Managing in smart cities: a network approach

Smart cities refer to new city designs and solutions that use digital technologies to enhance performance and well-being, to reduce costs and resource consumption, and to engage more effectively and actively with its citizens. Key 'smart' sectors include transport, energy, health care, water and waste. A smart city should be able to respond faster to city and global challenges than one with a simple 'transactional' relationship with its citizens. While there has been a superficial use of the concept in the policy arena and the majority of the analysis on smart cities has been geared towards town planning, if these initiatives are to be operationally effective, it will require simple and workable network solutions. Smart city initiatives expect to radically change the interaction of firms and individuals, and also be based on changes among them. Therefore while research on smart cities has focused on the policy and strategic levels, so far there is a lack of operational detail on how non-ICT companies will act as part of such initiatives. Central to smart cities is the focus they have on ‘user-driven networks’ and ‘multiple stakeholders’. Therefore we suggest an IMP network approach would help to understand the actions of firms in smart cities. This paper discusses how companies could manage in industrial networks in a smart city context, while also playing a key role in shaping the development of a fully integrated smart city-network system. The paper contributes to previous research through connecting smart city descriptions to research on managing in networks. It points to how interaction among companies (and other organisations) would increasingly be determined by geographical location; how companies will grasp opportunities related to creating and offering solutions in line with smart city objectives; and how the ways business and interactions are formed, along with their new foci will impact and reshape smart city initiatives.