Abstract:

Smart City is a well-known multidisciplinary phenomenon. Even though most researchers agree that managing Smart City services is a challenge, they are not united on how to deal with it. The impact of the rapid development of information and communication technologies (IoT, Smart Devices, etc.) on the management of Smart City services is still an unexplored area.

In this paper, we focus on how to manage the development of services in the Smart City environment using the Quadruple Helix approach. From our perspective, the key is not in implementing the newest IT devices but in applying knowledge and information about solved problems, the position and view of involved stakeholders, and value chain development.

The critical aspect is to achieve a common understanding of the challenge, which is not easy to reach. Each stakeholder from a different domain of the Quadruple Helix (Government & Public Sector, Civil Society, Industry & Business, and Academia & Universities) has their perspective on how to deal with the challenge. There are differences in the cause of the challenge or impacts on other domains.

Understanding such a complex environment is crucial to developing holistic study programs and specific education for the municipalities from the Quadruple Helix approach perspective. The stakeholders should understand and cope with the service complexity and its impacts on the municipal (and even regional) development to meet current goals such as sustainability and resilience (in all of its four dimensions), digital and green transition, including social aspects.

We will show case studies of specific services development in selected municipalities and how the cooperation among university labs, government institutions, business entities, and citizens can bring new added value to the municipalities and to all stakeholders. We will focus not only on presenting examples of the solutions but also on showing how to achieve a common understanding of the complexity of the challenge and turn this situation into an opportunity for sustainable municipal development.

Keywords:

Smart city, smart services management, quadruple helix, multidisciplinary education, service complexity, university laboratories.