Title: A policy analysis of digital strategies: Brisbane vs. Vancouver

Authors: Tooran Alizadeh

Addresses: Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University, Nathan Campus, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia

Abstract: A growing number of cities around the world have now realised the need to strategically capitalise on the rapidly growing digital economy. In mid-2013, cities of Brisbane, Australia and Vancouver, Canada both released their 'Digital Strategy' documents to strengthen their economy by enhancing digital connections amongst citizens, business, and the whole city as a digital organisation. The paper critically investigates the digital strategies developed for the two cities to understand how they utilise the potentials of the digital economy in their respected cities and regions. The results identify fundamental differences in the two documents' core focus that firstly define different roles for the digital strategies in Brisbane vs. Vancouver, and secondly could highly affect the implications of the strategies for the two cities' overall economic development. Nevertheless, both Vancouver and Brisbane are still in the early days of implementing their digital strategies, and the paper has to be understood as a prelude to further empirical investigation.

Keywords: digital strategy; Australia; Canada; economic development; policy analysis; digital economy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJKBD.2015.071469

International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, 2015 Vol.6 No.2, pp.85 - 103

Received: 16 Jun 2014
Accepted: 25 Apr 2015
Published online: 29 Aug 2015 *

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