Initiative towards “smart cities”, where digital technologies enable infrastructure, companies and inhabitants to interact and co-create value are increasing as a consequence of urbanization and digitalization. Indeed emphasis on smart cities has attracted considerable attention in research during the last decade and traditional B2B companies are increasingly providing smart city offerings. In most cases this includes investing in a digital platform where companies can share data with ecosystem actors, such as municipalities, infrastructure owners and utility companies, and build new value-adding services for diverse categories of customers. However, many companies are uncertain about their new role and ability to offer new service business models that would create, deliver and capture value from the digital platform. Research so far provide limited insights in on how actors develop new business models and their relationship with ecosystem partners in the smart city context. Thus, this study builds on platform theory with the purpose to enhance understanding how firms aligns ecosystem actor roles for smart city business models through digital platform. 

The research adopted an exploratory multiple case study design to capture insights from two industrial ecosystems in the housing and utility industries. To enhance understanding about how actors collaborate to develop smart city platforms, 35 semi-structured interviews were performed with different ecosystem actors, and were analysed using MAXQDA software. The preliminary findings reveal answers to questions like: what challenges are connected to smart city business models? And what value do different actors generate through digital platforms and how do they capture and distribute value? Further, we develop a framework connecting actor roles, to the design of the digital platform and associated business models contributing to the smart city. Thus, this study provides valuable insights to both academia and practitioners related to business models enabled by digital platforms in the smart city context.