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This study aims to assess the readiness of both citizens and the government for digital participatory planning (DDP) as a contribution to the undergoing transformative shift toward smart and sustainable cities to address the challenges posed by rapid urbanization. While much attention has been devoted to leveraging technology to mitigate these challenges, there has been a relative lack of emphasis on engaging stakeholders in the planning process in a smart and inclusive manner. DPP stands as a cornerstone for the development of sustainable and smart cities. However, before DPP can be effectively implemented on the ground, it is crucial to assess the city readiness for DPP to ensure its success. This assessment is undertaken as part of Oman's broader initiative to transition into sustainable smart cities in alignment with the goals outlined in Oman Vision 2040.

A generic evaluation framework was identified, validated and customized to the local context by experts using the pile sorting technique based on the social constructivism theory. Then, the revised framework was used to evaluate the readiness of a sample of local citizens and government officials in Oman for the DPP concept.

The inferential statistical analysis revealed that citizens are willing to participate in DPP when trust and transparency with policymakers are enhanced. On the government side, the results showed that there is adequate infrastructure that can enable DPP, and planners have a positive attitude toward DPP provided that trust in citizens' opinions is strengthened. This study concludes with a roadmap for preparation for DPP implementation in smart sustainable cities mandated by Oman Vision 2040. The findings and roadmap can inform policy development, decision-making and urban planning practices toward more inclusive, participatory and technologically enabled urban environments.

The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by emphasizing the significance of stakeholders' smart involvement in planning processes, social sustainability, evaluating city readiness for DPP and providing practical recommendations for DPP implementation in the context of smart sustainable cities. At a theoretical level, the study contributes a framework for assessing readiness for DPP and emphasizes that mutual trust is not only important for conventional participation practices but it is also essential for smart citizens. This study argues that a building or a city is not sustainable unless it is seen as such by its stakeholders, including the end users. Therefore, effective and smart involvement of the citizens in smart city planning is a precondition for the success of the future cities.

The rise in the urban population has led to an increase in the magnitude of inequalities within the community. Smart city is an evolution of cities with technology trying to facilitate modern urbanization complexities. Success of establishing smart city initiatives can be considered as a social transforming quest with technology reaching goals at individual and collective levels, thus citizen engagement is critical in heavy technological-reliant projects. This study aims to investigate the potential of improving quality of life through a citizen-centric approach to smart city development in urban cities of Sri Lanka.

The study was based on qualitative methods where information was gathered from 20 citizens residing across 9 provinces of the smart city initiatives based on the City Competitive Index rankings. Six-dimensional smart city model was used as a theoretical lens.

Time management issues, well-being and bleak atmosphere were identified as key challenges; Citizen-centric approaches in Sri Lanka were not satisfactory, and there was room left for improvement of quality of life. Cultural integration and socio-cultural readiness were unique findings, whereas the need for smart education was dominant to overcome challenges in progressing in citizen-centric smart city initiatives.

The results of the study would provide comprehensive knowledge through theoretical and academic contributions in developing countries. At the same time, policymakers, the community at large, government and service providers will primarily benefit from the practical implications of the study.

The study recommends focusing on a tailored smart educational approach, feedback mechanisms and sustainable policies to facilitate the progression of smart cities. Novel findings of cultural integration, socio-cultural readiness and safety should be focused more to ensure the success of smart cities in the South Asian context.

This study aims to examine the effects of technology-, organisation- and environment-readiness, smart economic development, change valence, social cohesion and quality of life on citizenship in the context of smart cities.

The study employed a customized questionnaire which was completed by 280 residents of China’s first-tier cities. This study tested the framework using the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique.

The results indicated that smart economy development, social cohesion, change valence, technological readiness, organizational readiness and environmental readiness have a significant impact on the quality of life. Quality of life has a positive impact on citizenship.

This study adds new insights to smart city academic discussions. The study addresses a critical gap identified in existing literature which urges the need for a balance between user-centric, organization-centric and technology-centric approaches. It offers a fresh perspective on how the smart economy, social cohesion and readiness factors are interlinked. These elements together shape urban living experiences. For policymakers and urban planners, our findings provide clear guidance. They highlight the complex dynamics that must be considered to build more unified, inclusive and sustainable smart cities.

This study aims to comprehend the smart city–built environment’s (SCBE) effect on citizens’ quality of life in the smart cities of a developing country such as India. This study also sought to investigate the moderating effect of technological anxiety on the association, as mentioned earlier.

This study’s hypotheses were tested using data from 494 sample respondents who lived in the top five smart cities of India using partial least square-based structural equation modeling.

This study validated five dimensions of an SCBE, including smart governance, smart economy, smart people, smart transportation, smart environment and smart living, and demonstrated a favorable connection between a SCBE quality of life. This study confirmed that technology anxiety strongly moderates the relationship between the built environment of smart cities and citizens’ quality of life.

This study is a pioneering effort that explores the relationship between SCBE and the quality of life of its residents and the moderating effect of technology anxiety on this relationship.

This study aims to understand and explain factors that influence how, when and under which conditions local governments adopt digital technologies for citizen collaboration. It discusses what these findings mean for city digital twin adoption.

This research uses the systematic literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) process to collect and evaluate evidence needed to answer the research questions. It uses the technology–organisation–environment (TOE) framework and proposes an additional dimension: “stakeholders” as the analytical framework.

Critical influential factors identified include the technology dimension: security and privacy; organisation dimension: top management support; environment dimension: political influence; and stakeholders’ dimension: technological experience.

This research extends the TOE framework and comprehensively analyses those factors which relate to citizens but significantly impact local government’s decision to adopt digital tools for collaboration purposes. This research posits that in the context of local government technology adoption for collaboration, both the organisation and stakeholders’ dimensions are critical.

This research contributes to the government-citizen discourse and provides a constructive understanding of technological transformation in collaborative planning. The findings are helpful for local governments, researchers and geospatial industries as they offer a critical understanding of digital technology adoption, particularly city digital twins, for collaborative planning.

This study extends the TOE framework to include aspects relating to citizens. It provides a nuanced understanding of the influential factors and intricacies of technology adoption by local governments for citizen collaboration. It also discusses relevant issues of city digital twins’ adoption by local governments for citizen participation.

This paper aims to present the results of a project deployment on voluntary data exchange between a municipality and commercial entities built on the Commitment-Trust theory. The research also discovers whether data sharing can be a vital instrument to foster city socio-economic development.

Inspired by the engaged scholarship approach, this research explores the economic and operational results of data integration from two different information sources, the legislation impact and the effects on citizens as final beneficiaries. Over a period of 27 months, the authors observed changes the voluntary data sharing brings in traditional interaction between multiple ecosystems. The impact of positive and negative factors was validated via 12 exit interviews with key stakeholders.

Voluntary data sharing is driven by parties’ goodwill to improve public services for residents, the organisations gain tremendously much more benefits than they can do separately on their own. When the parties commit to voluntarily share data, this increases trust in each other and the responsibility of each data contributor. This research proposes that the Commitment-Trust theory is well-replicable for the government-to-business relationship.

This research contributes to the current body of knowledge of voluntary data exchange between different ecosystems, especially between a government and its environment. This paper presents a relevant project deployment from an emerging economy and its consequences for a city municipality, businesses and residents.

The aim of this study was to map and scope a body of literature on the interplay between public value management (PVM) and digital transformation (DT), clarify the concept of PVM in DT, and identify knowledge gaps by using a scoping review methodology.

A scoping review was conducted, drawing on the framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) and Levac et al. (2010). A total of 54 publications on the interplay between PVM and DT were selected for the final analysis from the Web of Science, Scopus, and Dimensions databases.

We found that PVM in DT is a relatively unexplored topic and that additional research is needed to focus on the role of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, especially in the context of local and regional governments. We also found that researchers have a limited conceptual understanding of PVM and DT.

This article makes two main contributions. First, although PVM and DT have contributed to public value research, our findings show a need for more systematic knowledge of these complementary but distinct approaches. Second, this study provides a valuable addition to the developing body of research using the scoping review methodology in PAM literature.

While the causes of migration across a range of diverse societies have been studied in the extant literature, a systematic study encapsulating the extant literature pertaining to the push and pull factors for the phenomenon of migration has not been conducted so far. The purpose of this study is to present a gist of the push and pull factors that are responsible for migration patterns across different contexts.

Inferences from the literature review and documentary analysis show that, on the one hand, the push factors for migration entail the enforced reasons like natural causes, wars, health and the like; the pull factors are, by and large, the affirmative ones related to better job opportunities, anticipation of improved well-being, etc.

It may also be deduced that both the categories of migration causes are analyzed at the individual, group, societal as well as regional levels.

Hitherto, the migration research has focused on understanding the antecedents and consequences of migration in temporal–spatial context, but a syncretic understanding of the push and pull factors behind migration vis-à-vis smart cities is required. The present study seeks to fill this gap. Besides contributing toward the mainstream literature on migration in general, the present study also adds to the literature pertaining to the specific factors responsible for migration patterns.

The aim of this study is to propose a governance model and key performance indicators on how policymakers can contribute to a more accessible, inclusive and sustainable mobility within and across smart cities to examine sustainable urban mobility grounded on the rational management of public transportation infrastructure.

This study employed desk research methodology grounded on secondary data from existing documents and previous research to develop a sustainable mobility governance model that explores key factors that influence future urban policy development. The collected secondary data was descriptively analyzed to provide initiatives and elements needed to achieve sustainable mobility services in smart cities.

Findings from this study provide evidence on how cities can benefit from the application of data from different sources to provide value-added services to promote integrated and sustainable mobility. Additionally, findings from this study discuss the role of smart mobility for sustainable services and the application for data-driven initiatives toward sustainable smart cities to enhance mobility interconnectivity, accessibility and multimodality. Findings from this study identify technical and non-technical factors that impact the sustainable mobility transition.

Practically, this study advocates for the use of smart mobility and data-driven services in smart cities to improve commuters' behavior aimed at long-term behavior change toward sustainable mobility by creating awareness on the society and supporting policymakers for informed decisions. Implications from this study provide information that supports policymakers and municipalities to implement data-driven mobility services.

This study provides implications toward behavioral change of individuals to adopt a more sustainable mode of travels, increase citizens’ quality of life, improve economic viability of business involved in providing mobility-related services and support decision-making for municipalities and policymakers during urban planning and design by incorporating the sustainability dimension into their present and future developments.

This paper explores how urban transportation can greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provides implications for cities to improve accessibility and sustainability of public transportation, while simultaneously promoting the adoption of more environmentally friendly means of mobility within and across cities. Besides, this study provides a detailed discussion focusing on the potential opportunities and challenges faced in urban environment in achieving sustainable mobility. The governance model developed in this study can also be utilized by technology startups and transportation companies to assess the factors that they need to put in place or improve for the provision of sustainable mobility services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected around 216 countries and territories worldwide and more than 2000 cities in India, alone. The smart cities mission (SCM) in India started in 2015 and 100 smart cities were selected to be initiated with a total project cost of INR 2031.72 billion. Smart city strategies play an important role in implementing the measures adopted by the government such as the issuance of social distancing regulations and other COVID-19 mitigation strategies. However, there is no research reported on the role of smart cities strategies in managing the COVID-19 outbreak in developing countries.

This paper aims to address the research gap in smart cities, technology and healthcare management through a review of the literature and primary data collected using semi-structured interviews.

Each city is unique and has different challenges, the study revealed six key findings on how smart cities in India managed the COVID-19 outbreak. They used: Integrated Command and Control Centres, Artificial Intelligence and Innovative Application-based Solutions, Smart Waste Management Solutions, Smart Healthcare Management, Smart Data Management and Smart Surveillance.

This paper contributes to informing policymakers of key lessons learnt from the management of COVID-19 in developing countries like India from a smart cities’ perspective. This paper draws on the six Cs for the implications directed to leaders and decision-makers to rethink and act on COVID-19. The six Cs are: Crisis management leadership, Credible communication, Collaboration, Creative governance, Capturing knowledge and Capacity building.