Data is a promising game-changer for future mobility. Effective data sharing between cities, public transport operators and private mobility service providers has the potential to boost better mobility management while enhancing the competitiveness of private stakeholders. This article provides a description of the different barriers that mobility stakeholders, both public and private, must overcome in order to unlock the value that data can provide to improve the business models of mobility operators and support informed urban mobility planning. In addition, the proliferation of micromobility services reshaping urban mobility generates a need for policymakers to understand these new trends by requesting data of mobility operators while ensuring fair data-informed mobility policies. This article also goes into depth on such intangible aspects as trust, which plays a key role in unlocking value from sharing data. Why are operators reluctant to share their data? How can users’ privacy be protected and operators’ competitiveness preserved by anonymising data? The MDS and CDS-M initiatives propose ways to govern data sharing from shared service providers to cities. A consensus option is that all parties trust a third party that handles data. An analysis of pros and cons is provided, including real-world examples, highlighting the fact that there is no optimal option for all possible scenarios, because this depends on the level of risk and intervention that the stakeholders involved are willing to take. Data also plays a key role in enabling MaaS (Mobility as a Service), as increasing the availability of data is a precondition to achieving superior integration levels (from one to four): many cities already have access to mobility datasets from private mobility operators as a prerequisite for receiving a licence to operate in cities (Level 1). Level 2 uses available data to develop evidence-based decisions aimed at creating more effective mobility policies, but only a few cities have reached this stage through pilot projects. Finally, MaaS Levels 3 and 4 will add pricing strategies with the ability to influence mobility users’ behaviour and mobility management to promote societal goals through access to real-time data from various mobility services. The use of Software as a Service platforms such as the novel Rideal will play a key role in designing incentives programmes to nudge behavioural change towards more sustainable mobility.

For the 25th anniversary of Economic and Business Studies at the UOC, professors Pacheco-Bernal and Jiménez-Zarco reflect on the way in which technology has influenced the disciplines of marketing and market research, both in terms of their evolution and their scope. They also present challenges linked to these disciplines and faced by organizations at a key moment of digital transformation. For marketing, technology has provided a before and after. Basic concepts that currently determine the core of the discipline emerge and are consolidated as technology places new tools, devices, channels and even environments within our reach. Marketing is going from the field of short-term sales to building and maintaining, in real time, complex and lasting relationships with a strong emotional component between agents of various natures and with varying interests. In terms of market research, the potential offered by the development of new technologies in understanding consumers, while it has not eclipsed more traditional market research, has modified the panorama with regard to the quality and quantity of the information obtained and the breadth of methodological options for gathering data. In the midst of the digital era, the integration of data coming from various sources and the use of hybrid methodologies enable the sector to anticipate trends and better understand market behaviour.

The trend of artificial intelligence is arriving in public administrations, even if this is happening at a slower pace than in other sectors. Today, there are already some public administrations which use artificial intelligence in data analysis, decision-making, fraud detection and irregularities, and the provision of public services. The use of artificial intelligence creates a number of challenges for public administrations that need to be addressed, such as the current lack of transparency, the biases and discrimination, the decrease in guarantees in the processing of administrative procedures, the responsibility for damages caused by the use of artificial intelligence, and its impact on public employment. Artificial intelligence is one of the foundations of intelligent governance; it must include all people in order to contribute to a sustainable development.