The many faces of the smart city: Differing value propositions in the activity portfolios of nine cities

Abstract

There are still misunderstandings and differing opinions about what a smart city (SC) is, and there are only of few publications available on what beneficial outcomes cities are anticipating from SC developments. This paper identifies nine anticipated benefits/value proposition components of smart city activities, based on a literature review. It then uses a comparative multiple case study analysis to investigate how value proposition components are present in the SC activities of six cities with demonstrated excellence: Amsterdam, Barcelona, London, Helsinki, New York, Vienna; and three with emerging excellence: Berlin, Budapest, Moscow. The study reveals the distribution of the components in each city for different years, then these annual activity portfolios are clustered. Four different types of smart cities emerge from the analysis: (1) The Green City – in which years of activities, cities are focusing on environmentally related objectives; (2) The App City – in which years of activities, cities are focusing on developing and rolling out platforms and ICT applications to provide Quality of Life improvements directly for citizens; (3) The Socially Sensitive City - in which years of activities socially sensitive activities are prominent; (4) The Participatory City – in which years of activities citizen engagement is in focus. The findings provide a more comprehensive explanation to the mono-dimensional and holistic strategic approach of smart cities.