Crisis requires society to renew itself, albeit in a disruptive way. The current Covid-19 pandemic is transforming ways of working, living, and relating to each other on a global level, suddenly and dramatically. This paper focuses on the field of education to show how higher education institutions are undergoing radical transformations driven by the need to digitalize education and training processes in record time with academics who lack innate technological capabilities for online teaching. The university system must strive to overcome this situation to be competitive and provide high-quality education in a scenario of digital transformation, disruptive technological innovations, and accelerated change. To achieve these goals, this paper explains some barriers and challenges that universities encounter, as well as technological resources and methodologies they have used in the current scenario to transform higher education to face Covid-19 disruption. The discussion and conclusion synthesize significant insights that can be applied to the digitalization of education in the foreseeable future.

Climate change, overpopulation and the squandering of resources currently pose problems of such magnitude that they require a change in the trend to mitigate their effects. It is essential to make society aware of the facts and to educate the population about the advantages that new technologies can provide for efficient urban development. We therefore ask whether an ordinary medium-sized city can become a Smart City. In order to assess this possibility, our study analyzes different models of Smart Cities implemented in Spain (e.g., Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga and Santander), contrasting them with the specific case of one city that is not yet a Smart City (Granada) in order to discuss which strategic technological actions to implement in different topical areas of action: the economy, sustainability, mobility, government, population, and quality of life. The study uses Cohen’s wheel to give researchers in the field a series of indicators and factors that can be used to analyze public data with statistical methods in order to obtain clear positive scores for Madrid and Barcelona. The analysis shows Granada’s deficiencies in the scores for digital government, accessibility, the efficiency of public transport, and mobility, among others. Finally, the data obtained demonstrate the need to implement an integrated dashboard with different proposals in the strategic areas analyzed in order to achieve the transformation of conventional cities into Smart Cities.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show how social media technologies (SMT) make the firm proficient to act on business opportunities and reconfigure business resources by encouraging networks to routinize the firm’s knowledge and innovation competencies.Design/methodology/approach: The paper analyzes data obtained from a sample of 201 technological firms located in Spain. Structural equation modeling with Lisrel is used to test the hypotheses.Findings: This paper contributes to the literature by reflecting empirically in a structural model how SMT drive technological knowledge competencies to improve organizational performance directly and indirectly by leveraging processes of innovation capability in the firm.Research limitations/implications: The study has some limitations, among them transversal analysis of different constructs. The number of relationships analyzed is limited, as is the literature focuses on a digital vision from a social media point of view.Practical implications: Some implications for managers emerge. SMT both enable an emergent participatory culture through ubiquitous digital devices and social networks and balance constant connectivity afforded by digital devices.Originality/value: Drawing on complexity science, the authors develop a conceptual framework to explain how social media, as emergent IS phenomena, help firms to create business value, leveraging network effects and knowledge flows, and increasing innovative capability.

Organizational innovation is increasingly mandatory for firms to overcome their competitors. Organizational innovation is especially relevant in today’s dynamic and turbulent environments, where other internal variables—such as technological assets, employee training, coordination of new management capabilities, and new flexible human resources and more adaptable organizational designs—must be encouraged to create value and competitive advantage. The purpose of our research is to analyse whether technological assets influence absorptive capacity (potential and realized absorptive capacity) and how absorptive capacity influences internal labour flexibility, organizational innovation and performance. We achieve these goals by analysing the interrelations among internal labour flexibility, organizational innovation and performance, using the theory of resources and capabilities. A quantitative study was carried out with data gathered by personal interview using a structured questionnaire. Relationships proposed in the theoretical model were estimated through a structural equation model, using a sample of 160 European technology companies. The results show that support for technology and improvement of technological skills and technological distinctive competencies promote improvement in organizational performance through their positive influence on the processes of potential and realized absorption capacity. Potential absorptive capacity influences realized absorptive capacity, which impacts not only internal labour flexibility but also organizational innovation and organizational performance. Further, internal labour flexibility influences organizational performance through organizational innovation. This issue is of particular interest when considering the dynamic nature of turbulent technological environments in which the organization operates. Technological assets thus identify new sources of flexibility and organizational innovation based on deeper contextual knowledge and tools that aid knowledge capacity in the company.