Business Model Innovation in Smart Cities

Dear Colleagues,

As urbanization continues apace, cities around the world are implementing technology-enabled “smart city” solutions to enhance the quality of life, sustainability, efficiency and competitiveness. However, developing successful business models remains a key challenge. This Special Issue will explore innovative business models that can accelerate smart city development and adoption.

The focus will be on new revenue models, partnerships, policy incentives and financing mechanisms that can support financially and operationally sustainable smart city solutions. Both technology-centric models such as sensors-as-a-service and human-centric models such as crowd-sourced citizen engagement platforms will be examined.

The scope encompasses smart city business model innovation globally, with a particular emphasis on case studies from Asia, South America, the Middle East and Africa. Contributions that analyze real-world examples of business model innovation in diverse geographic, cultural and regulatory contexts are encouraged.

The purpose is twofold: first, it is to advance theoretical knowledge about business model innovation for smart city solutions, taking an interdisciplinary approach spanning technology, entrepreneurship, public policy, and urban planning; and second, to provide practical insights to help policymakers, entrepreneurs and city leaders successfully design, implement and scale financially sustainable smart city business models.

This collection will supplement existing smart-city-related literature which has focused largely on the technologies themselves, with less attention to the business models required for adoption. It also expands on sharing economy and digital platform business model research by contextualizing innovations specifically for smart city scenarios. By bringing together stakeholders from the public, private and social sectors, the Special Issue provides a novel perspective distinct from siloed technology, government or business literatures. The case study approach will generate grounded insights about the real-world enablers and barriers to smart city business model innovation globally.

Dr. Alexander Horst Norta
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Smart Cities is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• smart cities
• business models
• innovation
• sustainability
• partnerships
• policy
• financing