse as the response variable, with gender as a moderator.

The study used purposive non-probability sampling approach and total of 420 responses were collected to examine the model. The partial least squares (PLS) technique is used for data analysis using Smart PLS software.

The study’s findings suggest that social influence and immersive experience have the highest impact on perceived value which affects users’ intention to adopt metaverse. Results indicate that individuals perceive value on using metaverse when it provides enjoyment and fun as well as security. Hence, it is important to ensure not only that individuals feel hedonically motivated but also feel secured and exert less effort to use the metaverse.

The study contributes to the existing literature on metaverse and extends its association with immersive experience and the theories applied. The fundamental qualities of metaverse that contribute to its immersive and enjoyable nature can influence users' behavioral responses. Our research emphasizes the importance of executives acknowledging the development of organismic experience within metaverse.

The insights derived from this study will serve to expand the knowledge of metaverse application developers, offering valuable guidance in incorporating these factors into their development processes. By prominently displaying security measures, metaverse brands can demonstrate their commitment to mitigating risks associated with virtual interactions. This includes clearly communicating the security protocols in place to protect user data and privacy and providing detailed information about security features can build trust and alleviate concerns.

The study highlights how the metaverse features affect individuals toward its adoption intent. Specifically, the study reveals that social influence and security affect the metaverse, further affecting the adoption intent of the metaverse. This has implications for enhancing customer relationships and value cocreation with different stakeholders. The research also recognizes that security measures are necessary for metaverse technology. These reactions could include placing regulations and standards in place to deal with the social and economic effects, making sure that data is collected and used ethically, and giving privacy and security measures priority.

This paper contributes to the body of knowledge as it is the first of its kind to explore and link immersive experience, pleasure and perceived value from the metaverse’s point of view to explore the user’s adoption intention. The study also contributes to the SOR framework with UTAUT2 and PAD theories by applying it to the metaverse context, which is used in limits.