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This chapter investigates the geographical variations and approaches that shape the implementation of smart city projects on a global scale. Recognizing the significant influence of contextual factors on smart city initiatives, this chapter aims to comprehend the dynamics that drive the objectives and approaches of smart city projects across different countries. This chapter provides an overview of the strategic and geographical factors that impact smart city implementation, considering organizational drivers and practices, such as the Hofstede model in context. It explores the role of citizen-based, technology-based, and decision-making-based development in smart city implementation. Moreover, this chapter examines the strategic, cultural, socioeconomic, and geographical differences that influence smart city projects worldwide. It analyzes the geographical influence and internal drivers of smart city projects, focusing on Europe, North America, Latin America, and East and South Asia. This analysis offers insights into diverse approaches to smart city development, encompassing top-down and bottom-up approaches. By examining various perspectives and experiences from smart city initiatives worldwide, this chapter sheds light on the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing smart city strategies in different contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the strengths and weaknesses of top‐down management in a university that has embraced globalisation with a strong market‐led ethos and to suggest the ways in which adjustments might be made to top‐down management processes.

The paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of top‐down management by drawing upon relevant literature and further explores its related problems through a case study of a department in the universities of one country.

Several studies have concluded that top‐down management through its exercise of direct power is still a preferable means of reducing the chaos resulting from teachers caught up in de‐stabilising and confusing change processes. In the current globalisation context, it is also concluded that the success of top‐down management is predicated upon a willingness or readiness of the faculty to allow it to exist.

Although this paper explores the strengths and weaknesses simply through literature, it provides a case study to understand the problems with top‐down management in higher education. The case study illustrates some of the issues that may or may not be proved by ensuing or larger‐scale research to be generalisable, but for the specifics of this case the issues discussed would appear to be important.

This paper recognizes the importance of top‐down management to higher education in the global society and sheds light on how to make top‐down management more efficient in higher education.

The paper examines the process by which the strategic direction of an organization is set. The paper asks if strategic direction is defined and set at the top of the organization and then trickled down or is it set by members making their own decisions based on well‐known rules and the organization's strategic direction is the aggregation of these decisions.

Individual in‐depth semi‐structured interviews were carried out with members of a professional services organization.

The research suggests that an agent‐based approach may more closely represent the process of strategic direction setting for certain kinds of firm than does the traditional text‐book trickle down approach.

The research was carried out on a legal services firm. Future extensions of the research could be to other kinds of large professional services firms, for example accountancy practices.

While this research was carried out on a professional services firm the findings could be appropriate to other kinds of organization in the knowledge economy where individual agents carried out non‐routine tasks or tasks that require substantial individual judgment, for example: universities or research centers.

The usual text book model of strategy formulation and implementation suggests that strategy is defined by top management with objectives cascaded down through the organization. This research suggests an alternative approach where individual agents in the organization make decisions according to given rules and that the strategic direction of the organization is determined by the aggregation of these decisions. This suggests a new role for top managers as rule‐makers rather than objective‐setters.

The French higher education system has experienced reforms since the 2000s that gradually emphasized the executive power of universities and the centralization of decision-making. This culminated with the excellence initiatives (Idex) that concentrated 7.7 billion euros on only nine institutions to create “world-class” universities and made their leaders responsible for the local allocation of this substantial endowment. The universities’ executives had four years to complete changes in governance in order to see their institution permanently awarded the title and the funding of Idex. The hiring process is one of the elements that this policy impacted the most within these universities, enabling leaders to create new kinds of positions and control the hiring process. However, by looking at the hiring practices within three different Idex, we will show that collegiality did not disappear but rather it evolved: in the three cases, the closest colleagues have been marginalized but decision-making remained collective and in the hands of academics chosen by the university executives. Variations in the intensity of this evolution could be observed according to two dimensions. First, the scientific reputation of the university: the higher it is, the less collegiality is transformed. Second, the level of external pressures: the less collegial universities have relaxed their hiring practices after the evaluation that permanently granted them the label of Idex.

Enduring scholarly interest in the process of strategy-making stems from an abiding assumption that some ways of strategizing are more efficacious than others, and thus lead to higher firm performance in the long run; higher than luck alone would bring. Expressions of interest in and endorsements of the strategy process are abundant in the academic literature. As Pettigrew (1992) points out, Hofer and Schendel's pioneering definition of strategic management is processual in character emphasizing the development and utilization of strategy. Rumelt, Schendel, and Teece (1994) list the policy process question – how does policy process matter? – as a fundamental question of the strategic management field. Porter (1996) expresses preoccupation with the leadership and organizational challenges of managing the process. And, Hamel (1988) exhorts the field to devote as much attention to the conduct of strategy, i.e., the task of strategy making, as they have to its content. For senior managers and leaders, the question of how to make effective strategies stands usually at the top of their agenda. Not surprisingly then, the quest to uncover stable principles of good strategy making has attracted much support and interest over the years.

This article explores the relationship between teachers' perceptions of administrative practice in high schools and students' perceptions of the school, teachers and their own performance. It was found that where decision making is perceived by teachers as collegial, collaborative, co‐operative and consultative and providing adequate opportunities for participation it will be more likely to lead to positive student perceptions about their school and teachers, as well as perceptions about relationships and their own performance, than where decision making is more top‐down, executive or does not foster widespread involvement. Reinforcing these findings it was found that where teachers identify the main sources of stress in their schools as lack of support from management, poor leadership and ineffective decision‐making processes, students are much less favourably disposed towards their teachers or their own engagement and performance. Previously reported results have shown that such inclusive decision‐making practices may not be widespread in high schools.

It is suggested that change can be more successfully introduced from the bottom up than from the top down. Careful attention to the needs of subordinates is not enough; the employee must play a major part in decision taking. Detailed knowledge normally resides with those closest to the work, therefore why not use this knowledge to help run the organisation thus releasing managers for the vitally important activity of gaining a better understanding of how the enterprise can cope more successfully with the external environment?

This study aims to investigate the factors influencing team innovation from the perspective of strategic leaders. The study draws from the leader–member exchange (LMX) theory to propose that the quality of exchange the leaders perceive with the team members may provide a useful cue to identify the key elements and processes that may help drive team innovation.

A qualitative study using a hybrid approach was used, and a thematic analysis was performed. The data were based on 25 interviews collected from strategic leaders using the long interview technique.

The findings revealed themes and factors influencing innovation orientation among leaders and team members. Five themes were identified, namely modeling leadership behavior, autonomy and psychological safety for teams, organizational structure and technology, innovation and the decision-making process and innovation during times of uncertainty.

Because of the purposefully chosen sample of only leaders who were involved in the innovation process, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to corroborate the finding using a sample of teams involved in the innovation process.

A conceptual model is proposed with guidance for implementing innovation decisions and strategies in practice.

While the strategic leadership and team innovation literature emphasizes the interaction between leaders and team members, research on how these interactions unfold is still nascent. This paper fulfills these needs from a strategic leader’s perspective.

Schools often vary in how they balance teacher autonomy (TA) and administrative control, and research suggests that there may be several context-specific variables which may be influential. The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of program variables on the level of TA, administrative coordination, and administration-staff collaboration in English as a second or other language (ESOL) programs.

Administrators from 130 ESOL programs completed an empirical questionnaire aiming to understand the influence of variables on the level of TA, coordination, and collaboration. The following five variables were hypothesized to be influential based on the literature review: complexity/size; the variability of students’ needs; external pressures; teacher qualifications; and feasibility.

Top-down coordination was significantly influenced by four of the five of the program variables, and collaboration was predicted by two. However, program complexity/size was the only significant variable influencing the reported level of TA.

Teachers were not surveyed in this stage of the research. Follow-up research is planned to involve teaching staff.

Administrators may benefit from reflecting more on how they coordinate their program by considering the potential influence of context-specific variables highlighted in the research. The findings could influence administrators to adapt their management style potentially leading to a better working environment and improved student learning outcomes.

Previous research has looked at the influence of situational variables on leadership style, but research has not explicitly analyzed the effect of context variables on the level of TA and administrative coordination in educational programs.