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.

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.

The development of segregated road infrastructures in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona has generated high demand of traffic and the negative externalities associated with this. It has also conditioned the urban metropolitan structure and generated significant infrastructural barriers. It is as necessary to promote physical channels of priority for sustainable transport as it is to connect the city on a more human scale. This article presents some of the initiatives of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) for achieving this, particularly a network of metropolitan avenues as a structure for boosting sustainable transport and connecting the metropolitan city. The conceptualization of this network is explained, along with its implications at both a local level and a metropolitan/regional level with its coordination with segregated roads.

In a socioeconomic situation like our current one, it is difficult to understand the future of organizations without considering social responsibility. Looking at this future with a certain guarantee of success requires looking back to learn and gather drive. This article presents the evolution of social responsibility over the last twenty-five years, analyzing international and national initiatives, legislative instruments and self-regulatory framework, progress in commitment and level of involvement of organizations, as well as the consequences of Covid-19. Important progress is noted, with organizations that are increasingly conscious of the impact of their activities, making socially responsible decisions beyond their legal obligations. However, there is still much to do in the management of a social responsibility that guarantees sustainability and sustainable development in the medium and long term.

Due to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and its Economic and Business Studies, three professors in the field of Finance from the institute perform an analysis of the evolution of the financial function and a projection of future scenarios in order to identify challenges and opportunities. Joan Llobet introduces the topic based on an academic vision that has adapted to the substantial changes that have occurred and which takes on the challenge of facing the changes still to come. On the other hand is the article by Jorge M. Uribe, a compilation of the most important events of the past 25 years in order to understand how the financial field is currently structured. Through his experience, we will see how concrete aspects evolve (valuation of assets, quantitative risk management, etc.) in order to profile what they are like today. Finally, Àngels Fitó describes the current context of the financial field, establishing its conditioning factors and future direction.

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.

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.