Dear Colleagues,

The present special issue of Systems focuses on a specific aspect of smart cities, smart regions, and smart environments in general: their ability to create systems of innovation, cyber-physical systems, and user-driven systems of innovation in particular.

Smart cities and smart environments sustain the making of systems of innovation in many different ways. First, by enhancing networking. Within smart city environments and regions rich in smart infrastructures and e-services, networking takes place over different types of spaces, physical, social, institutional, and digital spaces. Heterogeneous networks thus created sustain the formation of innovation systems, by connecting people, infrastructures, objects, skills, institutions, and organizations. Second, by enhancing diversity. Cyber-physical systems enable filling the gaps in innovation resources by substituting the physical presence of innovation institutions by a digital presence. This is particularly important for less favored and developing regions in which key components of the innovation supply chain, such as funding, technology intelligence and specialized knowledge, are missing. Smart environments and cyber-physical systems can fill these gaps. Third, by digital tools and simulation environments. Such solutions facilitate new product development, customer engagement, ideas capturing, patent scanning, reducing development costs and enlarging the pool of ideas and resources (see also http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00221?gko=e5ecf ).

Cyber-physical systems of innovation emerge because innovation networks merge with Internet networks and the information flows of the World-Wide-Web. Such systems highlight a model of ‘innovation within smart environments’, which becomes possible thanks to smart technologies, social media, crowdsourcing, cloud computing, software platforms and applications. Innovation becomes more open and inclusive, available to all and attainable by all. Some key features of these hybrid systems are:

• Multiplication of innovation actors and nodes with the involvement of remote actors and virtual nodes. The number of actants in the innovation system rises geometrically as large numbers of suppliers and users become involved virtually and undertake innovation tasks.
• Spread of digital identities due to augmented reality and the Internet of Things, which makes all objects hybrid, combining a physical and a virtual identity. A sea of digital identities is redefining markets and marketing; using the web and social media, advertisers are enlarging markets using digital marketing techniques.
• Co-creation becomes mainstream and consumers turn into mediators of concept-development and co-producers of innovation. From ‘club of experts’ that has specific qualifications to ‘crowdsourcing’ which works with the power of the masses, groups of people with similar interests and goals come together and create commons.
• Rapid new product launch, creation of prototypes as early as possible; releasing early and often; gathering usage data and giving feedback into product design as often as possible; outsourcing whatever can be found elsewhere.
• Open intellectual property (IP) or innovation without IP, via free and open licenses. Commons-oriented licenses create goods that can be used universally, sharing licenses, and allowing the use of whatever is placed on commons and open platforms.

All these resources are solutions are to be found within smart cities and regions, where organizations, suppliers, and users interact over broadband networks and digital spaces.

In this framework, the aim of the special issue is to gather papers that discuss aspects of cyber-physical systems of innovation that emerge within smart cities and regions, and their contribution in addressing growth, sustainability, and quality of life problems.

The emphasis on challenges is particularly important for this issue. Instead of discussing the contribution of smart environment to cyber-physical systems of innovation in abstract, we would like to invite papers that discuss how digital networking, heterogeneous networks and online tools can contribute to regional growth and sustainability. For instance, such papers might focus on case studies how smart environments and city systems contribute to local and regional growth; how community awareness platforms promote networking for sustainability; how crowdsourcing extends the horizon of innovation by the engagement of a large number of actors and the wisdom of the crowd.

We welcome case studies, methodology focused papers, mainly papers on platforms applications and smart environments for innovation, as well literature review papers that cover an extended field of the relevant literature.

Dr. Christina Kakderi
Prof. Dr. Nicos Komninos
Dr. Panagiotis Tsarchopoulos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Smart cities
• Smart regions
• Smart environments
• Systems of innovation
• Strategies of innovation
• User-driven innovation
• Collaborative new product development
• Community awareness platforms
• Crowdsourcing
• Connected intelligence
• Online platforms
• Living labs
• Smart growth
• Smart specialization