Much Ado About Something? An Appraisal of the Relationship Between Smart City and Smart Specialisation Policies

Abstract

Smart policies at the urban (smart city initiatives) and the regional (smart specialisation Strategies, S3) level, both fostered by the need to better spend the reduced budget available for EU policy-making, have recently gained much attention. While some attempts have been made to explore the growth potential of the two policies separately, no empirical analysis has considered their joint contribution to regional growth. This paper identifies two types of development (measured as 2008--2010 GDP growth) effects associated to smart policies: one, short-run, associated to urban smartness initiatives, and a second, long run, linked to S3. Instrumental variables estimates are used to support the conceptual framework suggested for the link between these two types of policies, which are both found to have a positive impact on regional economic performance.

Smart innovative cities: The impact of Smart City policies on urban innovation

“…These trends are related, on the one hand, to the policy goals set at the EU level, where smartness in terms of energy sustainability is one of the Horizon 2020 targets (EP, 2012); on the other, to the evolution of the definition itself of Smart Cities. In fact, initial analyses revolved around the concept of "sustainable cities" (Ahvenniemi et al, 2017), with specific attention to environmental issues and on ICT as the main driver of smartness (Caragliu and Del Bo, 2017). Angelidou (2017) examines the Smart City plans of 15 world-wide major cities and shows how the focus is mainly on ICT as a factor that can improve urban systems and ultimately foster urban innovation.…”

Performance Evaluation in the Inter-Institutional Collaboration Context of Hybrid Smart Cities

“…An ac�on was coordinated by the European Union for two respec�ve ci�es and pres�gious uni-versi�es located in Unito (Università degli Studi di Torino) and Polito (Politecnico di Torino) and for Lugano, Usi (Università della Svizzera Italiana) and Supsi (Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana). The two cases, Turin City of Turin, 2020; City of Turin, 2021); and Lugano (Ticino, 2021) were selected because they reflect six variables of smart ci�es listed in the literature (Caragliu & Del Bo, 2018). In addi�on, as UNITO-USI (2020) shows, both ci�es possess the characteris�cs of governance and inter-ins�tu�onal collabora�on that dis�nguish this research.…”