Creating Public Value in Cities: A Call for Focus on Context and Capability

Cities throughout the world are changing. To respond to these changes mayors and other urban policy makers are investing heavily in innovations aimed at making their cities “smarter.” This essay presents the argument that making a city smarter rests on the capability of that city to create public value for those who live and work there. Such capability, in our view, is a function of context. Our goal in presenting this essay is to incentivize researchers and urban policy makers to systematically consider context in smart city investment decision-making. For academics and researchers, we call for new research that systematically examines the interplay between innovation, context, and public value creation in urban environments. For urban policy makers, we call for a new focus on context-informed decision-making about smart city investments.