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Digital transformation is one of the key concepts attached to the smart cities’ domain. The requirement to enhance strategically the way that business is delivered around different areas is a critical milestone for the digital transformation agenda and also for business performance management. In this short position chapter, we are focusing on the area of healthcare and we are providing key insights and lessons learned from Saudi Arabia. The main contribution of the chapter is a structured discussion on a digital healthcare strategy in the context of smart cities.

The impact of education and research skills on the strategic digital transformation of education is straightforward. In this context, the Saudi National Institute of Health plays a pivotal role in the design and implementation of a resilient and robust strategy for the development of skills and competencies to young health professionals. In this chapter, the authors provide a brief overview of the Vision 2030 in Saudi Arabia and its basic priorities in the areas related to the Education and Research in the healthcare domain. The authors also elaborate on the key plans and initiatives undertaken by the education and research skills directory of the Saudi National Institute of Health (SNIH) towards transformative learning with impact on the implementation of the Vision 2030.

The recent debate on smart cities research is challenged by the arrival of brand-new technologies and new ideas on their social impact. Beyond the hype and the expectations, the next generation smart cities research has to be grounded on the lessons learnt and the experience of the current extensive implementations of smart cities projects worldwide. Additionally, it is required to revisit the basic assumptions for the added value of smart cities research to the strategic blueprints around the world. This chapter is aiming to communicate a new agenda for future smart cities research including social, economic, technological, and community factors. The main contribution is organized around a framework that intends to integrate the technology sophistication, the human and social dynamics, and the strategy orientation of smart cities.

Saudi Arabia’s government’s dedication to modernizing and improving the country’s educational system has resulted in profound changes to the country’s educational environment. A key component of societal development, economic prosperity, and preparing the next generation for a changing environment is education. This chapter charts the historical development, emphasizing significant events and difficulties encountered at every educational level. The chapter describes the significant increase starting in the 1950s, focusing on worldwide standards while upholding moral principles, from its origins in Islamic studies to King Abdulaziz Al-Saud’s creation of a formal education system. Significant progress persisted into the 2000s, especially in the area of women’s education. This chapter also discusses the implication of Vision 2030 in Education and Research skills and provides significant insights for the elevation of the quality and the impact of education toward resilient social inclusive economic development in Saudi Arabia.

This chapter examines how innovation and research are essential to the advancement of science, the economy, and society. We examine the current status of scientific research in Saudi Arabia, highlighting issues like financial limitations and a lack of skilled researchers. We emphasize how important it is to develop the next generation of scientists in order to transform existing practices and improve the state of scientific research in the country.

Proficiency in research and innovation is crucial for expanding the frontiers of knowledge, empowering scientists to tackle intricate problems, and advancing scientific rigor. These abilities also support the use of evidence in decision-making, enabling researchers to provide empirical data that inform practices and policies in a variety of industries. Sustained growth requires the formation of future leaders, who promote knowledge exchange and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Despite Saudi Arabia’s significant spending on science, problems still exist. Addressing governance deficiencies is demonstrated by the establishment of the Research, Development, and Innovation Authority in 2021. The nation has grown in the world’s scientific rankings, drawing eminent specialists and fostering cross-border cooperation. Still, there is room for improvement, especially when it comes to fostering a culture of research, improving financing sources, and encouraging international collaboration. It is imperative that these problems are resolved in order to avoid stagnation, guarantee ongoing innovation, and take advantage of chances for society’s progress.

The chapter ends with a call to action that highlights how quickly improvements must be made. Failing to do so runs the risk of stifling the advancement of science, preventing the creation of new technologies, and prolonging complicated issues. To lower risks, seize opportunities, and ensure that research and innovation continue to advance for the good of society, immediate action is necessary.

Talking about smart cities also entails talking about new ways of mobility. Various concepts compete for reimagining future mobility, most prominently connected cars, robo taxis, and other forms of shared mobility. New digital technologies, changing customer requirements, but also new competitors are dynamically affecting previous market logics. To stay future-proof in this new world of mobility, the automotive sector, which is an important nucleus for developing such mobility solutions, is currently undergoing fundamental digital transformation processes. Established car manufacturers have to find their path to choose out of the many possibilities on the rise. Against this backdrop, they face the major challenge to find an answer to the question: Who are we and who do we want to be in the future? Therefore, we argue that organizations’ digital transformation is highly entangled with questions on organizational identity and discuss digital transformation as a potential identity threat for established organizations.

We begin this chapter by introducing the concept of organizational identity. Afterward, we will continue with applying it to the practical context of car manufacturers: After depicting the major trends of digitalization in the mobility and automotive sector, we will focus on the digital transformation processes of established automotive companies and discuss their impact on organizational identity. Empirical illustrations of the Volkswagen case depict our theoretical considerations.

We provide theoretical ideas for better understanding the impact of digital transformation on organizational identity, as well as suggestions for practitioners concerned with organizations’ digital transformation processes.

This position chapter explains the importance of designing policies for smart cities. This chapter aims to provoke discussions that will allow further understanding of the smart cities policy agenda. It is inevitable for various smart cities actors to agree on ways to implement change in smartness. This is because of the different views on developing smart cities (or smart cities initiatives) that will ensure shared benefits for everyone. To achieve a wider understanding of how this might be achieved, the chapter raises the points of designing policy for smartness and the influence of governance on policy design. It explains what we mean by policy and governance and the link between them. Overall, the policy needs to be supported by a governance system, which is widely accepted – for example for truly smart cities, a governance system needs to evaluate the benefits through liveability; these are the environmental, societal, governance, and economic lenses. A liveability approach to the governance system can promote open and democratic processes to smartness.

Cities’ population growth goes in hand with the development of new technologies that are becoming the key factor of the Smart City (SC) concept. It allows the implementation of efficient management solutions, operation, and sustainable development of a city to face the challenges of urbanization and improve the services for the citizens and visitors.

The concept of the SC 5.0 was first presented in Svítek, Skobelev, and Kozhevnikov (2020), where the problems of the complexity of current cities due to rigid management processes, variety of infrastructure, and SC modules, systems, subsystems, and applications were described.

To prove the concept, several practical examples were developed to cover the topics: modeling in SCs, practical implementation of multiagent technologies, the approach of creating city ontology and the city knowledge base as the instrument of semantic interoperability, and visualization possibilities of Smart Evropská as a SC Testbed used for teaching purposes.

The new organizational structure is proposed based on knowledge graphs, and practical examples are shown. The applicability of knowledge graphs to be used in combination with data management platforms for monitoring SC key performance indicators (KPIs) and providing interoperability of services is presented.