ABSTRACT
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 and Norfolk County, this chapter offers 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 offers an in-depth 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. This serves to demonstrate how the inclusion of the abovementioned relations in an analytical hierarchy framework makes it possible for the network model in question to capture the advanced triple helix of smart cities and verify whether the transformation this ushers in is based not only on the creation of wealth, but also on the governance of their underlying regional innovation systems.
