Organizing for Smart City Development: Research at the crossroads. Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

Worldwide, smart city projects have emerged as a response to urban crisis conditions with the aim of leveraging digital technologies for urban innovation and sustainable development. However, these projects involve complex organizational challenges that have received little attention in existing smart city research, particularly in the exploration of interorganizational collaboration. The disconnect between organization studies and smart city research means that these two knowledge fields have yet to maximize the valuable insights that each one can offer to the other. To address this gap, this Special Issue seeks to foster cross-fertilization. Elaborating on the contributions in our Special Issue, we present potential and actual research crossroads conceptual and theoretical arenas in which collaborative efforts between organization studies and smart city research can thrive. We aim to bridge knowledge gaps and generate mutual benefits by stimulating interdisciplinary encounters. This approach offers opportunities for empirical research that can expand organization studies and their theories while deepening our understanding of organizations, organizing, and the organized in smart city projects, thereby contributing to theoretical and practical advancements.

Smart innovations for sustainable cities: Insights from a public‐private innovation ecosystem

“…Yet, given deep-rooted, diverging interests, engaging citizens and public/private stakeholders in the urban planning process is often no easy task. It requires a dynamic vision, attention to the diverse needs/expectations of all agents involved and-as cities differ greatly from one to another-attention to specific, unique urban contexts (Macke et al, 2019;Mora et al, 2020).…”