Translating sustainable and smart city strategies into performance measurement systems

Abstract

This paper shows how sustainable and smart strategies can be implemented in cities and how these strategies influence, and are influenced by, performance measurement systems. Drawing upon the Foucauldian notion of governmentality, the authors present the case of Gothenburg in Sweden, where they interviewed the key actors involved in a new sustainability strategy. Translating strategy into performance measurement systems requires collaboration across organizational boundaries and considerations of financial goals and social and human aspects.

Keywords:

• Governmentality
• performance measurement
• smart cities
• strategy
• sustainability

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the city of Gothenburg, Mistra Urban Futures and Kristianstad University, Sweden. The authors are grateful for the comments on an earlier version of this paper by the participants of the IRSPM Annual Congress, 13–15 April 2016, in Hong Kong; the panel on ‘Smart city: Utopia or modern reality?’ at the 24th Nordic Academy of Management Conference, 23–25 August 2017, Nord University, Norway; and the 9th Conference on Performance Measurement and Management Control held 13–15 September 2017 in Nice, France.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sara Brorström

Sara Brorström is a Researcher, School of Business, Economics and Law, Gothenburg University, Sweden.

Daniela Argento

Daniela Argento is Senior Lecturer in Management Control and Accounting at Kristianstad University, Sweden.

Giuseppe Grossi

Giuseppe Grossi is Professor in Public Management and Accounting at Kristianstad University, Sweden; Professor in Accounting at Nord University, Norway; and Visiting Research Professor at Kozminski University, Poland.

Anna Thomasson

Anna Thomasson is Associate Professor in Public Management at Lund University’s School of Economics and Management, Sweden.

Roland Almqvist

Roland Almqvist is Associate Professor in Accounting at Stockholm Business School (SBS), Stockholm University, Sweden.