Local ICT Firms’ Perspective on Planning Cooperation With City Government for Innovations

Abstract

Local ICT firms can play an important role in creation of innovations which could support a smart city concept realization in a city. The topic of the paper is to present details of local ICT firms' perspective on cooperation with city government for production of innovations important in a smart city concept realization. There is a research gap in up-to-date studies concerning such a topic. Motivation of the author in preparing the paper was to make a step forward to fill this research gap through realizing the article’s main objective which was to answer the following question: ‘What is the perspective of local ICT firms and what are their expectations in the mentioned cooperation to result in production of innovations useful for the city?’ An additional question was ‘What is the attitude of local ICT firms towards inviting big international leaders in smart city projects for cooperation in the ICT industry?’ Critical research of the paper is first of all of empirical and qualitative nature. A review of the current international literature was of preliminary nature. The review was carried out in respect of a smart sustainable city, ICT innovations and public management, ICT innovations and their sustainability. The study concentrated on the case of the Polish city of Częstochowa. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with managers of six ICT local firms or units located in Częstochowa. The findings of the paper include a set of expectations of local ICT firms useful for city governments in planning cooperation with ICT firms for innovations. In analyzing the perspective of local ICT firms an important element was their attitude towards inviting big international leaders in the ICT industry in smart city for cooperation by the city government. The boundaries of the paper of the above nature limited its scope to the perspective of local ICT firms leaving outside e.g. the analysis of the city government perspective. In the future, the studies should be developed on: creating a comprehensive model of strategic planning of the cooperation between city government and ICT firms for Smart City sustainable innovations.