Universities multistakeholder contribution to smart city ecosystem development

Abstract

Purpose: This paper investigates the mutually advantageous value-driven innovations brought by Universities as a key actor in the development of innovation exploiting Smart City opportunities. The final aim is to under-stand the role, tasks and contribution of Universities in Smart City pro-jects. Methodology: The study followed an exploratory and qualitative meth-odology and consisted of 44 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Smart City experts. The choice of the respondents was adjusted to approve the direct and indirect effect of developing the smart ecosystem in various organizational multistakeholder environments. Results: The study found three main areas in which Universities may con-tribute to Smart City projects: a) knowledge/technology creation and transfer; b) social/societal involvement; c) ecosystem facilita-tor/networking.Implications: This paper offers several implications for different stake-holders such as policy makers, Universities’ top managers and firms. Impli-cations for policy managers imply the change in the approach to consumers because most of them do not understand why they need smart solutions. Moreover, it highlights that bureaucracy and lack of an innovative mental-ity kill smart city projects, so the governmental structures should be wired first. Finally, it calls for a huge financial platform (incentives and new fi-nancial mechanisms) and legal changes (legal frameworks should be aligned with peculiarities of Smart Cities).Implications for top managers of Universities are related to the rethink of Universities in smart city innovation ecosystems with the possibility to play an active role. Implications for MNEs and SMEs include that Univer-sities may help in understanding the opportunities around Smart City initi-atives (there is often opacity on the return of investments). At the same time, Universities may help in dealing with public governments and local stakeholders (public and private).