Organizational and managerial challenges for public actors working towards becoming a smart city - A case study of the City of Stockholm
(2018) INTM01 20172Innovation Engineering
- Abstract
- Cities are becoming smart to cope with the challenges associated with urban
development. One of the cities trying to become smart is the City of Stockholm,
which in 2017 adopted a strategy to become the world’s smartest and most
connected city. However, becoming a smart city is not easy. The transformation
requires a new organizational approach and innovation in management, which the
City of Stockholm must address to make the transformation successful.
The master’s thesis was conducted through a case study of the City of Stockholm
to investigate the organizational and managerial challenges of becoming a smart
city, and the important critical success factors for a public actor, like the City of Stockholm, in managing towards a... (More) - Cities are becoming smart to cope with the challenges associated with urban
development. One of the cities trying to become smart is the City of Stockholm,
which in 2017 adopted a strategy to become the world’s smartest and most
connected city. However, becoming a smart city is not easy. The transformation
requires a new organizational approach and innovation in management, which the
City of Stockholm must address to make the transformation successful.
The master’s thesis was conducted through a case study of the City of Stockholm
to investigate the organizational and managerial challenges of becoming a smart
city, and the important critical success factors for a public actor, like the City of Stockholm, in managing towards a smart city. Ten interviews and four
observations were carried out through a cross-section of the City of Stockholm to
understand the work towards becoming smart from different perspectives. The
empirical data was combined with theoretical frameworks regarding smart city and
innovation management to analyze the City of Stockholm’s attempt to become a
smart city.
The master’s thesis identified twelve organizational and managerial challenges;
multiple and conflicting smart city definitions, lack of knowledge about the smart
city strategy, lack of management support, unclear vision of the smart city
strategy, insufficient involvement of employees, lack of alignment between the
overall smart city goals and the initiated smart city projects, lack of structure for
exchanging knowledge, lack of structure and routines for involving the citizens,
high presence of functional silos and hierarchy, poor receptiveness of new ideas
and resistance to change, lack of structure for liberating time and resources for
new ideas and not embracing calculated risk. Finally, the identified important
critical success factors were; management and organization, people and
community and governance. The City of Stockholm and similar public actors
should take the findings into consideration to accelerate the smart city
transformation. (Less) - Popular Abstract
- Globalization, digitization and urbanization are three worldwide megatrends radically altering the world. On one hand, these megatrends come with many challenges for cities such as coping with excessive energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, waste management, traffic congestions,scarcity of resources and human health concerns. On the other hand, urban development presents various opportunities to exploit. To manage the emerging problems cities are trying to become smart. One of the cities trying to transform into a smart city is the City of Stockholm, which in 2017 adopted a strategy to become the world’s smartest and most connected city. However, becoming a smart city is not easy. The transformation poses new organizational... (More)
- Globalization, digitization and urbanization are three worldwide megatrends radically altering the world. On one hand, these megatrends come with many challenges for cities such as coping with excessive energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, waste management, traffic congestions,scarcity of resources and human health concerns. On the other hand, urban development presents various opportunities to exploit. To manage the emerging problems cities are trying to become smart. One of the cities trying to transform into a smart city is the City of Stockholm, which in 2017 adopted a strategy to become the world’s smartest and most connected city. However, becoming a smart city is not easy. The transformation poses new organizational challenges for public actors. The organizational challenges are many, from finding new ways to collaborate across borders to improved information sharing and integration, which public actors need to address by employing new organizational approaches. The master’s thesis identified twelve organizational and managerial challenges. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8937011
- author
- Björck, Erika LU and Österlin, Filippa LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- INTM01 20172
- year
- 2018
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Smart City, Innovation Mangement, Public Actor
- language
- English
- id
- 8937011
- date added to LUP
- 2018-03-07 11:40:57
- date last changed
- 2018-03-07 11:40:57
@misc{8937011,
abstract = {{Cities are becoming smart to cope with the challenges associated with urban
development. One of the cities trying to become smart is the City of Stockholm,
which in 2017 adopted a strategy to become the world’s smartest and most
connected city. However, becoming a smart city is not easy. The transformation
requires a new organizational approach and innovation in management, which the
City of Stockholm must address to make the transformation successful.
The master’s thesis was conducted through a case study of the City of Stockholm
to investigate the organizational and managerial challenges of becoming a smart
city, and the important critical success factors for a public actor, like the City of Stockholm, in managing towards a smart city. Ten interviews and four
observations were carried out through a cross-section of the City of Stockholm to
understand the work towards becoming smart from different perspectives. The
empirical data was combined with theoretical frameworks regarding smart city and
innovation management to analyze the City of Stockholm’s attempt to become a
smart city.
The master’s thesis identified twelve organizational and managerial challenges;
multiple and conflicting smart city definitions, lack of knowledge about the smart
city strategy, lack of management support, unclear vision of the smart city
strategy, insufficient involvement of employees, lack of alignment between the
overall smart city goals and the initiated smart city projects, lack of structure for
exchanging knowledge, lack of structure and routines for involving the citizens,
high presence of functional silos and hierarchy, poor receptiveness of new ideas
and resistance to change, lack of structure for liberating time and resources for
new ideas and not embracing calculated risk. Finally, the identified important
critical success factors were; management and organization, people and
community and governance. The City of Stockholm and similar public actors
should take the findings into consideration to accelerate the smart city
transformation.}},
author = {{Björck, Erika and Österlin, Filippa}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Organizational and managerial challenges for public actors working towards becoming a smart city - A case study of the City of Stockholm}},
year = {{2018}},
}