The Smart City Ecosystem as an Innovation Model: Lessons from Montreal

Since the early 2000s, many cities around the world have undertaken initiatives to position themselves as "smart cities". Indeed, in the era of globalization and postmodernism, the smart city concept is well recognized as a means to increase the attractiveness of cities and the quality of life of citizens (Boes et al., 2015). In their efforts to engage in this initiative, cities generally seek to promote a dynamic of innovation that drives the development of products and the delivery of services through technology. However – and this comprises the main idea of this article – what is also needed are efforts to change organizational structures so as to create a culture of innovation among the various stakeholders. Indeed, some researchers consider the emergence of innovation to be highly dependent on the type of organizational dynamics at play (Enz & Siguaw, 2003; Jones, 1996).