Clustering of European Smart Cities to Understand the Cities’ Sustainability Strategies

Carmen Cantuarias-Villessuzanne, Romain Weigel and Jeffrey Blain
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Carmen Cantuarias-Villessuzanne: ESPI2R, Campus Paris, ESPI, 92300 Paris, France
Romain Weigel: ESPI2R, Campus Nantes, ESPI, 44323 Nantes, France
Jeffrey Blain: ESPI2R, Campus Lyon, ESPI, 69009 Lyon, France

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-20

Abstract: This paper analyzes the smart strategies of European cities through the dynamic capabilities approach. We develop a clustering of smart cities based on the activities implemented by the cities. Our methodology considers three steps. First, we establish an empirical assessment of the smart dimensions for 40 European cities. Then, we categorize and interpret core capabilities via a principal component analysis. Finally, we highlight a hierarchical ascending classification identifying three relevant groups of cities. As a result, the first cluster represents cities with emerging smart strategies. The second cluster regroups international metropolises, which have technology-oriented strategies to deal with specific challenges. The third cluster stands for middle-sized European cities with a good quality of life. Our outcomes show that there is not just one smart city but several smart cities emerging according to the cities’ environment. These findings enrich the analysis of smart cities’ dynamic capabilities and point out how these strategies make cities sustainable.

Keywords: sustainable smart cities; knowledge management; dynamic capabilities approach; principal component analysis (PCA); hierarchical ascending classification (HAC) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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