Does the perception of smart governance enhance commercial investments? Evidence from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou

This study explores how the perception of specific aspects of smart governance affects the business environment as to attract investment. To this end, we used a survey design and collected data from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou. A total of 500 responses from different industries and companies were obtained and then empirically analyzed using ridge regression and intermediary effect models. We found that the perception of smart governance enhances investment due to strong governance and abundant business opportunities. Natural sustainability attracts investment directly because, when cities become smart, they tend to improve their sustainability and attract talent and capital inflows. This external participation has a direct impact on enterprise investment because it creates more business opportunities. An improved social credit system represents the comprehensive progress of the business environment and positively mediates smart governance and investment. This is the first study to combine the key elements of smart governance, the development stage of smart governance, and various dimensions of the business environment to analyze the influence of smart governance perceptions on commercial investments.

Invite everyone to the table, but not to every course: How Design-Thinking collaboration can be implemented in smart cities to design digital services

Innovative collaboration strategies are a promising tool for fostering the governance of smart cities while acknowledging citizen centricity. During implementation, however, determining the number and background of the involved actors is challenging. The Design-Thinking (DT) approach appears suitable for addressing this issue as it offers a concrete and adaptable course of action. The present contribution involves a study on implementing DT principles in a German health resort and identifies three critical components: (1) team, (2) process, and (3) workspace. Our use case is an adaptable project- and workshop plan that encourages the implementation of DT collaboration in smart cities when designing digital services. Our results provide initial guidelines on how to involve diverse actors, when to integrate trained DT coaches, and how to design collaborative innovation in a digital way. The practice-oriented insights gained in the study can be applied, adapted, and discussed in other smart cities and citizen-centered projects.

Smart urban governance: an alternative to technocratic "smartness"

This paper argues for a specific urban planning perspective on smart governance that we call "smart urban governance," which represents a move away from the technocratic way of governing cities often found in smart cities. A framework on smart urban governance is proposed on the basis of three intertwined key components, namely spatial, institutional, and technological components. To test the applicability of the framework, we conducted an international questionnaire survey on smart city projects. We then identified and discursively analyzed two smart city projects-Smart Nation Singapore and Helsinki Smart City-to illustrate how this framework works in practice. The questionnaire survey revealed that smart urban governance varies remarkably: As urban issues differ in different contexts, the governance modes and relevant ICT functionalities applied also differ considerably. Moreover, the case analysis indicates that a focus on substantive urban challenges helps to define appropriate modes of governance and develop dedicated technologies that can contribute to solving specific smart city challenges. The analyses of both cases highlight the importance of context (cultural, political, economic, etc.) in analyzing interactions between the components. In this, smart urban governance promotes a sociotechnical way of governing cities in the "smart" era by starting with the urban issue at stake, promoting demand-driven governance modes, and shaping technological intelligence more socially, given the specific context.

Evaluation of smart and sustainable cities through a hybrid MCDM approach based on ANP and TOPSIS technique

Significant efforts are being performed to make cities smarter and more sustainable. Therefore, there is a need to compare these efforts using evaluation frameworks. According to the literature review, the basic dimensions of smart cities are generally evaluated with the criteria of regional competitiveness, transportation, information and communication technology, economy, natural resources, human and social capital, quality of life and participation of citizens in the management of cities. In this paper, Analytical Network Process (ANP) is used to weight smart and sustainable city criteria. According to the results, while 'smart living' is the most important characteristic with a 35,459% priority, 'smart governance' is the last with 5,738%. The study covers 44 cities around the world and comparisons were made by TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution). According to the results, Tokyo, London and New York are in the top three in the overall ranking. But none of these cities is among the top five in terms of smart governance, mobility and environmental dimensions. According to the results obtained, the article provides some recommendations for the cities. These results aim to help cities understand their situation relative to other cities and to see areas where policymakers need to strengthen.