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The smart city process encompasses many features. The two chapters before this has succinctly introduced the concepts and some parts that relate to smart city. The process in implementation is dissected in this section of the book. It starts from the conceptualisation of the process to further definitions of the subject. Also, traits attributed to smart cities are explained in smart environment, economy, governance, living, people and mobility. Urbanisation brings along with it several features and terminologies. One of which is smartisation fused into the smart city process. The smartisation of the city system aim to bring developments in making the city wireless and developing smart families at the same time. Also, there are smart general administrations and improvement of social administrations, development of smart transportation, improvement of smart medicinal treatment, develop-ment of smart city administration, development of green city, and development of smart vacationer focus. Other smart city processes include the drivers, barriers, and benefits.

Contemporary debate is increasingly focused on ICT and sustainability, especially in relation to the modern configuration of urban and metropolitan areas in the so-called smartization process. The purpose of this paper is to observe the connections between smart city features as conceptualized in the framework proposed by Giffinger et al. (2007) and new technologies as tools, and sustainability as the goal.

The connections are identified through a content analysis performed using NVivo on official reports issued by organizations, known as industry players within smart city projects, listed in the Navigant Research Report 2013.

The results frame ICT and sustainability as “across-the-board elements” because they connect with all of the services provided to communities in a smart city and play a key role in smart city planning. Specifically, sustainability and ICT can be seen as tools to enable the smartization process.

An all-in-one perspective emerges by embedding sustainability and ICT in smart interventions; further research could be conduct through direct interviews to city managers and industry players in order to understand their attitude towards the development of smart city projects.

Potential approaches emerging from this research are useful to city managers or large corporations partnering with local agencies in order to increase the opportunities for the long-term success of smart projects.

The results of this paper delineate a new research path looking at the development of new models that integrate drivers, ICT, and sustainability in an all-in-one perspective and new indicators for the evaluation of the interventions.

The goals of the contemporary environment in this new era of the Internet of Things (IoT), digital technologies (DTs) and smartisation are to enhance economic, social and environmental sustainability while also concentrating on the citizens' quality of life. As these initiatives advance, more determination is required to offer effective approaches to the problem posed by the accomplishment of the Sustainable City Project in Nigeria as a developing nation. To address these problems and facilitate the process for Nigeria's major cities to become ‘smart cities’, universities, research institutions and other stakeholders must collaborate alongside. This chapter aims to establish a model or framework that addresses urban intelligence, social inclusion, resilience and technological innovation, mobility, urbanisation and residents' quality of life. The reviews of the characteristics and management of smart cities in developed countries were documented to serve as a comparison study of the cities in African sub-Saharan regions. This will assist in building models that can produce predictions about possible smart solutions in the areas of mobility, urban infrastructure and ecological problems brought on by climate change in African cities. This chapter brings attention to the body of knowledge by envisioning the benefits to the government and citizens in making appropriate decisions to enhance sustainable development, a better resilience environment, improved infrastructure, smart city environments and residents' quality of life. The study's implications centre on how the government could prioritise urban features and services as indicated in the smart cities framework.

Starting from industry 4.0 in Germany and followed by the New Strategy for American Innovation in the USA and the smartization strategy in Japan, developed countries are pushing nation-wide innovation strategies. Similarly, China is pursuing the Made in China 2025, and Korea announced the Manufacturing Industry Innovation 3.0 strategy. However, few researchers have identified the industrial structure that establishes the foundation of the 4th Industrial Revolution or have derived strengths and weaknesses to provide implications on policy formulation through quantitative comparison with developed countries. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the spillover effect of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry (the foundation of the 4th Industrial Revolution) and machinery·equipment industry (the foundation of smart manufacturing through convergence with ICT industry).

This study examines the industrial spillover effects of the ICT industry and machinery·equipment industry in the USA, Germany, Japan, China and Korea by using the World Input–Output Table from 2000 to 2014.

The results showed that backward linkage effect of the ICT Industry are high in the order of Korea≑China>Japan>the USA≑Germany, and forward linkage effect of the ICT industry are high in the order of Japan ≑> the USA≑Korea ≑> China ≑> Germany. Backward linkage effects of the machinery·equipment industry are high in the order of China>Japan≑Korea>the USA>Germany, and forward linkage effects of the machinery·equipment industry are high in the order of China>Korea>Germany≑Japan≑the USA.

China and Korea encourage active government investment in ICT and machinery·equipment industries, especially the intentional convergence between ICT and machinery·equipment industries is expected be generate higher synergy. The “innovation in manufacturing” strategy in the USA that utilizes its strength in ICT services seems appropriate, whereas Germany needs to revitalize the ICT industry to strengthen its manufacturing industry. Japan’s strategy is to focus its ICT capabilities on robot sector. While the scope of innovation is limited, its synergy is worth expecting.

This study attempted to provide a theoretical approach to the determination of national policy strategies and provide practical implications for response to the impacts of the 4th Industrial Revolution, by comparing the inducement effects of ICT and machinery·equipment industries between major countries.

This study aims to present the post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of a smart building on a university campus.

Literature review was conducted to report on the smart building concept and POE. A total of 49 performance indicators, classified according to the technical, functional and behavioral elements, were investigated. A case study of a smart building in a university campus was selected to assess the users’ satisfaction through POE. A total of 90 users from the academic and administrative staff of the building were contacted through a Web-based questionnaire survey, while 35 usable responses were obtained.

The findings revealed that the occupants were satisfied with several aspects of the building performance indicators; however, issues related to ventilation, control of thermostats, amount of natural lighting through low-E windows and privacy were identified. Ultimately, the study reveals that, although the adoption of smart technologies has the potential to provide an excellent and comfortable work environment, the efficient selection and/or maintenance of the adopted technologies is crucial.

The concept of smart buildings is perceived to be the future of the industry. Despite this growing need for “smartization,” the performance of a building ultimately depends on how it satisfies the needs of those who use them. The value and implication of this study is inherent in its emphasis on the satisfaction of buildings users in futuristic designs of buildings. The study shows that POEs can be used to assess the satisfaction of users of smart buildings to understand what works, as well as what needs redesign or improvement.

This study explores whether machinery firms with a ‘hidden champions’ profile leverage Industry 4.0 practices to roll out smart services; whether this allows them to get a firm grip on their installed base; and whether it allows them to expand their international (service) business. The research is conducted based on exploratory, multiple-case study methods.

The author finds that the implementation of smart services can improve a machine tool builder’s hold on its installed base and expand the scope of its international (service) business. However, the study also finds that the ability to capitalise on this potential depends on a series of moderating variables. The study also concludes that there is a risk that smart services do not unlock a strong willingness-to-pay among potential customers.

It, therefore, calls into question several conventional wisdoms, such as the possibilities that Industry 4.0 offers for suppliers operating in business-to-business markets, and the receptiveness to smart services by buyers in such markets. Finally, it highlights the specific liabilities faced by hidden champions with regard to expanding their smart services business.

The chapter provides practical insights into the hurdles that industrial suppliers must overcome in their attempts to achieve uptake of smart services by customers, particularly within a cross-border context.

This paper aims to analyse the viability of production processes in the framework of three industries, referred to here as “automotive”, “machine-tool” and “other transport material”. This idea is of interest as a result of the cognitive convergence that has arisen from the widespread of information and communication technologies in the technical solutions used by most of the product fields that make up the manufacturing industry.

Under the framework of evolutionary theory and based on the cognitive composition of the technical solutions used by the industries studied, this paper has drawn up technology profiles for those industries from the viewpoint of formal logic. These profiles will help us to analyse their potential and difficulties so as to bridge the cognitive gap and enabling them to access new paths and set up processes to diversify their output. Interviews with company management staff and high-ranking experts have provided us with highly useful information to help us complete the theoretical reflection and check it against expected behaviour patterns.

The results confirm that firms in the industries studies find it difficult to drive forward diversification processes. The analysis provides a theoretical explanation for the empirical results that can be found in the literature on the extent to which path dependency processes explain technology dynamics.

The limitations of this study lie on the one hand in the small number of firms interviewed (it would be useful to extend the sample to include other medium- and high-technology industries to see whether the results are confirmed) and on the other hand, in the possibility that the Covid-19 crisis may affect results, investment decisions and access to financial resources, and thus, upset plans for diversification.

There is a consensus that decision-making in general, and in management in particular, is plagued by unpredictability, risk and uncertainty (Baldwin et al., 2005; Bergh et al., 2011). Managers making deliberate strategic choices – which usually require long time horizons and involve high risk (Perello-Marin et al., 2013) – need to know whether the competitive future of their firms lies mainly in product innovation (diversification), in process and organisational innovation, in the internationalisation of production, in mergers or in other, alternative paths (Sydow et al., 2009). This study presents empirical evidence of the possibilities and difficulties faced by firms based on their technology profiles. This is a complex approach that calls for more research effort if it is to become an option for enhancing resilience and flexibility at firms and strengthening their ability to react to changes. According to Raynor (2002) diversification, understood dynamically, provides a way for companies competing in especially turbulent industries to hedge against uncertain future reconfigurations of industry boundaries. Palich et al. (2000) state that compared with single-business firms, firms engaging in related diversification are able to exploit synergies across product units by consolidating business activities in manufacturing, marketing, raw material purchases and R&D, and thus, achieve both scale and scope economies.

The manuscript is absolutely original in terms of its approach and design and sets out to analyse industrial diversification processes on the basis of the cognitive characteristics of the technical solutions used by the various industries.