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The Case of Region Marketing of a Greek Southwestern City: Building a New Image and Personality of Open Innovation and Creativity
George S. Spais (Hellenic Open University, Greece)
Copyright: © 2012
|Pages: 20EISBN13: 9781466603486|DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-314-0.ch001
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Abstract
The examination of the municipal broadband and building a “digital city” for a southwestern Greek city is the heart of this case study in terms of city’s repositioning through open innovation and creativity. The paradigm of the first successful Greek digital city (“e-Trikala”) shows to every Greek that the Digital City ICT applications can improve everyday life by simplifying public transactions in regional urban centers, reducing telecommunication costs, and by delivering new services related to the local way of life (Heeks, 2010). However, every SME has its own social, economic, geographic, or political characteristics (Foster & Heeks, 2010). For this reason, the digital city can vary from region to region, so that ICT applications enhance local characteristics rather than detract from them. The author’s objective is to create an independent case study that can be used as the basis for class discussion. The case of repositioning of Kalamata, a Greek southwestern city, as an open innovative and creative city through the new municipal broadband infrastructure presents a situation that requires the readers of this case study to develop and evaluate solutions. The case may be also meaningfully discussed, presented, or analyzed with reference to other cases. It can be used by itself without creating false impressions. In this case study, Kalamata’s municipal leadership believes that a short-term promotion campaign for the benefit of the city’s digitalization is enough to build a new image and personality for the city: the image and personality of an open, innovative, and creative city, an ideal location to visit, do business, and live. The development of a short-term promotion campaign in order to achieve the repositioning of a city is a major strategic pitfall. The municipal leaders must realize that transforming the city as an open innovative and creative city, needs a new philosophy. The achievement of such a strategic goal prerequires an overall transformation of all the protagonists (from citizens to municipal administrators to entrepreneurs) as the following strategic issues must be managed: the introduction of an open innovation model, the choice of an innovation scenario for the local economy, and the strategy in order to address the way of urban innovation through the municipal broadband infrastructure. However, the question remains whether transformative learning and building critical reflection are the paths for building a new image and personality for Kalamata as an open innovative and creative city.