Entrepreneurship in smart cities: elements of start-up ecosystem

Abstract

Purpose The cities are distinctly engine of economic growth, which depends upon speed at which innovations are brought out and trigger entrepreneurship. Smart city initiatives are one of the opportunities to unleash innovation and entrepreneurship in developing countries like India. Entrepreneurial ecosystem research in smart cities is still in its nascent phase. Therefore, the study aims to bring out elements for a start-up ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship in smart cities. Design/methodology/approach Focus group discussion has been applied to gain a variety of insights and opinion from selected participants with diverse expertise. Findings The study proposes a framework for developing a start-up ecosystem in smart city. The findings suggest the technology infrastructure along with the elements of start-up framework as knowledge hub, public policy, entrepreneurship and city economy. Research limitations/implications The study does not show the impact of smart city strategies over an extended period. Practical implications A robust entrepreneurial framework usually impact on utilization of technologies for economic activities and regional development. The innovators, policymakers, city administrators, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and various stakeholders in society will get benefit from the outcomes of this study. Social implications The evolution of smart cities is a social initiative with various stakeholders –such as governments, residents, businesses and entrepreneurs. The creation of start-up ecosystem in smart cities requires several levels of interventions such as new programs and institutional reforms. Originality/value The research explores pillars and constituents that describe a start-up ecosystem in smart cities and nurtures a collaborative culture of innovations and entrepreneurship.

Sustainable Smart Cities: The Role of Fintech in Promoting Environmental Sustainability

“…Solutions should be adaptable to evolving technology trends, changing environmental conditions, and diverse urban contexts to ensure long-term viability and success (Aboalsamh, Khrais & Albahussain, 2023, Caputo, et. al., 2023, Mitra, et. al., 2023.…”

The role of entrepreneurial ecosystems in technological and social challenges

“…Again, other studies investigate the EE, based on a dynamic models perspective, to explore the interplay within fintech EE (Alaassar et al, 2022), the sustainability of EE in knowledge‐intensive enterprises (Aliabadi et al, 2019), dynamic life cycle model of EE (Cantner et al, 2021), understanding of EE using complex adaptive systems theory (Roundy et al, 2018; Daniel et al, 2022), and to analyze of industrial structure distortion and urban ecological efficiency from a green perspective of EE (Zhao et al, 2020). Another group of studies that explores the entrepreneurship ecosystems adopts a digital perspective, namely, digital and spatial affordances (Autio et al, 2018), global digital platform (Acs, 2022), digital transformation and technology (Song et al, 2022; Zhang et al, 2022), collective intelligence in restructuring the entrepreneurial process (Elia et al, 2020), artificial intelligence (Cetindamar et al, 2020), smart cities (Sarma and Sunny, 2017; Mitra et al, 2022), and digital innovation management for EE (Endres et al, 2022).…”

“…Entrepreneurial ecosystem research of smart cities is, as yet, still in its early stages (Sarma and Sunny, 2017). Mitra et al (2022) bring elements of a start‐up ecosystem that encourage entrepreneurship in smart cities, developing a framework for developing a smart city start‐up ecosystem. The results advocate technology infrastructure, together with components of the start‐up structure such as a hub of knowledge, public policy, entrepreneurship, and the city's economy.…”

Three drivers for cities development: A focus on start-up contribution

“…Some recent studies in the economics domain highlighted the new entrepreneurial efforts embedded in cities' transformation [22]. Anyway, scholars called for further investigation in order to test with various methods and in multiple geographical context to increase validity and highlight new issues, due to the continuously ongoing novelties brought by creativity and new technologies.…”

“…In order to deal with the interplay among new cities' contexts, new start-ups, and new technologies, this research addresses the priorities for cities viability as recalled by Parker et al [14] and the framework provided by Dana et al [31] describing the role of digital technologies in smart cities and urban entrepreneurships. Moreover, scholars also called for additional investigations [22] to further test what recently set businesses might offer to the improvement of cities' conditions in terms of quality of life, sustainability, and viability of public investments.…”