A Comparative Analysis of Seven Smart City Development Projects: Institutional, Economic, Technical, and Policy Perspectives

Abstract

This paper argues for the use of a multifaceted, and contextualized approach to smart city development by unpacking how individual smart city initiatives have planned and implemented diverse projects based on their distinct environments, stakeholders, and goals. We evaluated and compared the institutional, economic, technical and policy characteristics of seven smart city initiatives (Montgomery, San Diego, New York City, Calgary, London, Vienna, Singapore). Our findings demonstrate three principal implications in smart city development. First, the surveyed smart cities established concrete cases for the use of different project development models in terms of leadership and governance styles, adoption of smart city applications, and planning and management strategies. Second, such differences stemmed from the multifaceted interactions that link environment, stakeholders, and goals. Finally, knowledge management (KM) played a crucial role in ensuring the accumulation and transferability of organizational and policymaking infrastructure within and between smart city initiatives.