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.

Digitization is currently one of the main priorities for companies and entities in the Spanish market. Understanding digital transformation as the “transformation of the business based on digital technologies”, in this article we developed a key aspect to ensure its success: taking special care of the employee, guiding the evolution of the organization’s cultural change to a digital culture that allows the customer to be placed at the centre. Only through a methodological and planned approach is it possible to accompany employees.

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.