The Citipreneur. How a local entrepreneur creates public value through smart technologies and strategies

• Published date: 08 July 2019
• Pages: 508-529
• Date: 08 July 2019
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-02-2018-0060
• Author: Zsuzsanna Tomor
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management

The Citipreneur

How a local entrepreneur creates public value

through smart technologies and strategies

Zsuzsanna Tomor

School of Governance, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of local entrepreneurs, embedded in both the civil and

the business arena, in creating public value by establishing strategic collaboration around smart technologies.

Design/methodology/approach –The paper suggests a novel –the local entrepreneurial –type of smart

bottom-up initiative between civil grassroots and market-based initiatives. This idea is further evolved in the

paper to define the patterns of this alternative type of smart bottom-up initiative. For this purpose, the paper

conducts a case study of a community-based sustainable energy and mobility system launched by a local

entrepreneur in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Findings –The local entrepreneur has played a catalyzing role in public value creation by initiating and

upscaling cooperative practices around smart technologies. This success has mainly been achieved due to the

entrepreneurial attitudes of pioneering and risk-taking as well as the capability to bridge between the state,

the market and society to accelerate urban sustainability transition.

Practical implications –This paper offers a practical illustration of the potential of local entrepreneurs to

evolve cooperative practices with smart technologies for societal change. It also shows the vital role of local

governments in the achievement of bottom-up initiatives contributing to urban smartness. However, in the

case of commercializing initiatives, governments also need to take a balancing role to safeguard the needs of

all citizens based on fairness and equity, which is at the core of public value creation.

Originality/value –The study adds to the citizen participation literature by revealing a novel type of active

citizen grasping technological opportunities to mobilize networks to cooperate for the collective good. The

research also contributes to a better understanding of the bottom-up smart city as a form of governance, and

its advantages as well as drawbacks concerning public value creation.

Keywords Citizen participation, Sustainable energy, Smart technologies, Public value creation,

Local entrepreneur, Smart city governance

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Local governments are facing sustainability challenges (e.g. climate change,

socio-economic inequality, multicultural tensions, ecological degradation) and increasing

public demands for improved services while state resources are shrinking (Sampson, 2017;

Das, 2017; Johansson, 2018; Peyroux et al., 2013). Addressing these urban issues fits

municipalities’permanent quest for public value creation targeting societal results

collectively desired by the public. Public value creation implies socio-economic welfare on

both the individual and societal level based on the principles of fairness, equity and justice

(Bryson et al., 2014; Moore, 1995; Benington and Moore, 2011; Cordella and Bonina, 2012;

Marres and Lezaun, 2011). For this pursuit of public value creation local governments

need societal support, and operational capacities and they are also required to constantly

adapt to their changing environment and innovate if conventional approaches do not work

anymore. Therefore, they seek linkages to societal actors to deliberate on what public

value is and to co-design and co-implement corresponding policies (Meynhardt, 2009;

Coats and Passmore, 2008; Smith, 2004; Talbot, 2011; Stoker, 2006; O’Flynn, 2007; Crosby

et al.,2017;Pageet al., 2015).

To respond this demanding task of public value creation many city governments

consider the notion of smart city governance as a promising policy option (Nam and Pardo,

2011; Bolívar, 2017; Meijer, 2015; Hui and Hayllar, 2010). Smart city governance is

understood in this study in its comprehensive form that links the use of technologies and

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 32 No. 5, 2019

pp. 508-529

© Emerald PublishingLimited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-02-2018-0060

Received 27 February 2018

Revised 8 October 2018

21 December 2018

Accepted 24 January 2019

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/0951-3558.htm

508

IJPSM

32,5

man-made, collaborative actions to generate public value in the sense of sustainable

development (Fontana, 2014; Cosgrave et al., 2014; Ferro et al., 2013; Dameri and

Rosenthal-Sabroux 2014; Pereira et al., 2017; Caragliu et al., 2011). This is also reflected by

the definition by Meijer and Bolívar (2016, p. 398): “The smartness of a city refers to its

ability to attract human capital and to mobilize this human capital in collaborations between

the various (organized and individual) actors through the use of information and

communication technologies.”This, on the one hand, highlights the relevance of smart

technologies that manifest themselves in tools and applications such as Big Data, Cloud

Computing, Internet of Things, crowdsourcing platforms, open data portals, microblogging,

social networking, multimedia sharing, virtual worlds, online participatory platforms, civic

hackathons or smart energy and mobility systems (Mechant et al., 2012; Madeira et al., 2016;

Oni et al., 2016; Webster and Leleux, 2018; Ruijer et al., 2017). On the other hand, these smart

technologies are seen as enablers of human interactions, and in particular, the enhancement

of citizen participation that often remains at a modest level in the form of one-way

information provision, consultation and selective representation (Binnema and Michels,

2016; Molinari and Ferro, 2009; Saarikko, 2014; Kitchin and Lauriault, 2014; Kokkinakos

et al., 2012; Yetano and Royo, 2017).

The transforming power of technologies in accommodating collaborative pu blic value

creation –the main focus of this Special Issue –is not only recognized by local governments

(van Winden and van den Buuse, 2017; March and Ribera-Fumaz, 2016; Meijer et al., 2016; Pang

et al., 2014; Pelzer et al., 2016) but also by citizens. They are self-activating, resourceful citizens

who try to grasp technological possibilities to improve the socio-economic and ecological

conditions of their city. These urbanites explore how socio-technological arrangements can

solve urban challenges and generate public values such as alternative transport, clean energy

or supportingdisadvantaged communities (De Vrieset al., 2016; Breuer et al., 2014; Buijs et al.,

2016; Lister, 2015; Joss, 2014; Loeffler and Bovaird, 2018). Such smart bottom-up movements

are considered to have a uniquecapability in fosteringtransformative innovation as they start

out from the community logics and needs (Aylett, 2013; Seyfang et al., 2014; Niederer and

Priester, 2016; Hatzl et al., 2016; Feola and Nunes, 2014).

These kinds of smart bottom-up initiatives are extensively discussed in the literature.

Herein, attention is paid to the different types of agile citizens striving for public value

generation (Paulos et al., 2008; Crossan et al., 2016; Niederer and Priester, 2016; Richardson

et al., 2012; Mälgand et al., 2014; Osborne et al., 2016). They are labeled in diverse ways such

as active citizens, every day makers/ fixers, civic/public entrepreneu rs, exemplary

practitioners and civic evangelists (van Hulst et al., 2011).

Despite the ample amount of literature on smart bottom-up initiatives, up till now little

attention has been given to a specific type of active citizen: local entrepreneurs who are

embedded in both the local civil community and the business realm. This in-betweenness

together with their inventive and risk-taking attitude allow local entrepreneurs to play a

constructive role in employing smart technologies and strategies to enhance public value

(Hall et al., 2010; Lyons et al., 2012; Fayolle, 2007; Di Domenico et al., 2010; Hitt et al., 2011).

These unique capacities make local entrepreneurs able to align various actors and networks

into cooperative processes and to arrive at a scale where the widespread adoption of smart

solutions can have a societal impact (Boyer, 2015; Seyfang and Longhurst, 2013; Huarng

and Yu, 2011; Korsgaard and Anderson, 2011). Learning about these prospects of local

entrepreneurs fits the profile of this Special Issue aiming to provide a broad perspective on

the possibilities of smart technologies to foster the co-creation of public services and the

generation of public value in management processes. Especially the ways technologies

facilitate citizen participation and co-production with the public sector and how these

activities create public value is here of relevance. Therefore, this paper focuses on the

potential of local entrepreneurs to generate public value by forging strategic partnerships

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Smart

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and strategies