Exploring the Pillars of Business Models for Smart Cities and their Applicability in Serbia

Abstract This paper focuses particularly on the pillars of business models for smart cities. The paper is based on the project Smart Sustainable District, and outlines the opportunities and limits of the application of certain guidelines in an extra-EU country, Serbia, through the Horizon Europe project UR-DATA. The Smart Sustainable District project started in 2021 and one of its outcomes was the publication of a ‘white paper’ that aims to describe principles, solutions, tools for the realisation of the SSD model in urban areas, constituting a methodological and operational support to public and private actors involved, for urban transformations in the SSD key. In the paper, objectives, trends, solutions, tools and some good practices are presented for the following three pillars of business models for smart cities: Collaborative models and symbiosis, promoting outcome based PPPP (public-private and people partnership), and sustainable co-production and co-management of both material and immaterial resources and goods. Innovative consumption patterns, including, for instance, attention to sustainability and local needs, sharing practices, collaborative consumption of goods and services, new “prosumption” practices. Modular systems for circular economy, an economy based on the maximization of resources over time through the re-design of both the property concept and products and services through their whole life-cycle, including processes and consumption models. Then, their application in Serbia, specifically/ with a specific analysis of the city of Nis, also comparing, as a benchmark, Italian and Serbian reference strategies and policies.