Smart City Development in Nordic Medium-sized Municipalities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13052/nbjict1902-097X.2021.001Keywords:
Smart city development, Smart city governance, Contextual factors, Municipality, Nordic RegionAbstract
The Nordic countries stand out as digital frontrunners in Europe as well as in a global perspective. However, smart city development in medium-sized municipalities in the Nordic region is less researched than large Nordic cities. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to study how medium- sized municipalities in the Nordic region are organized for smart city development, and how the development is influenced by contextual factors. Data has been collected through interviews of smart city and digitalization leaders in medium-sized municipalities in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, as well as secondary data in the form of strategy documents, statistics and reports. The analytical approach is multiple case study analysis where the selected case-municipalities are analyzed and compared in terms of understanding of the smart city concept, smart city governance, resources and collaboration. Our findings indicate that there are great variations in the maturity of smart city development in medium-sized municipalities in the Nordic region. The findings indicate that successful implementation of smart city projects is related to a structured organizational setup, clear goals and strategies, support from a strategic facilitator and focus on project scaling. Further, the findings suggest that the contextual factors local autonomy, local conditions and the country-level approach to public innovation influence smart city development. The paper provides originality and value by identifying characteristics on how smart city development is organized in medium-sized municipalities across Nordic countries, and how the development is influenced by contextual factors.
References
European Commision, “The digital economy and society index (DESI),” 2019a. [Online]. Available: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/desi. [Accessed 6 May 2020].
Consulting, InCITIES, “European 5G readiness index,” 2020a. [Online]. Available: https://www.incites.eu/incites-map/Europe_5G_Readiness_Index_Report.pdf. [Accessed 5 May 2020].
United Nations, “United Nations e-government survey 2018,” 2018. [Online]. Available: https://publicadministration.un.org/Portals/1/Images/E-Government%20Survey%202018_FINAL%20for%20web.pdf. [Accessed 6 May 2020].
F. Lemke, K. R. R. Taveter, I. Pappel, D. Draheim and M. Janssen, “Stage models for moving from e-government to smart government,” in International Conference on Electronic Governance and Open Society: Challenges in Eurasia, 2020.
Center, The IMD World Competitiveness, “Smart city index,” 2019. [Online]. Available: ///Users/ragnhildskirdalfrohaug/Downloads/digital-smart_city_index.pdf. [Accessed 2 April 2020].
Elden Strategy Institute, “Top 50 smart city governments,” 2018. [Online]. Available: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b3c517fec4eb767a04e73ff/t/5b513c57aa4a99f62d168e60/1532050650562/Eden-OXD_Top+50+Smart+City+Governments.pdf. [Accessed 2 April 2020].
R. Giffinger, C. Kramar, R. Kalasek, N. Pichler-Milanovic and E. Meijers, “City ranking of European medium sized cities,” 2007. [Online]. Available: http://smart-cities.eu/download/city_ranking_final.pdf.
E. Commision, “European digital city index (EDCI),” 2016. [Online]. Available: https://digitalcityindex.eu/. [Accessed 3 April 2020].
Analysis Mason, “Nordic Digital Municipality Index,” Oslo, 2020.
Nordregio, “Governing the digital transition in nordic regions,” 2019a. [Online]. Available: https://norden.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1180256/FULLTEXT01.pdf. [Accessed 4 April 2020].
R. Grønning, A. Raspotnik and V. Herrmann, “A tale of three cities: the concept of smart sustainable cities for the arctic.” Polar Geography, pp. 64–87, 2020.
S. Gohari, D. Ahlers, B. Nielsen and E. Junker, “The governance approach of smart city initiatives. evidence from trondheim, bergen, and bodø,” Infrastructures, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 1–20, 2020.
V. M. L. and J. Hovland, “The nordic digital ecosystem,” 2015. [Online]. Available: https://norden.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1295202/FULLTEXT01.pdf. [Accessed 4 May 2020].
K. Layne and J. Lee, “Developing fully functional e-government: A four stage model.” Government information quarterly, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 122–136, 2001.
J. lee, M. Hancock and M.-H. Hu, “Towards an effective framework for building smart cities: lessions from Seoul and San Francisco,” Technological Forecasting ans Social Change, vol. 89, pp. 80–99, 2014.
L. Anthopoulos and C. Reddick, “Smart city and smart government: Synonymous or complementary?,” in Proceedings of the 25th International Conference Companion on World Wide Web, 2016.
L. Mora, M. Deakin and A. Reid, “Strategic principles for smart city development: A multiple case study analysis of european best practices.” Technological Forecasting and Social Change, vol. 142, no. doi: 10.1016/j.techfore.2018.07.035., pp. 70–97, 2019.
F. Appio, M. Lima and S. Paroutis, “Understanding smart cities: Innovation ecosystems, technological advancements, and societal challenges,” Technological Forecasting and Social Change, vol. 142, pp. 1–14, 2019.
N. Bedford, W. Hutchison and S. Bedford, “Ukraine’s global strategy in the post- crisis economy: developing an intelligent nation to achieve a competitive advantage,” Innovative Marketing, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 46–53, 2011.
C. Y.-H and Y. Kim, “Adoption of e-government services by small municipalities,” International Journal of Organization Theory & Behaviour, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 174–190, 2019.
S. Hosseini, L. Frank, G. Fridgen and S. Heger, “Do not forget about smart towns,” Business & Information Systems Engineering, vol. 60, no. 3, pp. 243–257, 2018.
Z. Spicer, N. Goodman and N. Olmstead, “The frontier of digital opportunity: Smart city implementation in small, rural and remote communities in canada,” Urban studies, p. 0042098019863666, 2019.
J. Desdemoustier, N. Crutzen and R. Giffinger, “Municipalities’ understanding of the smart city concept: An exploratory analysis in belgium,” Technological Forecasting and Social Chang, vol. 142, pp. 129–141, 2019.
K. Borsekova, S. Koróny, A. Vaòová and V. K., “Functionality between the size and indicators of smart cities: A research challenge with policy implications,” Citites, vol. 78, pp. 17–26, 2018.
D. Argento, G. Grossi, A. Jääskeläinen, S. Servalli and P. Suomala, “Governmentality and performance for the smart city.” Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2019.
W. Ooms, M. Caniëls, N. Roijakkers and D. Cobben, “Ecosystems for smart cities: tracing the evolution of governance structures in a dutch smart city initiative,” International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, pp. 1–34, 2020.
E. Carayannis and D. Campbell, ““Mode 3” and “quadruple helix”: toward a 21st century fractal innovation ecosystem,” International journal of technology managemen, vol. 46, no. 3–4, pp. 201–234, 2009.
R. Dameri, “Comparing Smart and Digital City: Initiatives and Strategies in Amsterdam and Genova- Are They Digital and/or Smart?,” Springer International Publishing, 2014. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06160-3_3. [Accessed 22 April 2020].
L. Ardito, A. Ferraris, A. Petruzzelli, S. Bresciani and M. Del Giudice, “The role of universities in the knowledge management of smart city projects,” Technological Forecasting and Social Change, vol. 142, pp. 312–321, 2019.
S. Cavallini, R. Soldi, J. Friedl and M. Volpe, “Using the quadruple helix approach to accelerate the transfer of research and innovation results to regional growth,” Consortium Progress Consulting Srl & Fondazione FoRmit, 2016.
B. Wirtz and P. Daiser, “E-Government. Strategy Process Instruments,” Bernd W. Wirtz, Deutsche Universität für Verwaltungswissenschaften Speyer, 2015.
M. Angelidou, “Smart city policies: A spatial approach,” Citites, vol. 41, pp. 3–11, 2014.
R. Dameri, E. Negre and C. Rosenthal-Sabroux, “Triple helix in smart cities: a literature review about the vision of public bodies, universities, and private companies,” in 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2016.
GSMA, “Internet of things in the 5G era,” 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.gsma.com/iot/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/201911-GSMA-IoT-Report-IoT-in-the-5G-Era.pdf.
European Commision, “The digital economy and society index methodological note,” 2019b. [Online]. Available: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/desi.
InCITIES consulting, “European 5G readiness index methodology,” 2020b. [Online]. Available: https://www.incites.eu/incites-map/Europe_5G_Readiness%20Index_Methodology_final.pdf.
Nordregio, “Governing the digital transition in nordic regions,” 2019b. [Online]. Available: https://www.norden.org/en/publication/governing-digital-transition-nordic-regions. [Accessed 3 April 2019].
H. Baldersheim, K. Houlberg, A. Lindström, E.-M. Hlynsdottir and P. Kettunen, “Local Autonomy in the Nordic Countries: A report for the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities,” Univeristy of Agder, FoU, 2019.
KL, “På forkant med fremtidens velfærd – strategi for KL’s arbeide med digitalisering, ny teknologi og data,” 2019. [Online].
KL, “Kl’s mission, vision og værdier,” 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.kl.dk/om-kl/praesentation-af-kl/. [Accessed 19 May 2020].
Kommunförbundet, “Finlands kommunförbund,” 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.kommunforbundet.fi/kommunforbundet. [Accessed 20 May 2020].
KS, “Om KS,” 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.ks.no/om-ks/om-ks/. [Accessed 21 May 2020].
KMD – Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation. One digital public sector. digital strategy for the public sector 2019–2025, 2019a. URL https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/db9bf2bf10594ab88a470db40da0d10f/en-gb/pdfs/digital_strategy, “One digital public sector. digital strategy for the public sector 2019–2025,” 2019a. [Online]. Available: KMD - Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation. One digital public sector. digital strategy for the https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/db9bf2bf10594ab88a470db40da0d10f/en-gb/pdfs/digital_strategy.
Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner (SKR), “Utveckling i en digital tid – en strategi for grunnleggende forutsetninger,” SKR, 2019.
KMD – Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation, “De nordiske landenes strategier for innovasjon i offentlig sektor,” 2019b. [Online]. Available: KMD – Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation. De nord https://www.offentliginnovasjon.no/files/2020/01/De-nordiske-landenes-innovasjonsstrat.pdf.
COI, “COI’s strategi,” 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.coi.dk/om-coi/cois-strategi/. [Accessed 13 May 2020].
R. Yin, Case study research design and methods, vol. 30, Thousand Oaks, Sage, 2014.
R. Stake, Multiple case study analysis, Guilford press, 2013.
R. W. S. Ruhlandt., “The governance of smart cities: A systematic literature review,” Cities, vol. 81, pp. 1–23, 2018.
A. Osterwalder and Y. Pigneur, Business model generation: a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers, John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
B. Wirtz, J. Weyerer and F. Schichtel, “An integrative public iot framework for smart government,” Government Information Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 2, p. 333–345, 2019.
M. Russell and N. Smorodinskaya, “Leveraging complexity for ecosystemic innovation.” Technological Forecasting and Social change, vol. 136, pp. 114–131, 2018.
N. Buck and A. While, “Competitive urbanism and the limits to smart city innovation: The uk future cities initiative,” Urban Studies, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 501–519, 2017.
Struensee Co., “Kartlegging av nordisk styring og organisering av digitaliseringsansvaret,” 2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/cfebedee9aff48c5a9e4287b18659c3d/kartlegging_nordisk_digitaliseringsansvaret-.pdf. [Accessed May 23 2020].
Rambøll Management Consulting AS, “IT I PRAKSIS 2019.” 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www.ikt-norge.no/nyheter/it-i-praksis-2019-norges-digitale-tilstand-innbyggerne-vil-dele/. [Accessed 2 April 2020].
Kaupang, “Smarte byer og kommuner i Norge – en kartlegging.” 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.agendakaupang.no/publication/smarte-byer-og-kommuner-i-norge-en-kartlegging/.
Statens Vegvesen, “Smart mobilitiet, likhet og interoperable tjenester,” 2020. [Online]. Available: Statens Vegvesen. Smart mobilitet, likhet https://vegvesen.brage.unit.no/vegvesen-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2653045/SVV%20Rapport%20631_%20%20Smart%20mobilitet%20likhet%20og%20interoperable%20tjenest. [Accessed 1 June 2020].
A. Albert Meijer, “Smart city governance: A local emergent perspective,” In Smarter as the new urban agenda, pp. 73–85, 2016.
T. Nam and T. A. Pardo, “Conceptualizing smart city with dimensions of technology, people, and institutions,” in Proceedings of the 12th annual international digital government research conference: digital government innovation in challenging time.
