Digital Transformation of City Ecosystems

Platforms Shaping Engagement and Externalities across Vertical Markets

Bibliographic Data

ID15318814
AuthorsNicos Komninos (0000-0002-4656-1263, URENIO Research, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece), Christina Kakderi (0000-0001-6499-3919, URENIO Research, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece), Antonio Collado (0000-0002-1677-8170, CARSA, Madrid, Spain), Ilektra Papadaki (0000-0001-6453-9708, URENIO Research, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece), Anastasia Panori (0000-0002-2551-2032, URENIO Research, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume28
Issue1-2
Pages93-114
Publication date2020-09-14
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Urban Technology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1063-0732 • E-ISSN: 1466-1853
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10630732.2020.1805712
OpenAlexW3086493763
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited47

The paper focuses on the design of urban digital transformation strategies. It builds upon the lessons learned from the Digital Cities Challenge initiative, developed by the European Commission, designed to empower European cities to design and implement digital transformation strategies for the uptake of advanced digital services and the smart growth of city ecosystems. We study three cities that participated in the Digital Cities Challenge—Sofia, Granada, and Kavala—and provide an overview of the strategy designs they adopted. The results indicate that beside significant differences in context, sectors, and ecosystems targeted at those cities, common features shape the design of their digital transformation strategies based on digital platforms, such as opening markets for e-services, enhancement of local infrastructures, improving digital skills, and innovation funding mechanisms. We argue that creating digital platforms for ecosystem building is an essential strategy of digital transformation as it can produce network effects and externalities in digital space, similar to those deriving from spatial proximity in physical space. As a result, both spatial and digital network effects lead the development of externalities that play a key role in the formation, expansion, and sustainability of ecosystems

Business · Context (archaeology · Digital ecosystem · Digital transformation · Economics · Environmental resource management · European union · Externality · Geography · Knowledge management · Sustainability · Transformation (genetics · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis · Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development · Smart Cities and Technologies · Ecology

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