How do academic smart city centres operate in complex environments? A business model perspective

Ghanbari, Hadi; Soe, Ralf-Martin; Toiskallio, Kalle; Mora, Luca

Abstract

In recent years, an increasing number of academic smart city centres have emerged globally. These centres play a crucial role in conducting cutting-edge research and proposing innovative solutions for cities; they often operate in a complex multi-purpose, multi-disciplinary, and multi-stakeholder environment, even as they struggle to secure enough resources for their core activities. Despite their important role in smart city projects and initiatives, we lack scientific understandings of how smart city centres generate and deliver value to city stakeholders. As a first step in addressing this gap, we studied seven smart city centres across Europe and North America through in-depth interviews. To complement those interviews, we conducted an online survey and collected responses from a larger sample of centres from several regions around the world. Consequently, we provide a fresh understanding of how these centres orchestrate their operations and capabilities to create and deliver value to smart city stakeholders. Inspired by recent research on business model innovation for non-profit organizations, we argue that academic centres can benefit from using business models to align their operations with their strategies to achieve their goals. Our study contributes to smart city and business model research while providing practical implications for smart city centres.

Citation

Ghanbari, H., Soe, R.-M., Toiskallio, K., & Mora, L. (2024). How do academic smart city centres operate in complex environments? A business model perspective. Cities, 152, Article 105211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2024.105211

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 14, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jun 25, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024-09
• Deposit Date: Aug 7, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 7, 2024
• Journal: Cities
• Print ISSN: 0264-2751
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 152
• Article Number: 105211
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2024.105211
• Keywords: Smart city, Research centre, Business model, Financial sustainability, Governance