This paper intends to be an approach to the potential of augmented reality in the tourism sector, one of the economic sectors in which expectations are higher but where it has been scarcely applied. Augmented reality is a disruptive technology that, if properly managed, can be an important tool for tourist destinations in terms of competitiveness. In particular, the combination of augmented reality with mobile devices generates high expectations in relation to the attraction of technological tourists, best known as millennials. Augmented reality enhances the tourist experience of the visitors and enables the creation of new tourism products and low cost creative ways to promote destinations. However, before carrying out strategic actions, the tourist managers should be conscious of the limits of augmented reality in terms of technological usability, preferences lack of demand and lack of evaluation of results and economic performance obtained.

Do you end up buying the same products every time you go to the supermarket? Are you tired of wasting your leisure time in a repetitive and monotonous task such as buying groceries? Do you use the same amount of time online shopping as going to the supermarket?

This article presents a synthesis of Classyfied's Business Plan, written as the Final Thesis of the Degree in Business Administration. Its business model will solve all dissatisfaction caused by the shopping process by upgrading the distribution chain and introducing new technologies in the packaging and at the consumers' home.

Classyfied, as it will be introduced in this text, proves to be a feasible and profitable business idea, offering clear proposals by means of an innovative and realistic product that will entail a revolution in the food retail industry.

How many companies strategically plan their future based on mere perceptions about their customers? How many think they know their customers’ values but do not know to what extent? We may know our customer satisfaction, but do we know what factors contribute most to that satisfaction?

To establish action plans based on reliable data (rather than mere perceptions) in a global strategic approach for the sporting event Triathlon Vitoria-Gasteiz, its promoter – Asociación Maratlón – needed indicators and objective results about participant satisfaction, as well as knowledge about its brand positioning.

To this end, a study was carried out on the satisfaction and positioning of Triathlon Vitoria-Gasteiz, and was presented as the final project for a Marketing and Market Research Degree¹. Its synthesis was set out in the following three phases: a desk study to determine the primary and secondary information sources, a second exploratory phase based on a qualitative analysis to identify the key variables, which provided the subsequent design for the third phase, a purpose-built online survey sent to the participating triathletes.

This final qualitative phase, in which the results were obtained via bivariable and multivariable analyses, made up the concluding stage of the study. The statistical interpretation of these results provides objective data both to establish strategic lines of action for brands and to improve the satisfaction of all interested groups, sponsors, triathletes and their escorts, and citizens.

How many companies strategically plan their future based on mere perceptions about their customers? How many think they know their customers’ values but do not know to what extent? We may know our customer satisfaction, but do we know what factors contribute most to that satisfaction?

To establish action plans based on reliable data (rather than mere perceptions) in a global strategic approach for the sporting event Triathlon Vitoria-Gasteiz, its promoter – Asociación Maratlón – needed indicators and objective results about participant satisfaction, as well as knowledge about its brand positioning.

To this end, a study was carried out on the satisfaction and positioning of Triathlon Vitoria-Gasteiz, and was presented as the final project for a Marketing and Market Research Degree¹. Its synthesis was set out in the following three phases: a desk study to determine the primary and secondary information sources, a second exploratory phase based on a qualitative analysis to identify the key variables, which provided the subsequent design for the third phase, a purpose-built online survey sent to the participating triathletes.

This final qualitative phase, in which the results were obtained via bivariable and multivariable analyses, made up the concluding stage of the study. The statistical interpretation of these results provides objective data both to establish strategic lines of action for brands and to improve the satisfaction of all interested groups, sponsors, triathletes and their escorts, and citizens.

The Roadmap for Moving to a low-carbon economy in 2050 states that the objective of the European Union policy for Energy and Climate is to reduce its CO2 emissions to 80 % below 1990 levels. First, the article explains that decarbonisation within this framework does not only mean a transition towards renewable energy, but also changes in the use of ‘clean’ fossil fuels, in type and location. Secondly, it shows that the investment, infrastructures and treaties proposed to carry out this transformation will lead to the creation of bigger monopolies, and to the regionalization of the European energy space. Finally, we conclude by saying that if measures to offset the power of the monopolies are not applied, the outcome of these reforms will be the creation of energy baronies.

The sustainability of the European Union depends upon reducing its structural divergences. Under this premise, and taking into account that R&D policies are key to transforming productivity in EU countries that are technologically less advanced, the European Commission obtained from each of its member states commitments regarding the efforts towards R&D (expenditure as a percentage of GDP) that they would be making by the year 2020. In this study we demonstrate the unlikelihood of these commitments being fulfilled, especially in those countries with a greater need for productive transformation, of which Spain is one example. This predicted failure is heavily influenced by the austerity measures imposed on the aforementioned countries by the very same European Commission, which resulted in major cuts in their R&D expenditure. In this context, the EU is moving towards greater degrees of divergence, generating serious doubts about its continued feasibility.

This article seeks to evaluate the institutional changes implemented in recent years to reform the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). With this aim in sight, it starts with a brief reminder of the institutional structure the EMU was initially given. It then reviews in greater detail the sequence of crises that have blighted the single currency since the major recession in 2008. Particular attention is given to the difficulties encountered by the Eurozone in deactivating the links that created knock-on effects exacerbating three simultaneous crises: in growth, sovereign debt and banking. In this context, the main institutional changes in the EMU are linked to the transmission channels of these three crises. Finally, there is analysis of whether or not these institutional innovations – which in fact constitute a new EMU – improve its future sustainability. The final conclusion is not especially encouraging.

In the last three decades, network industries have experienced major changes the world over. It can be presumed that they will continue to do so, driven by technological and economic changes and also by the campaigns of interest groups framed by institutional and ideological parameters. In the European Union these changes have seen a growing degree of involvement at the community level, without reaching the point of creating European networks. Paradoxically, this could be beneficial for the resolution of certain dilemmas that arise in an electricity sector where a European demos is not well established, a factor that is problematic in other aspects. A consolidated European demos would require a consolidated European political arena, European public with European political parties and lobbyists working at a European level, and so on. The reason this lack of development of a European demos may be favourable to sectors such as electricity or communications is that it can stop public interventions in these sectors from being made into political issues. Although the European Union has already played an important role in increasing competition in these sectors, it may play a much more important role in a future that advances towards a market that is truly integrated, in which networks of a real European scope exist.

The EU remains well ranked in many indicators of global competitiveness, with extra-EU trade showing very good figures for both goods and services. This is in spite of the recent growth problems that have affected intra-European trade. The quality of European exports, the role of manufacturing in Europe and the capacity to sustain creative and innovative dynamics are all significant positive performers that must be kept in full swing, in the face of growing pressures from emerging economies in all these areas. To do this requires reinforcing the EU's position as a global actor, and involving a growing critical mass from within the productive sector. In addition, tendencies towards mega-regional trade agreements – with agreements projected on the Atlantic and Pacific stages – propose new ways of establishing rules in global trade, something that calls for a carefully composed response from the EU.