Digitization (action by which analogue processes, procedures, and objects are converted to digital format) can lead to the internal transformation of companies’ business models, strategies, processes, and procedures, which we generally call digital transformation.

This digital transformation, or the ability to carry it out, could be seen as a competitive advantage. If we take the banking sector as an example and, within it, we differentiate purely digital players and compare them to traditional players, we could conclude that the competitive advantage is not just about digitization and digital transformation of the former, but a much broader positioning that encompasses the company’s attitude towards innovation – called innovation orientation –, of which one of its results would be, for example, digitization and subsequent digital transformation.

This article aims to identify the key characteristics of purely digital players when compared to their traditional competitors in relation to innovation orientation and what differential characteristics have helped them achieve that level of digitization and digital transformation – understood as a result of such innovation orientation – successfully.

Quantum computers are receiving more and more attention in the media, with the promise of becoming a revolution in computing and digital communications. Nowadays, we cannot know for sure whether this promise will be fulfilled, but it is possible to get an idea of where things could go. The objective of this article is to give a brief overview of quantum information technologies and their future possibilities. After a concise summary of the fundamentals of quantum computing and the current state of the technology, we make a review of the main areas in which the technology can lead to innovations that substantially improve the performance of the current technology. Finally, we point out some possible effects of the development of quantum computing in today’s economy and society.

The development of electronics, telecommunications, and computing during the 20th century is one of the fastest and most transformative revolutions in human history. Compared to the successive revolutions in society’s progress since prehistoric history, it creates a new paradigm of progress that continues to be difficult to assimilate. The times between scientific findings, their realization in products or services, and their understanding by society, are becoming shorter and more demanding. Understanding how innovation, not only technological but also global, translates into a real transformation of society, its processes and how people approach it, requires the coordination of all social actors to achieve equitable and sustainable economic and social progress.

This article contextualizes and explores the keys to the relationship between innovation – understood as a complex process –, transformation – which is now digital –, and the transfer of knowledge necessary for the former to really become a transformative element of society.

On many occasions, when the words innovate or innovation are mentioned, there is a feeling of fear, fear or rejection, sensing that it does not suit us because of a supposed inability to do it or because it is “their thing” (research centres, developed companies, universities, etc.), without taking into account that we are probably innovating very often in our daily lives and most of the time without realising it. Therefore, if we reflect for a moment, we will see that we all innovate in one way or another to adapt to life circumstances.

We must remember that to innovate is “to introduce something new (in something)”, and as possible synonyms we have: to alter, change, modernize and modify. So: is there any organization in society or any person who has not carried out (voluntarily or not) any of these actions?

The methodology for culminating innovations is as varied and extensive as there are innovators, but here we will propose one based on an internal (inside view) and external (outside view) of the person who has to innovate, from the result of which a change, alteration or modification can emerge that ends up becoming what we all do and should continue to do: an innovation.

Since Mark Zuckerberg announced in September 2021 the change of Facebook’s name to Meta and presented his vision of the Metaverse, there has been no end to speculation in the marketing world about its impact and brands have been announcing their reactions in the media. The perception of the impact as a disruption in the customer-company relationship makes companies want to be present in the race to be pioneers in this new virtual reality.

Although gamification has been a marketing technique of recurrent use in the 21st century, it has been somewhat relegated to the advertising field in the gaming industry. However, the Metaverse is presented as a holistic view of life, where through his or her avatar, the protagonist consumer discovers new needs in a virtual and parallel world modelled on his or her whim.

This means that the Metaverse is much more than an incubator of marketing ideas for brands. The conception of a new universe is a world of speculation where states, countries and communities are for sale, cities are to be built and where, in Zuckerberg’s vision, society will be able to invent, build or reproduce its reality. That is, to relate, buy and work, in short, to live.

As in any technological paradigm, companies are facing a new transformation. Without concluding the change of Customer Centricity, 100% digital customer and with the imminent reality of 5G and IoT, the Metaverse is another reality that implies for companies the conception of the customer under multiple personalities, as many as metaverses, new products, channel integration, new currencies, new legislations, new and multiple sources of decentralized data, etc.

This new scenario requires urgent research, which, although brands can face with more or less difficulty, in the field of research is complex given that the advances and incursions of companies are still incipient and there is no data on social and consumer behaviour in the Metaverse. For this reason, this article aims to be a holistic compilation of what the metaverse is, its background and consequences on behaviour in the purchase decision process. Its conclusions will allow us to delimit specific areas of research on consumer behaviour patterns in this new virtual reality.

The exponential growth of e-commerce, driven in part by the pandemic and new consumer habits, has highlighted the need to rethink the current model of urban freight distribution (UFD). The more online shopping is generated, the more home delivery is required with its implications in terms of operating costs, traffic, parking, and pollution. Urban logistics, and in particular the last mile, have become one of the main focuses of attention for public administrations and logistics operators in order to minimize these externalities. However, there is still a long way to go to optimize the new logistics processes to the requirements of the new distribution channel. Administrations need to start taking action with the help of logistics operators and citizens. These actions must be carried out quickly and in a consensual manner with all the parties involved, as only then will it be possible to define a sustainable urban logistics model that has continuity over time.

Despite the high number of passengers using metropolitan public transport systems, the limited growth rates of travel demand have not been enough to reduce the use of private vehicles in the main points of access to the city, which continue to show unsustainable patterns with an excessive presence of private vehicles.

With economic activity halfway through, months of the pandemic caused us to forget day-to-day congestion. But with the gradual recovery of metropolitan activity and mobility and the impact of lifting highway tolls and mobility policies that reduced road capacity within the city, road congestion is back, with the consequent aggravation of air pollution levels.

Airports are a source of economic prosperity, but the main airports in many cities are reaching the limits of their capacity. Faced with the difficulty of expanding them, the development of multi-airport systems may be a mechanism for adapting to the pressure of demand. However, multi-airport systems are difficult to develop, as there is no clear typology and they depend on local particulars. On the other hand, and perhaps more relevantly, airlines have few incentives to operate at secondary airports. In a liberalized market, airlines will always tend to concentrate their activity on main airports. In this article, we present these basic principles of functioning that make multi-airport systems a difficult balance, although an interesting one to try to achieve.

Micromobility is based on the sharing of mechanically simple vehicles such as bicycles and scooters, now electrically powered, through electronic devices that access information in real time (that is, through the use of smartphone apps). The electric scooter is the most recent addition to this group of vehicles for individual mobility, which also includes the bicycle. The definition of micromobility has been discussed over recent months and years and has passed through the recent regulatory changes for the Spanish case. The electric scooter offers the possibility of short journeys, mainly replacing public transport, cycling and walking, in a portable folding vehicle. The spaces in which the regulation places electric scooters are very similar to cycling spaces: cycle network lanes and traffic-calmed streets. The pressure from the increase in the flow of vehicles caused by the addition of e-scooters (which sometimes even doubles it) to cycle lanes, and the risks arising from the cohabitation of motor-powered vehicles (scooters) and non-powered ones (into which category fall the vast majority of bicycles) in the same space, reveal the need to improve the capacity and safety of cycling infrastructures and to provide safe shared roads in which speed reductions are effective. In the immediate future, it will be important to continue to question the differences and similarities between the vehicles making up the concept of micromobility and the use made of them in order to generate policies that offer fair, healthy and safe access to micromobility for everyone.

This paper deals with the analysis of the consequences and risks that the Maritime EU ETS proposal would entail at an environmental, economic, and operational level in European ports. First, the analysis is focused on European ports neighbouring non-EU regions with a significant border component, as different rules prevail. And second, it also focuses on the consequences of a possible relocation of port activities on restructuring transport and supply chains in the EU.