IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v142y2019icp220-234.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An exploration of smart city approaches by international ICT firms

Author

Listed:
  • van den Buuse, Daniel
  • Kolk, Ans

Abstract

As part of the growing interest in cities to address persistent sustainability issues in society, ‘smart cities’ have increasingly become a ubiquitous phenomenon globally. For multinational enterprises (MNEs), this has provided opportunities to develop and market technological innovations to facilitate the creation of smart cities, given that the deployment of information and communication technology (ICT) is commonly considered to be a central tenet of smart cities. This paper explores the strategic approaches of three MNEs from the ICT industry (IBM, Cisco, and Accenture) as suppliers of ‘smart city technologies’, rooted in an international business perspective. Based on qualitative data collected from semi-structured interviews and documentation on firm activities related to smart cities, our study offers two contributions. First, the empirical analysis provides insight into how MNEs have developed resources and capabilities in the smart city realm from a multitude of smart city engagements globally, and shows how firm-specific strategies and programmes for smart cities (IBM Smarter Cities, Cisco Smart + Connected Communities, and Accenture Intelligent Cities) have facilitated this process. Second, it provides an actor-centric perspective on the (potential) role of business in the emergence and spread of technological innovations for urban development, helping to address the need for further insights into (smart) cities and stakeholder involvement in sustainability transitions.

Suggested Citation

  • van den Buuse, Daniel & Kolk, Ans, 2019. "An exploration of smart city approaches by international ICT firms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 220-234.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:142:y:2019:i:c:p:220-234
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2018.07.029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162518303214
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.07.029?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bernhard Truffer & Lars Coenen, 2012. "Environmental Innovation and Sustainability Transitions in Regional Studies," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 1-21, November.
    2. Alan M. Rugman & Alain Verbeke, 2005. "A Perspective on Regional and Global Strategies of Multinational Enterprises," Chapters, in: Analysis of Multinational Strategic Management, chapter 8, pages 104-119, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Alan M. Rugman & Alain Verbeke, 2005. "Extending the Theory of the Multinational Enterprise: Internalization and Strategic Management Perspectives," Chapters, in: Analysis of Multinational Strategic Management, chapter 7, pages 91-103, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Anastasia Stratigea & Chrysaida-Aliki Papadopoulou & Maria Panagiotopoulou, 2015. "Tools and Technologies for Planning the Development of Smart Cities," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 43-62, April.
    5. Peter J. Taylor & Ben Derudder & James Faulconbridge & Michael Hoyler & Pengfei Ni, 2014. "Advanced Producer Service Firms as Strategic Networks, Global Cities as Strategic Places," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 90(3), pages 267-291, July.
    6. Coenen, Lars & Benneworth, Paul & Truffer, Bernhard, 2012. "Toward a spatial perspective on sustainability transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 968-979.
    7. Philip McCann & Ram Mudambi, 2005. "Analytical Differences in the Economics of Geography: The Case of the Multinational Firm," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(10), pages 1857-1876, October.
    8. Simmons, Geoff & Giraldo, Jorge Esteban Diez & Truong, Yann & Palmer, Mark, 2018. "Uncovering the link between governance as an innovation process and socio-economic regime transition in cities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 241-251.
    9. Geels, Frank W., 2014. "Reconceptualising the co-evolution of firms-in-industries and their environments: Developing an inter-disciplinary Triple Embeddedness Framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 261-277.
    10. Alan M. Rugman & Alain Verbeke, 2005. "A Note on the Transnational Solution and the Transaction Cost Theory of Multinational Strategic Management," Chapters, in: Analysis of Multinational Strategic Management, chapter 2, pages 16-26, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Alan M Rugman & Alain Verbeke, 2008. "The theory and practice of regional strategy: a response to Osegowitsch and Sammartino," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(2), pages 326-332, March.
    12. Robert G. Hollands, 2008. "Will the real smart city please stand up?," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 303-320, December.
    13. Paroutis, Sotirios & Bennett, Mark & Heracleous, Loizos, 2014. "A strategic view on smart city technology: The case of IBM Smarter Cities during a recession," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 262-272.
    14. Hendrik Hielkema & Patrizia Hongisto, 2013. "Developing the Helsinki Smart City: The Role of Competitions for Open Data Applications," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 4(2), pages 190-204, June.
    15. Ola Söderström & Till Paasche & Francisco Klauser, 2014. "Smart cities as corporate storytelling," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 307-320, June.
    16. Willem van Winden & Daniel van den Buuse, 2017. "Smart City Pilot Projects: Exploring the Dimensions and Conditions of Scaling Up," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 51-72, October.
    17. Philip McCann & Ram Mudambi, 2004. "The Location Behavior of the Multinational Enterprise: Some Analytical Issues," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 491-524, September.
    18. Herring, Horace, 2006. "Energy efficiency—a critical view," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 10-20.
    19. Tuba Bakıcı & Esteve Almirall & Jonathan Wareham, 2013. "A Smart City Initiative: the Case of Barcelona," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 4(2), pages 135-148, June.
    20. Alain Verbeke & Christian Geisler Asmussen, 2016. "Global, Local, or Regional? The Locus of MNE Strategies," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(6), pages 1051-1075, September.
    21. Luca Mora & Roberto Bolici & Mark Deakin, 2017. "The First Two Decades of Smart-City Research: A Bibliometric Analysis," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 3-27, January.
    22. Lee, Jung Hoon & Hancock, Marguerite Gong & Hu, Mei-Chih, 2014. "Towards an effective framework for building smart cities: Lessons from Seoul and San Francisco," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 80-99.
    23. Sjoerd Beugelsdijk & Philip McCann & Ram Mudambi, 2010. "Introduction: Place, space and organization-- economic geography and the multinational enterprise," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(4), pages 485-493, July.
    24. Farla, Jacco & Markard, Jochen & Raven, Rob & Coenen, Lars, 2012. "Sustainability transitions in the making: A closer look at actors, strategies and resources," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 79(6), pages 991-998.
    25. Anthony Goerzen & Christian Geisler Asmussen & Bo Bernhard Nielsen, 2013. "Global cities and multinational enterprise location strategy," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 44(5), pages 427-450, June.
    26. Ans Kolk & Jonatan Pinkse, 2008. "A perspective on multinational enterprises and climate change: Learning from “an inconvenient truth”?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(8), pages 1359-1378, December.
    27. Mudambi, Ram, 2002. "Knowledge management in multinational firms," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9.
    28. Alan M Rugman & Alain Verbeke, 2007. "Liabilities of regional foreignness and the use of firm-level versus country-level data: a response to Dunning et al. (2007)," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(1), pages 200-205, January.
    29. Peter J. Taylor & Ben Derudder & James Faulconbridge & Michael Hoyler & Pengfei Ni, 2014. "Advanced Producer Service Firms as Strategic Networks, Global Cities as Strategic Places," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 90(3), pages 267-291, July.
    30. Hodson, Mike & Marvin, Simon, 2010. "Can cities shape socio-technical transitions and how would we know if they were?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 477-485, May.
    31. Rugman,Alan M., 2005. "The Regional Multinationals," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521842655, January.
    32. Simon Joss & Arthur P. Molella, 2013. "The Eco-City as Urban Technology: Perspectives on Caofeidian International Eco-City (China)," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 115-137, January.
    33. Sjoerd Beugelsdijk & Ram Mudambi, 2013. "MNEs as border-crossing multi-location enterprises: The role of discontinuities in geographic space," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 44(5), pages 413-426, June.
    34. Grimaldi, Didier & Fernandez, Vicenc, 2017. "The alignment of University curricula with the building of a Smart City: A case study from Barcelona," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 298-306.
    35. Klaus E. Meyer & Ram Mudambi & Rajneesh Narula, 2011. "Multinational Enterprises and Local Contexts: The Opportunities and Challenges of Multiple Embeddedness," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(2), pages 235-252, March.
    36. Mudambi, Ram & Swift, Tim, 2011. "Leveraging knowledge and competencies across space: The next frontier in international business," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 186-189, September.
    37. Vito Albino & Umberto Berardi & Rosa Maria Dangelico, 2015. "Smart Cities: Definitions, Dimensions, Performance, and Initiatives," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 3-21, January.
    38. Persson, Magnus, 2006. "The impact of operational structure, lateral integrative mechanisms and control mechanisms on intra-MNE knowledge transfer," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 547-569, October.
    39. Amador Durán-Sánchez & María Cruz del Río-Rama & Almudena Sereno-Ramírez & Kristina Bredis, 2017. "Sustainability and Quality of Life in Smart Cities: Analysis of Scientific Production," Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management, in: Marta Peris-Ortiz & Dag R. Bennett & Diana Pérez-Bustamante Yábar (ed.), Sustainable Smart Cities, chapter 0, pages 159-181, Springer.
    40. Smith, Adrian & Voß, Jan-Peter & Grin, John, 2010. "Innovation studies and sustainability transitions: The allure of the multi-level perspective and its challenges," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 435-448, May.
    41. Markard, Jochen & Raven, Rob & Truffer, Bernhard, 2012. "Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of research and its prospects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 955-967.
    42. Bridge, Gavin & Bouzarovski, Stefan & Bradshaw, Michael & Eyre, Nick, 2013. "Geographies of energy transition: Space, place and the low-carbon economy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 331-340.
    43. Alan M. Rugman & Alain Verbeke, 2005. "Towards a Theory of Regional Multinationals: A Transaction Cost Economics Approach," Working Papers 2005-04, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Niccolò Pisani & Ans Kolk & Václav Ocelík & Ganling Wu, 2019. "Does it pay for cities to be green? An investigation of FDI inflows and environmental sustainability," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(1), pages 62-85, March.
    2. Ram Mudambi & Lee Li & Xufei Ma & Shige Makino & Gongming Qian & Ron Boschma, 2018. "Zoom in, zoom out: Geographic scale and multinational activity," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(8), pages 929-941, October.
    3. Mora, Luca & Deakin, Mark & Reid, Alasdair, 2019. "Strategic principles for smart city development: A multiple case study analysis of European best practices," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 70-97.
    4. Arregle, Jean-Luc & Miller, Toyah L. & Hitt, Michael A. & Beamish, Paul W., 2018. "The role of MNEs’ internationalization patterns in their regional integration of FDI locations," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 896-910.
    5. Schiavone, Francesco & Paolone, Francesco & Mancini, Daniela, 2019. "Business model innovation for urban smartization," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 210-219.
    6. Iiris Saittakari & Tiina Ritvala & Rebecca Piekkari & Perttu Kähäri & Sami Moisio & Tomas Hanell & Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, 2023. "A review of location, politics, and the multinational corporation: Bringing political geography into international business," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(6), pages 969-995, August.
    7. Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, 2022. "Capitalizing on the uniqueness of international business: Towards a theory of place, space, and organization," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(9), pages 2050-2067, December.
    8. Parul Gupta & Sumedha Chauhan & M. P. Jaiswal, 2019. "Classification of Smart City Research - a Descriptive Literature Review and Future Research Agenda," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 661-685, June.
    9. Verbeke, Alain & Kano, Liena, 2016. "An internalization theory perspective on the global and regional strategies of multinational enterprises," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 83-92.
    10. Johannes Stübinger & Lucas Schneider, 2020. "Understanding Smart City—A Data-Driven Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-23, October.
    11. Hillemann, Jenny & Gestrin, Michael, 2016. "The limits of firm-level globalization: Revisiting the FSA/CSA matrix," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 767-775.
    12. Lee, In Hyeock (Ian) & Hong, Eunsuk & Shin, Jong Kook, 2023. "Multinational enterprises, intra-regional cross-border M&As, and performance: Location advantages of market versus knowledge," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(6).
    13. Mora, Luca & Deakin, Mark & Reid, Alasdair, 2019. "Combining co-citation clustering and text-based analysis to reveal the main development paths of smart cities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 56-69.
    14. Karimikia, Hadi & Bradshaw, Robert & Singh, Harminder & Ojo, Adegboyega & Donnellan, Brian & Guerin, Michael, 2022. "An emergent taxonomy of boundary spanning in the smart city context – The case of smart Dublin," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    15. Scott-Kennel, Joanna & Giroud, Axele, 2015. "MNEs and FSAs: Network knowledge, strategic orientation and performance," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 94-107.
    16. Chakravarty, Dwarka & Hsieh, Ying-Ying & Schotter, Andreas P.J. & Beamish, Paul W., 2017. "Multinational enterprise regional management centres: Characteristics and performance," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 296-311.
    17. Li Zhao & Zhi-ying Tang & Xin Zou, 2019. "Mapping the Knowledge Domain of Smart-City Research: A Bibliometric and Scientometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-28, November.
    18. Mora, Luca & Gerli, Paolo & Ardito, Lorenzo & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio, 2023. "Smart city governance from an innovation management perspective: Theoretical framing, review of current practices, and future research agenda," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    19. José Antonio Belso-Martínez & María José López-Sánchez & Rosario Mateu-García, 2018. "New MNE subsidiaries in old clusters: when, why, and how," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 441-467, March.
    20. Jiang, Guoliang F. & Holburn, Guy L.F. & Beamish, Paul W., 2016. "The spatial structure of foreign subsidiaries and MNE expansion strategy," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 438-450.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:142:y:2019:i:c:p:220-234. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.