Toward Smart City Services in Beijing: A Case Study of Platform-Enabled Public-Private Collaboration

Abstract

Smart city initiatives and expenditure into digital transformation of public services necessitates new forms of collaboration and organization, especially for the application of emergent digital technologies to enhance the efficiency of government practices and community services. This study investigates collaborative actions in the development of three platform-enabled smart city initiatives --- elder care, urban management and cloud services -- in Beijing, China from a private-public partnerships perspective, in order to enhance the quality of living and resource consumption in the city. In this short paper proposal, we present preliminary analysis on an elder care smart city initiative, ongoing and future analysis. This research is significant to shed light into the mechanisms of private-public partnerships to sustain innovation ecosystems and inclusive growth in a smart city strategy. This study seeks to provide empirical contribution to nascent smart city research, in order to develop roadmaps for participatory action and collaborative problem solving.