Having in view the current global disruptive social and economic landscape, sustainability becomes more important than ever. As producers become more concerned about adopting more sustainable practices, customer awareness towards sustainable behavior must be the focus of all stakeholders. Within this context, the SHIFT framework (proposed in 2019) highlights the manner in which consumers’ traits and attitudes influence their propensity towards sustainable consumption. It consists of five factors considered to be relevant to consumer behavior: Social influence, Habit formation, Individual self, Feelings and cognition, and Tangibility. Different from previous studies, this research focuses on applying the SHIFT framework to the automotive industry, taking into consideration the contribution of digital technologies to fostering sustainable consumer behavior throughout the entire product lifecycle. Using a qualitative research approach, the most relevant digital technologies in the automotive industry were identified and mapped in relation to the three phases of consumption (choice, usage, and disposal). The research aimed to develop and test an original conceptual framework, starting from the SHIFT. The results of the study highlight the fact that the digital technologies, in their diversity, are integrated in different ways into each of the three phases, facilitating the adoption of sustainable consumption. To achieve sustainability, the two key stakeholders, consumers and producers, should share a common ground on capitalizing the opportunities offered by digital technologies.

Digital technologies are changing the business world in an incremental or disruptive way. The metaverse is a combination of multiple technologies, combined to create virtual worlds. Within them, people can create an avatar, a virtual identity for themselves, and use it to perform various actions: play games, test physical products in their digital form, attend digital events, interact with others, etc. Thus, the metaverse creates multiple opportunities for businesses. To tackle them, business model innovation is needed. Businesses will need to develop their own metaverse or participate in an existing one. They can create virtual products fulfilling new customer needs, for example, having a personalized virtual identity or purchasing virtual products. The payments might be made using cryptocurrencies. The virtual world will require new forms of customer interaction and engagement. This article aims to improve the understanding of business model innovation in the context of the metaverse. Using literature review as a research method, the paper analyzes the opportunities brought by the metaverse and how businesses could take advantage of them. The required business model innovation is clustered using the key components of a business model.