The increasing social problems are challenging public administrations to adopt new strategies in order to create smarter cities. With this regard, some cities have created a dedicated organisational unit focused on planning and implementation of Smart City (SC) projects, led by a SC Manager. However, the SC Manager's responsibilities and curricula remain overlooked. The objective of this paper is to theoretically explore the role of the SC Manager in municipalities and to analyse their main responsibilities and skills. Based on an empirical questionnaire administered to public managers and politicians, a Responsibility Index (RI) is defined to identify the domains under the responsibility of the newly role of SC Manager. The questionnaire is also an opportunity for understanding the main required competences and skills through a factor analysis and qualitative investigation of the responses.

Purpose: the aim of this paper is to develop an interpretative framework of the evolution of Social Impact Investment (SII) in different countries. SII is a strategy of asset allocation, which combines financial profitability with a measurable social and environmental impact. Methodology: through a thematic analysis of 75 documents, i.e. reports, experts' considerations, reflections on practitioners' experience, meetings' minutes, written by the SII Taskforce of the Group of Eight and the relative National Advisory Boards, we identify the main themes connected to the topic of SII development and recognize four main elements useful to segment the market, namely information asymmetry, financial instruments, source of capital and market intermediation. Findings: they map the ongoing practices in the Group of Eight's members and distinguish two speeds in the evolution of SII: on one hand, there is a group of road runners, which pave the way to SII and in which SII activities have being institutionalized; on the other hand, there is a wider group of chasers, where the SII infrastructures lack any systematization. Originality: even if some authors have provided preliminary interpretations of the SII evolution, they mainly focus on national level, and do not provide any crosscountries analysis. The findings of the present work contribute to overcome the lack of evidence characterizing the SII field and the absence of comparable and consistent data at global level by filling the academic literature about SII, through a structured interpretative framework.

Purpose-Via embracing the idea that who directly experiences a problem is keener to develop 7 more innovative solutions, local governments have started to engage smart communities in the 8 innovation of public services' delivery. Even if the meaning of "smart community" generally refers 9 to the community participation in the innovation of public services for urban living, local 10 governments have predominantly stimulated the participation of their citizens. But innovative ideas 11 can potentially spring out also from the insiders. This paper aims to find the managerial and 12 technological issues that public managers have to consider when planning an internal smart 13 community initiative. 14 Methodology-For this purpose, the authors analyse the case study of the Municipality of Turin that 15 developed a participatory smart community project, named Innova.TO, through the theoretical lens 16 of sensemaking (Weick et al., 2005; Weick, 1979). 17 Findings-Results show that there are three main aspects to be considered when implementing 18 smart community initiatives in local governments. 19 Originality-Even if there is the potential, the engagement of public employees in a smart 20 community of innovators is not straightforward and several complexities may challenge its success. 21 Otherwise, real-life examples and empirical studies are still episodic. As a consequence, if it is 22 concretely possible to build a smart community of innovators inside a local government still 23 remains a question to which this paper aims to response. 24

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to suggest the usage of the project finance (PF) scheme as a suitable mechanism to fund energy efficiency projects at the urban scale and present its advantages and adoption barriers. Design/methodology/approach – A case study is developed to renew the traffic lighting system of an Italian town via replacement of the old lamps with new light-emitting diode (LED) technology. Several partners are involved in the case project to construct a viable PF arrangement. Findings – The case study presents the viability of the proposed PF scheme that provides for acceptable financial returns and bankability. However, it also shows that the need for short concession periods may call for a public contribution to the initial funding to make the project more attractive to private investors. Practical implications – This case study is a useful guideline for governments and promoters to using the PF arrangement to fund energy efficiency investments in urban settings. It helps designing an appropriate PF scheme and understanding the advantages of PF to reduce risk and, consequently, increase the debt leverage and profitability of energy efficiency projects. Originality/value – This paper contributes to bridging the gap about the lack of works addressing the implementation of the PF mechanism in the energy efficiency sector in urban areas. The importance of this paper is also associated with the shortage of traditional public finance faced by many cities that forces to seek for alternate forms of financing.

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