TIM Review October 2015: Smart Cities and Regions

The October 2015 issue of the Technology Innovation Management Review has been published. The editorial theme of this issue is Smart Cities and Regions. This is has three guest editors: Taina Tukiainen, Senior Researcher at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland, Seppo Leminen, Principal Lecturer at the Laurea University of Applied Sciences and Adjunct Professor in the School of Business at Aalto University in Finland, and Mika Westerlund, Associate Professor at Carleton University's Sprott School of Business in Ottawa, Canada.

In this issue,  making regions and cities "smarter" is discussed. In accordance with Renata Dameri (2013), a smart city (or region) as "a well-defined geographical area, in which high technologies such as ICT, logistic, energy production, and so on, cooperate to create benefits for citizens in terms of well-being, inclusion and participation, environmental quality, intelligent development; it is governed by a well-defined pool of subjects, able to state the rules and policy for the city government and development."  The ongoing global trend toward urbanization has led increasing numbers of practitioners and researchers to look to the development of smart cities and regions as a way to overcome socio-economic challenges and improve quality of life through innovation. Indeed, Kjell Anders Nordström and Per Schlingmann (2015) identify cities – not nations – as the new powerhouses of innovation.

In this issue, these issues are examined through 6 articles by 14 authors.