Sustainable city competitiveness: towards a meta concept and determinants of urban indicator systems and dynamic capabilities

Abstract

The challenges urban decision-makers are facing are plenty (e.g. ongoing urbanization, demographic change, consequences of the climate change, energy supply, mobility lock-in). The competitiveness of the future mobility systems is one important aspect of the concept of a Smart City. Nevertheless, the public sector still appears as “inhibitor“ of innovation due to slow internal processes and unawareness about the current situation of the urban competitiveness and its innovation ecosystem. This issue needs to be addressed to ensure the change of this perception and to let the urban public sector become the “challenger” of its innovation ecosystem. Therefore, cities need to be able to assess their own status and orchestrate its original base and extended stock of resources and capabilities against the backdrop of a changing environment. Thus, this master’s thesis delivers a meta-concept of strategic and performance management theories which integrates the potentials and overcomes the shortcomings of urban indicator systems, thereby, guiding cities towards sustainable urban competitiveness.