Evaluation of a Mobile Software Development Company

The mobile technology became an important tool for nowadays society, allowing fast and easy access to information, becoming useful on both the user's professional and personal life. However, the mobile environment involves many technologies, turning into a complex subject for software development, where it's necessary to pay attention to many variables in order to ensure the project's quality. Therefore, the present study was conducted with a mobile software development company, analyzing and contributing to the company's activity in order to identify common problems related to an application management and development. It was found issues related to the software interface and quality control processes, also covering the migration from a local database to a cloud service.

Cooperatives as Responsible and Innovative Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Smart Territories

Nowadays, and more than never, businesses´ stakeholders are demanding Social Responsibility (SR) and innovation. In this situation, any business is concerned about how to implement social and innovative practices in creating economic and social value at the same time. This chapter analyzes the relationship between SR and innovation in cooperatives. On the one hand, even acknowledging that the degree of implementation of SR is still different in companies, cooperatives seem to be responsible by nature. However, on the other hand, traditionally innovation has been not a visible strength in the cooperative enterprises. The focus is centered on a specific place: the olive oil cooperatives in the south of Spain and we will describe the cooperative entrepreneurial ecosystem created around this territory, demonstrating how SR and innovation are important features related to competitiveness and success. Cooperatives are strategic business models able to foster development in traditional rural areas, so we can define them as an entrepreneurial ecosystem in smart territories.

The Role Corporate Social Responsibility Has in the Smart City Project in Spain

The object and justification of this chapter is to analyse how Smart Cities will have an impact on workers' social welfare. Another aspect is the opportunity for businesses immersed in Smart Cities to improve working conditions through corporate social responsibility, reverting in this way to the society all that they have to offer. The future of employment in Smart Cities is analysed. Anyway, the realisation of the present work also has allowed to check how finds Spain in the implantation of this model of Cities and as they are involved the spanish companies. In this sense, the investigation after an unproductive analysis and conceptual of the terms business social responsibility and smart quote analyses the implication of the right of the work in the new cities through the repercussion of these in the conditions of work of the workers taken by the companies so much of the small, of the average as of the big company, to finish with conclusions. It analyses the normative activity that Spain has developed specifically in this regard and his plans in the aim 20/20.

Smartness, City Efficiency, and Entrepreneurship Milieu

The definition of smart city and its measurement are not shared. Different characteristics define a city as smart, which is strictly linked to urban efficiency and to entrepreneurship spirit in a multifaceted way as well as to citizens' well-being. On the basis of the comparison between city and entrepreneur behaviour and on the definition of Giffinger et al. (2007) of smart city, this chapter verifies the efficiency of a sample of European cities using a stochastic frontier approach. Departing from this analysis, the chapter develops the relative smartness definition based on the efficient use of its own resources and related to the different context. Moreover, as a city becomes close to the optimal value, the frontier will shift upward because of the more attractiveness and a new adjustment mechanism should be followed to become efficient again (virtuous cycle). Then, the concept of smartness becomes dynamic. This definition, taking into account city's performance, is able to sustain the entrepreneurship milieu of a city.

Smart Environment

The aim of the research was to explore young people's habits and attitudes regarding visiting urban green places and ICT use in park settings. A multi–method design involving in–depth semi–structured interviews (n=34) and questionnaire (n=246) was applied. The qualitative research findings were used to prepare instruments for the quantitative stage, and to develop a model of park–visiting behavior of young park users. Most participants visited parks few times per month, usually during the afternoons, accompanied with someone. The main motives for park visits were related to the nature, while the main drawbacks were lack of spare time and bad weather. The most popular activity in parks was conversation. The participants rarely used ICT devices in parks. No significant difference was found regarding subjective wellbeing indicators and frequency of park visits, but positive change in mood was observed after visiting parks. Attitudes towards urban parks were grouped around three distinctive factors: Management, Use and Preferences, explaining 14% of variance of park visiting behavior.

Building Smarter Cities through Social Entrepreneurship

The objective of the present study is to examine the extent to which social ventures are able to increase the “smartness” of cities. To achieve this goal, we adopt a qualitative approach using a case study method to obtain valuable insights about different characteristics and strategies of Cais (a non-profit association dedicated to helping disadvantaged people in urban areas). Through our analysis of Cais's activities, we assess whether its social interventions match the dimensions proposed by Giffinger et al. (2007) to rank smart cities' performance; specifically, it has smart: economy, people, governance, mobility, environment, and living. The research shows that the action pursued comprises elements from all the above-mentioned dimensions. Further, the analysis reveals that Cais reinforces the smartness of the city in which it acts (in terms of attributes such as living, economy, people, and environment).

A Qualitative Analysis of Social Entrepreneurship Involving Social Innovation and Intervention

Social entrepreneurship is emerging as an innovative approach for dealing with complex social and environmental needs, and is an important lever for the development of a sustainable society. Social entrepreneurship and related concepts have had a growing attention in the academy, giving rise to dissimilar approaches in the United States of America and in Western Europe. Despite the importance of the Third Sector in Portugal, it has been difficult to set ideal definitions for social entrepreneurship, social entrepreneur and social enterprises. By means of a qualitative study involving four Portuguese social ventures, this chapter identifies contemporary socio-cultural and economic factors that foster social innovation and intervention in Portugal, and contributes to understand the role of social entrepreneur in this context.

The Perception of the Effect of Tourism on the Local Community before the Ibiza Smart Island Project

The perceptions that residents had towards aspects linked to tourism development on the island of Ibiza is measured. In 2011 fieldwork which asked the extent of agreement with several statements was carried out. A descriptive analysis was carried out on the data obtained to determine the average valuation on various items and cross tabulations to see if there are differences between the five municipalities of the island. The results show that there is a high valuation of the economic benefits and tourism is considered to be very important, but they are half-hearted or critical towards the rest of the impacts. In addition, there are no significant differences between the five municipalities. Ibiza is a single tourist destination and works as one single social unit. In 2015 the Ibiza Smart Island project was launched, with smart city and smart destination elements, to solve the problems that affect residents and tourists.

Smart City Governance

Smart governance is one of the characteristics of smart cities, having its roots in e-government, in the principles of good governance, and in the assumptions of citizens' participation and involvement in public decision-making. This chapter aims to answer the question: “What smart governance practices are being implemented in smart cities” through an extensive literature review in the areas of e-government, good governance, smart cities and smart governance, and content analysis of the websites of seven smart cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Manchester, Singapore, and Stockholm. The objective was to identify the presence of factors related with e-participation; e-services; and public administration functioning on the cities' websites. The chapter ends with directions for future research and the conclusion that all the smart cities analyzed presented some factors related with smart governance, but with different levels of development and application.

Exploring the Dynamics of an Energy Service Venture

This paper describes the development of a system dynamics model for exploring and learning about the dynamics of an energy service company (ESCO) which business is based on energy performance contracting (EPC). The simulation of that model provides a helpful basis for analysing and explaining the development of key variables, and for accelerating learning on the managerial processes that are critical for the success of the venture. The simulation of the modelled firm produces an overall insignificant market value added mainly due to long sales cycles, indicating a low probability of success. The model is sensitive to changes in the word-of-mouth contact rate parameter which suggests that effective management interventions should consider initiatives that accelerate word-of-mouth among EPC adopters and prospects.