How can cities lead the way towards a sustainable, competitive and smart future?

As dramatic social and technological changes are occurring, cities around the world are facing the challenge of reconciling immediate competitiveness and long-term sustainability. The Smart City concept has received increasing attention as a new paradigm for sustainable growth. However, smartness and sustainability may have only some common aspects. A Smart City does not necessarily have to be a city which develops in a sustainable way. In particular, there is a dichotomy within the concept of Smart City between the goals of competitiveness and sustainability. This paper compares sustainability indicators and smart/competitive indicators for cities to find out when they complement or contrast. The scope is to investigate the conditions in which the smartness of a city can guarantee its being sustainable, competitive, or simply smart.