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This paper seeks to present the results of a study carried out within rapid manufacturing (RM) service providers and engineering centres in Northern Spain. By disclosing strategies for their everyday operation, it is intended to show how the internal expertise acquired overtime copes with the lack of standards within this industry.

The study was deployed by means of a survey including four main issues: RM concepts, process planning, materials and costs. Questions range from general RM perceptions to specific production criteria like: layer thicknesses, laser power, quality assurance methods, etc. A special emphasis is made on cost parameters, since they play a major role when selecting the final manufacturing route.

The so‐called “de facto standards” were found to be widely used in order to minimize production risks for RM. The study also suggests the need for specific RM standards based on key issues like material recycling, process planning and costs assignment.

The study is mainly focused on additive RM processes used in Spanish centres. Although, some other technologies applied elsewhere might not be considered, it is assumed that most of the technologies mentioned in this study are available worldwide, thus providing valuable information to increase the general RM base of knowledge.

Unlike most of the RM literature based on benchmarking of processes to provide information, this paper shows first hand data from users and service providers, showing RM practices and preferences from a different approach.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of high intensity precipitation events in increasing the vulnerability to floods in Mediterranean Spain. Precipitation intensity in this area appears to have augmented in the last two decades in association with warming trends of the Mediterranean Sea. At the same time, intense urbanization processes, occupying and transforming flood prone land, have produced an important increase in exposure. The main objective is to assess whether higher intensity precipitation and changing patterns in exposure aggravate vulnerability to floods.

In this paper, vulnerability is understood as the result of the interrelationships between exposure, sensitivity, impacts and adaptive capacity. Consequently, methods used involved the compilation and analysis of published and unpublished precipitation data, population and land use data, data on insurance claims, and media sources related to those variables.

Changes toward episodes of more intense precipitation in the expanding urban areas of Mediterranean Spain increase exposure but not necessarily vulnerability, at least in terms of human deaths. However, adaptative capacity needs to be formulated. Actions that attempt to absorb and eventually reuse flood flows (as the flood park in Alicante) appear to be more effective than traditional hydraulic solutions (as in Majorca).

The paper provides a systematic and coherent approach to vulnerability analysis taking into account the changing dynamics of its components. Especially, it signals the limits of current adaptive approaches to flooding and advocates for changes toward a more circular and less linear approach to urban drainage.

The aim of this article is to propose and test a structural model of relationships between generic and specific competencies and entrepreneurial competencies in order to assess students' learning.

The study was carried out on a sample of 337 students enrolled on the entrepreneurship specialisation of the final bachelor's degree project course on the Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Management at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. A questionnaire was designed to gather information on students' perception of their level of acquisition of the different groups of competencies. The partial least squares (PLS) multivariate technique was used to analyse the model.

The results confirm that there are significant relationships between the different groups of competencies. Specifically, it shows that generic competencies influence specific competencies and that there is a strong relationship between systemic and professional competencies and entrepreneurial competencies. It also shows that the experience variable contributes positively to different competency groups, while the gender and age variables have no effect on the development of entrepreneurial competencies.

The study provides relevant information to the academic world on different factors that affect competency development.

The analysis provides an innovative research and contributes knowledge on entrepreneurial competency acquisition, providing an answer to whether generic and specific competencies influence entrepreneurial competencies.