The Smart City concept is a challenge for all levels of public administration. With a growing degree of urbanization socio-economic problems accumulate in urban agglomeration. The Smart City concept has the potential to effectively address those issues by implementing relevant projects. Our main objective is to analyze Smart City concept in EU with emphasize to Smart Governance. Specifically, we investigate four areas related to Smart City concept, such as: the importance of Smart City Governance including Smart City manager role, the position of Smart City concept in EU policies, tools for it's promotion among EU countries and good practices of municipalities in implementing Smart City concept. The article was processed using analysis of relevant information sources. Regarding our results, the paper brings in an useful insight into Smart City manager role, concerned EU policies (especially 5G, Big data, ICT innovation and Internet of Things), tools as Smart City Clusters, Smart City living labs and examples including comparison of municipalities representing good practices (Amsterdam, Helsinki, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Vienna). In addition, we claim that the current concept of the Smart City within the EU institutions as well as within identified Smart City clusters and cities as examples of best practice is predominantly technological. However, professional discourse has shifted in recent years to the dimension of municipalities as an organizational and management component which lead to the idea of Smart Governance. Gathered findings could provide an inspiration to municipalities and their management in order to face new challenges related to the Smart City area.
The Smart City concept is a challenge for all levels of public administration. With a growing degree of urbanization socio-economic problems accumulate in urban agglomeration. The Smart City concept has the potential to effectively address those issues by implementing relevant projects. Our main objective is to analyze Smart City concept in EU with emphasize to Smart Governance. Specifically, we investigate four areas related to Smart City concept, such as: the importance of Smart City Governance including Smart City manager role, the position of Smart City concept in EU policies, tools for it's promotion among EU countries and good practices of municipalities in implementing Smart City concept. The article was processed using analysis of relevant information sources. Regarding our results, the paper brings in an useful insight into Smart City manager role, concerned EU policies (especially 5G, Big data, ICT innovation and Internet of Things), tools as Smart City Clusters, Smart City living labs and examples including comparison of municipalities representing good practices (Amsterdam, Helsinki, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Vienna). In addition, we claim that the current concept of the Smart City within the EU institutions as well as within identified Smart City clusters and cities as examples of best practice is predominantly technological. However, professional discourse has shifted in recent years to the dimension of municipalities as an organizational and management component which lead to the idea of Smart Governance. Gathered findings could provide an inspiration to municipalities and their management in order to face new challenges related to the Smart City area.
The role of cluster manager and his/her development is an essential element in order to gain a competitive advantage and to ensure sustainability of cluster organisation. Nevertheless, research on cluster management has hardly studied the scope of offered trainings with areas of developed skills for this position. Hence, the main objective of the paper is to analyze and evaluate content of current training programmes for cluster managers in Europe with respect to their focus on the development of hard and soft skills. Analyzed training programmes were chosen based on the consultations with members from National Cluster Association operating in the Czech Republic. Regarding the defined criterion, hard skills included terms related to specific cluster knowledge (tools/methods for cluster setting/development; cluster policy), knowledge in management area. Meanwhile, we understood soft skills as terms related to intrapersonal skills (one’s ability to manage oneself) and interpersonal skills (how one handles one’s interactions with others). The article was processed via desktop research involving collection of relevant information from secondary sources. The paper explores ten international programmes done across Europe. Based on the gathered data, we claim that analyzed programmes are overwhelmingly focused on developing hard skills (mainly specific knowledge and abilities required for success in the cluster manager position - such as knowledge about identifying cluster, tools and methods for development of clusters). However, based on the literature, it is clear that soft skills (intrapersonal and interpersonal skills) are crucial for sustainable development of organisation. Considering implications for the practice, our findings provide valuable point for organisations/initiatives offering training programmes for cluster managers.
In a number of countries around the world, population ageing raises concerns about the sustainability of pension systems. A younger generation has conventionally been least likely to save for retirement even if there is a need to take individual responsibility and start saving for their retirement as soon as possible. In this context, the aim of the paper is to identify behavioral barriers and interventions towards retirement savings ceiling to this part of the productive population. For this purpose, three online focus groups were deployed among 16 university students aged 23-24 years. Using the coding process, common categories, related codes and frequencies of responses were determined from the transcribed material. The results pointed at two crucial barriers related to retirement savings: behavioral (present bias, status quo bias, loss aversion, limited attention) and institutional (education, pension policy and trustworthiness of the state institutions). Additionally, three main categories of behavioral interventions were detected to overcome these barriers: simplification of decision-making (easy calculation of pension, default options), use of salience effects (information campaigns, visualization tools, personalized content) and minimizing feelings of loss (framing of messages, financial incentives, products with different types of liquidity). Based on findings, recommendations were formulated for three groups of stakeholders: government, industry (financial providers and pension funds) and employers. The results bring valuable insights to relevant stakeholders regarding behaviors and attitudes of the young generation on retirement savings issues. AcknowledgmentsThis contribution was written with the support of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, project number TL03000737 titled as “Behavioral economics as a population activation targeted tool within use of financial security banking products.”
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