Defining the Role of the Smart-City Manager: An Analysis of Responsibilities and Skills

Abstract

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.

Implementation of the Smart City Concept in the Eu: Importance of Cluster Initiatives and Best Practice Cases

“…Some of them are more specialised and sophisticated, such as Smart City Design (Macromedia University); Energy for Smart Cities (offered by four European universities through InnoEnergy in France, Sweden, Belgium and Spain); MS in Urban Informatics (Northeastern University in Boston). These programmes could be seen as more technology-centered which is characterized by focusing on application domains that are heavily based on modern ICT (Michelucci et al, 2016). The other programmes are designed in more holistic way which is reflected by including a wider range of themes related to Smart City concept.…”

“…This statement is also supported by Corrigan and Joyce (1997) and Nalbandian et al (2013) who suggest that interaction between public management of municipalities and society is essential for the creation of effective services harmonized with the community needs. Nevertheless, as Michelucci et al (2016) state, the increasing social problems are challenging public administrations to adopt new strategies in order to create smarter cities. In this context, there is an increasing need for better governance to manage initiatives or projects to make a city smart (Griffith, 2000).…”

“…In this context, there is an increasing need for better governance to manage initiatives or projects to make a city smart (Griffith, 2000). To follow this trend, some cities have created a dedicated organisational unit focused on planning and implementation of Smart City projects, led by Smart City Manager (Michelucci et al, 2016). Smart City manager operates as a horizontal actor, with responsibilities on projects developed in both hard and soft domains (Michelucci et al, 2016).…”

“…To follow this trend, some cities have created a dedicated organisational unit focused on planning and implementation of Smart City projects, led by Smart City Manager (Michelucci et al, 2016). Smart City manager operates as a horizontal actor, with responsibilities on projects developed in both hard and soft domains (Michelucci et al, 2016). Hence, he must be able to govern Smart City initiatives by integrating elements from multiple sectors.…”

How Do Smart Building Projects Define and Deliver Value? A Classification of Business Modelling Characteristics to Support Design and Development

“…Indeed, housing quality correlates to psychological well-being (Wilner et al, 1962), improved children school performances, and has a positive effect on occupant depression and anxiety (Elton and Packer,1986). The Smart City (SC) and in particular Smart Buildings (SB) have been emerging as paradigms whose goals are fostering urban economic and social growth, guaranteeing the city's global competitiveness, and improving its environmental sustainability and the quality of life of its citizens (Michelucci et al, 2016) (Caragliu et al, 2011). Given these considerations, it is not surprising that the market for SB technological solutions is booming (Tanda and De Marco, 2018a) with Garner Insight (2018) reporting that by 2023 the market for these technologies will reach $31.74 billion from the $7.42 of 2018.…”