Cities

Volume 114, July 2021, 103187

The advantages of and barriers to being smart in a smart

city: The perceptions of project managers within a smart
city cluster project in Greater Copenhagen
Thomas Bjørner

Aalborg University, Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, A. C. Meyers Vænge 15, 2450 Copenhagen,
SV, Denmark

Received 28 February 2020, Revised 13 January 2021, Accepted 15 March 2021, Available online 30 March 2021, Version of Record 30
March 2021.

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Abstract

The background for this study is a two-year smart city cluster project, called Ready for Smart Growth, which included
various smart city projects in 22 municipalities. This study's novelty lies in the context of its analysis and theoretical
contribution, which outline an identification of the complexity, advantages and barriers that smart city project
managers perceived in an ongoing smart city cluster project. Further, a definition for a smart city project is suggested.
This research is within a case study methodology, and was based on a mixed method approach that employed nine key
informant interviews and two questionnaires. The results revealed that the project managers perceived different needs
and goals within the context of smart city innovation and realization. The project managers perception of smart city
was mainly within a smart economy and smart governance perspective. However, the project managers also criticized
the relatively less focus on public participations and dialogue-oriented smart city solutions. The perceived major
barriers to real smart city implementations were regulations; silos; and the choice of stakeholders, including
companies promising too much. The major advantages include the different perspectives and types of knowledge of
various stakeholders.

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Introduction

The background for this study material was a two-year (2017–2018) smart city cluster project in Greater Copenhagen,
Denmark, called Ready for Smart Growth, which included various smart city projects in 22 municipalities. The project's
overall aim was to enhance municipalities' competencies in computer-driven urban development and smart city
innovations, as well as to create networks and encourage knowledge sharing among the municipalities in the context
of accelerated smart city development. Ready for Smart Growth was organized along four themes: municipal strategies,
smart streets, intelligent street lights, and smart waste innovations. The project's description posed the following
question: “How can municipalities make smart cities into a good business model in which crossover and qualitative
benefits are included in the economic considerations, and how this can be documented within the city as a tool for
knowledge?” The project's aims included the overall perspective that qualitative benefits, knowledge sharing, and
interrelations (crossover effects) can be key drivers for smart cities. This approach is similar to a holistic interpretation
of smart cities, highlighting that their development depends on a balance and diversity among human, social, cultural,
environmental, economic, and technological factors (Edvinsson, 2006; Giffinger et al., 2007; Hollands, 2014; Mora et
al., 2019). The perspective that treats the city as a tool for knowledge (Edvinsson, 2006) also includes the view that the
municipalities, universities, companies, and other project stakeholders can, because of their diversity, facilitate
synergistic interventions and innovations. As a possible innovation approach, the city as a tool for knowledge can also
be described in multifaceted and complex development policies within smart city values, and it is often linked to a
societal context that includes short- and long-term challenges for the city.

Within the considerable and rapidly growing body of existing smart cities literature (Lim et al., 2019), there is a lack of
studies in which a smart city cluster project is evaluated formatively during the project based on the project managers'
perceptions of advantages and barriers using the context of a recent included analysis. Previous studies described
barriers and challenges that public governments face during smart city development (Caird, 2018; Ferraris et al., 2020;
Hollands, 2014), similar to the Ready for Smart Growth organization and project. However, these barriers have most
often been described from either policy-making perspectives (Crivello, 2015; Dekker & Van Kempen, 2004; Kumar et
al., 2020; Lytras et al., 2019; Wathne & Haarstad, 2020) or citizens' perspectives (Batty et al., 2012; Bovaird, 2007;
Cardullo & Kitchin, 2019; Gabrys, 2014). The project manager perspective within smart cities has also been studied and
has included diverse approaches within, for instance, entrepreneurship, innovation, risk priorities, stakeholders, and
HR management (Edvinsson, 2006; Ferraris et al., 2019; Ferraris et al., 2020; Ferraris, Santoro, et al., 2018; Joshi et al.,
2016; Sandulli et al., 2017; Söderström et al., 2014). However, these studies' foundations often lack very specific (local)
and ongoing smart city technology implementations. This study's novelty lies in the context of its analysis, which
examined the advantages and barriers that smart city project managers perceived in an ongoing smart city cluster
project. The project managers implemented policymakers' visions, ideas, and goals in real life. By examining how these
visions were perceived, realized, and acted on in very local implementations, there is potential for new insights and
information aimed at effective smart city developments and evaluation. Furthermore, this paper contributes to the
theory by outlining some of the complexity that project managers face within ongoing smart city projects, including
engagement and motivation. Further, this study will contribute with a suggestion for a definition of a smart city
project. The study's research question was as follows: Which advantages and barriers do smart city project managers
perceive within the Ready for Smart Growth smart city project?

The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 provides an overview of the previous literature, with a special focus on
difficulties related to evaluating smart city projects. Section 3 introduces the context of analysis and theoretical
contribution, including an identification of the complexity in an ongoing smart city project from a project manager
perspective. Section 4 presents the material and methods, including the methodology, participants, case selection,
procedure, and data analysis. Section 5 reveals the results in four subsections. Section 6 contains the discussion and
conclusion, and Section 7 concludes the paper and outlines the limitations and future work needed.

Section snippets

Previous literature

Converting cities into smart cities has been a substantial focus in recent years. There are many different small-,
medium-, and large-scale projects, organizations, perspectives, aims, and strategies related to smart cities. Most urban
smart governance today recognizes that it is not just about information and communication technology (ICT)
development and implementation within a city (which was the main focus when the term smart city was first used in
the 1990s), but also includes economic,…

Context of analysis and theoretical contribution

The following context of analysis and theoretical contribution identifies some of the complexities that project
managers face within ongoing smart city projects with included case examples from the Ready for Smart Growth
project. Fig. 1 identifies the complexity in an ongoing smart city project from a project manager perspective. The
identification implies three factors; one internal at the municipal level (labeled interactions in the municipality), as well
as two external factors, or staging…

Methodology, participants, case selection, and ethical issues

This research was within a case study methodology, as it was an empirical evaluation that investigated a contemporary
problem within its real-life context (Yin, 2003). Case study research is used with considerable variations across fields,
but this study primarily met Yin's (2003) criteria for a descriptive case study, as its overall aim was to describe a smart
city phenomenon in it is real-life context, in which both context and case are important (Yin, 2003). In addition, as
Flyvbjerg (2006)…

Results

The 22 municipalities that participated in the Ready for Smart Growth project were quite different in terms of physical
area, population size, economies, and organizations, and their foundations in terms of software and IT support for
smart city innovations were quite different (Fig. 1). The project managers perceived that the municipalities had
different visions and, therefore, different needs and goals within the context of smart city innovation and realization.
There were also different…

Different perceptions and a definition of a smart city project

The 22 municipalities that were part of the Gate21 project called Ready for Smart Growth were very different in terms
of their sizes, populations, economics, and organizations. Due to these differences, the smart city project managers had
varying perceptions in terms of needs, goals, and implementations. The Ready for Smart Growth's vision was mainly
derived from policy makers and was within the holistic approach of a smart city, which included knowledge sharing,
crossover effects, and finding…

Limitations and future works

As with many studies, the major limitation of this research concerns the subjectivity in the interview response and
thus in the gathering of data. This study used a mixed method approach to improve the validity. However, the
interviews were the most valuable method for understanding the project managers' perceptions of the advantages and
barriers in a highly complex context of a smart city. Another limitation within this study was the number of interviews
and cases (9 key informant interviews…

Declaration of competing interest

None. This study is ethical approved (ID 2020-020-00431) by an ethical committee at Aalborg University.…

Acknowledgements
This research has been partially funded by Gate21: Ready for Smart Growth (16000285), and Department of
Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Aalborg University. Thanks to all the involved project managers. Thanks to
the reviewers for useful feedback.…

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