An Advanced Triple-Helix Network Model for Smart Cities Performance

Focusing on a subset of European cities belonging to the SmartCities (inter) Regional Academic Network (SCRAN), i.e. Bremerhaven, Edinburgh, Groningen, Karlstad, Kortijk, Kristiansand, Lillesand, Osterholz, Norfolk, this chapter will offer a decision network model built around an analytical hierarchy able to verify whether the development of cities within the North Sea Region is smart. It aims to offer a profound analysis of the interrelations between the components of smart cities, including the human and social relations connecting the intellectual capital, wealth, and governance of their regional development. The chapter demonstrates that the inclusion of the abovementioned relations in the analytical hierarchy framework is significant, as it allows, for the first time, the opportunity for this network model to capture the triple helix of a smart urban or regional development and to verify whether the transformation of cities it ushers in is not merely based on an index of intellectual capital, but also on a measure of wealth creation whose standards of governance are smart.