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Smart Cities, Innovation and Sustainability: Which Role for Cities in Fostering “Green” Entrepreneurship?

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Sustainability in Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Part of the book series: Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management ((ITKM))

Abstract

This chapter aims at theoretically linking entrepreneurship and institutional conditions in the case of “smart cities”. After discussing how agglomeration economies shape entrepreneurship through the main relevant body of literature, the chapter articulates on the concept of “smart city” and presents a newly collected dataset on a “smart city” for the Emilia-Romagna Region in Northern Italy. Elements that drive improvements in the “smartness” of a city are presented in order to derive policy implications and the theoretical linkages between entrepreneurship, particularly “green” entrepreneurship, and a peculiar case of such an institutional setting as a “smart city”. The absence of proper data to test for a bi-directional causal link between entrepreneurship and smart city is discussed as a limitation of the current analysis and as a research line that deserves further investigation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This literature can be even further extended by looking at the studies on creativity and cities which have developed around the work of Florida (2002) and the related hot debate surrounding that work. This will bring the reader out of the main focus of the work, so that such literature is not going to be discussed (key references are: Berry & Glaeser, 2005; Boschma & Fritsch, 2007; Florida, 2002; Glaeser, 1997, 1998, 2005; Glaeser & Maré, 2001; Glaeser & Resseger, 2010; Knudsen, Florida, Stolarick, & Gates, 2008; Nathan, 2007; Shapiro, 2006).

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Regione Emilia-Romagna (Chiara Mancini and Barbara Santi) and ERVET (Silvia Ringolfi) for providing support and data. Responsibility for the information and the views expressed lie entirely with the author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

    Claudia Ghisetti

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  1. Claudia Ghisetti
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Correspondence to Claudia Ghisetti .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Organización de Empresas, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain

    Antonio Leal-Millan

  2. Department of Business Administration, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

    Marta Peris-Ortiz

  3. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Sevilla, Spain

    Antonio L. Leal-Rodríguez

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Ghisetti, C. (2018). Smart Cities, Innovation and Sustainability: Which Role for Cities in Fostering “Green” Entrepreneurship?. In: Leal-Millan, A., Peris-Ortiz, M., Leal-Rodríguez, A. (eds) Sustainability in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57318-2_3

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