There are still misunderstandings and differing opinions about what a smart city (SC) is, and there are only of few publications available on what beneficial outcomes cities are anticipating from SC developments. This paper identifies nine anticipated benefits/value proposition components of smart city activities, based on a literature review. It then uses a comparative multiple case study analysis to investigate how value proposition components are present in the SC activities of six cities with demonstrated excellence: Amsterdam, Barcelona, London, Helsinki, New York, Vienna; and three with emerging excellence: Berlin, Budapest, Moscow. The study reveals the distribution of the components in each city for different years, then these annual activity portfolios are clustered. Four different types of smart cities emerge from the analysis: (1) The Green City – in which years of activities, cities are focusing on environmentally related objectives; (2) The App City – in which years of activities, cities are focusing on developing and rolling out platforms and ICT applications to provide Quality of Life improvements directly for citizens; (3) The Socially Sensitive City - in which years of activities socially sensitive activities are prominent; (4) The Participatory City – in which years of activities citizen engagement is in focus. The findings provide a more comprehensive explanation to the mono-dimensional and holistic strategic approach of smart cities.

关于什么是智慧城市（SC）仍然存在误解和不同意见，而且关于城市正在从SC发展中期待哪些有益成果的出版物很少。本文根据文献综述，确定了智慧城市活动的九种预期利益/价值主张组成部分。然后，它使用比较性多案例研究分析来调查价值主张要素在六个表现出色的城市中的SC活动中如何呈现：阿姆斯特丹，巴塞罗那，伦敦，赫尔辛基，纽约，维也纳；还有三个具有卓越表现的国家：柏林，布达佩斯，莫斯科。该研究揭示了各个城市不同年份的构成分布，然后将这些年度活动组合进行聚类。分析得出了四种不同类型的智慧城市：（1）绿色城市–在多年的活动中，城市将重点放在与环境有关的目标上；（2）App City –在多年的活动中，城市致力于开发和推出平台和ICT应用程序，以直接为市民提供生活质量的提高；（3）社会敏感城市-多年的活动中社会敏感活动非常突出；（4）参与型城市–多年来参与的活动都是公民参与的重点。研究结果为智慧城市的一维和整体战略方法提供了更全面的解释。城市正在集中精力开发和推出平台和ICT应用程序，以直接为公民提供生活质量改善；（3）社会敏感城市-多年的活动中社会敏感活动非常突出；（4）参与型城市–多年来参与的活动都是公民参与的重点。研究结果为智慧城市的一维和整体战略方法提供了更全面的解释。城市正在集中精力开发和推出平台和ICT应用程序，以直接为公民提供生活质量改善；（3）社会敏感城市-多年的活动中社会敏感活动非常突出；（4）参与型城市–多年来参与的活动都是公民参与的重点。研究结果为智慧城市的一维和整体战略方法提供了更全面的解释。