The confluence of different factors is creating a closer approach of enterprises to society. On the one hand, the business’s need to establish permanent channels with consumers requires companies to become open systems and, with that, the assumption of civic obligations towards society. On the other hand, the Earth’s crazy situation is generating a general danger alarm that urgently appeals to social agents’ collaboration and commitment, especially productive organizations.

To achieve this, powerful approaches such as social responsibility and sustainability are being implemented, created to generate a productive transition that is beneficial for everyone, society, companies and the environment. The action plan is already in place, with a pact approved by the UN General Assembly (2030 Agenda), with a consistent business governance pattern (ESG) and with realistic objectives (SDGs). This orderly and firm tour allows us to match the conservation of the planet, with the quality of life and social well-being of its people.

As States point out in the resolution of the 2030 Agenda, “we are determined to end poverty and hunger around the world by 2030, to combat inequalities within and among countries, to build peaceful, fair and inclusive societies, to protect human rights and promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and to ensure a lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources”.

The main objective is to implement a new sustainable society that solves the serious problems that industrial society has brought us to. A fair and supportive community society that considers the health and concordance of humanity and its living environment. Ultimately, a society that uses freedom for people’s growth, equality to recognize each other as peers, and fraternity to care for each other.

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.

In the last twenty-five years – from 1996 to 2021 – a series of actions have marked the evolution of the economy: from transformations linked to new information and communication technologies to the Covid-19 pandemic, among other things, through to the financial and economic crisis of the second half of the first decade of the 21st century. In this article, we look at the impact of events in the last twenty-five years on economics teaching, whether this is evolving alongside the economic reality or not, what has given rise to a mismatch between economics and the social and economic reality. To analyze this, in the first section, we will tackle the social mission of the “economist” in the sense of being teachers of highly diverse collectives, and in the second section, we will reflect on the evolution of economics teaching at University. The analysis leads us to conclude that, although economics teaching has varied over time, it has not undergone substantial change in recent decades. The lack of diversity of thinking in economics curricula joins forces with a lack of diversity among prominent thinkers and professionals to often translate into an incomplete view explaining the complex economic reality and an interaction with other disciplines, particularly social sciences.

This article analyses the connection that scientific economics has made between economic development and social sustainability. Starting from the classical idea of value in capitalism, the article reviews the main contributions that classical, neoclassical, heterodox and modern economic syntheses have made on the possibility of a socially sustainable economic development. From this review, the need to build a new sustainable value economy is identified and its main dimensions are analysed, especially the role that firms, markets and government should play. In our research on the fit between new sustainable ways of generating value and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the results obtained are unfavourable. The SDGs must substantially modify their approach and methodology to move towards a more socially sustainable economic value.

Lluerna is a business plan developed by students from both the UOC's Executive MBA course and its MBA in Social Entrepreneurship course.

This work combines classical techniques from business schools with a more innovative approach related to impact-centred (rather than profit-centred) businesses. This business plan demonstrates that it is possible to run a sustainable company with a social objective, in this case the electrification of rural areas.

Furthermore, the plan shows a profitable business model that can be exported to many countries, where it is possible to create a market with a remarkable positive impact on a great number of families. Specifically, Lluerna is implemented in Bolivia, a country with an important lack of rural electrification, and where significant levels of collaboration from local actors in the area of rural electrification can be found.

Lluerna is also an example of how putting together new technologies and new commerce management tools makes it possible to generate a positive impact, even with a population that is normally considered too poor to be part of the market.