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In the face of escalating urban populations, the quest for seamless mobility in cities becomes increasingly complex, even in regions where transit options are presumably accessible within the developing world. The imperative to confront urban mobility challenges and forge sustainable cities equipped with adept transportation and traffic management systems cannot be overstated. This study delves into the technological paradigms employed by developed nations and evaluates their pertinence in the current milieu for mitigating urban mobility challenges. Simultaneously, it scrutinizes the deployment of smart city technologies (SCTs) within developing nations, investigating potential technological strides that can be harnessed to achieve sustainable urban transportation. By dissecting the intricacies of SCTs in developing countries, the study aims to unearth viable technological advancements that can be judiciously implemented to foster sustainable urban mobility. It aspires to provide nuanced recommendations for the integration of latent SCTs, unlocking untapped potential to augment the sustainability of urban transportation in the developing world. The research also elucidates strategies geared towards fostering international collaborations which are instrumental in propelling the development of cities characterized by equity and inclusivity. The study underscores the significance of a global alliance in overcoming urban challenges, emphasizing the need for shared knowledge, resources and experiences to propel the evolution of cities towards a more sustainable and equitable future. This research serves as a comprehensive exploration of the intricate interplay between technology, urbanization and international cooperation, offering insights and recommendations pivotal to steering the trajectory of urban development in developing nations.

As more and more cities adopt resilient, inclusive and sustainable principles, circular economy (CE) emerges as a critical ally in developing smart cities. The technology-driven environment of smart cities and CE's resource-efficient principles are perfectly compatible, overcoming challenges and highlighting benefits like increased resource efficiency. The integration of CE in smart cities is thoroughly analyzed in this chapter using VOSviewer and RStudio, tracing its history and pointing urban innovators towards a circular future. The categorization of obstacles to CE implementation in smart cities, the provision of knowledge about barriers and the facilitation of methodical solutions constitute a critical focus of research. Additionally, by analyzing pertinent literature, this investigation highlights the importance of integrating the concepts of the CE and the smart cities, illuminating the interdisciplinary nature of this field. This synthesis provides policymakers and planners with the knowledge they can use to advance sustainable urbanization effectively.

We seek to quantify the relationship between urbanization and economic growth in China using recent advances in econometric techniques.

This study adopts a smoothed instrumental variables quantile regression (SIVQR) estimator to obtain consistent estimates of the effects of urbanization on economic growth in China. Our approach accounts for the differential impacts of urbanization across the conditional distribution of economic growth while allowing for an identification strategy that addresses the endogeneity of urbanization. Our main findings reveal that ignoring urbanization endogeneity leads to inconsistent estimates of urbanization effects. Further, we find a positive relationship between urbanization and growth resembling an inverted U-shape. This supports the hypothesis that the beneficial effects of urbanization intensify at initial stages while diminishing beyond a certain threshold, due perhaps to weakening scale economies.

Our main results indicate that the individual productivity gains brought by urbanization outweigh the negative effects thereof that impede productivity, thus contributing to the economic growth in China. Further, we find that ignoring differential impacts of urbanization underestimates the beneficial effects of urbanization for provinces whose quality of governance is in the vicinity of the center of quality distribution. Ignoring the endogeneity of urbanization generates inconsistent estimates of the elasticity of economic growth with respect to urbanization. Finally, we estimate an inverted U-shape resembling relationship between urbanization and growth.

First, future studies would benefit from incorporating more data as provinces further east on the mainland become more urbanized and urbanization runs its course. Second, controlling the barriers to rural-urban mobility would contribute to the robustness of the estimated relationship between urbanization and growth once such data became available. Unveiling the impact of government-imposed barriers is key to designing optimal policies that help fuel economic growth in the country. Finally, future research could benefit from information on urbanization sources not considered here such as inter-provincial migration, as such data become publicly available.

Quantifying the beneficial effects of urbanization on economic growth can help guide the government in China to further fuel the growth through a set of relevant policy tools that promote urbanization.

Rural-urban migration in China lays the groundwork for economic advancement in recipient cities and economies, as it may induce scale economies. This can benefit both the economy at large and the migrants.

The SIVQR estimator accounts for potential heterogeneous effects of urbanization across the entire conditional distribution of growth while allowing for an identification strategy that addresses the endogeneity of urbanization. An additional distinguishing feature of the current study is our use of the most recent novel, provincial-level data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Our focus on a single country allows sidestepping issues arising from the inconsistency of the definition of urban across different countries while accounting for intra-country urbanization drivers intrinsic to China, such as natural features and geographic characteristics. Therefore, our approach has the potential to sidestep the bias resulting from the differences in mechanisms behind urbanization-growth relationships across different countries.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of characteristics of capitalism on environmental performance.

The authors analyzed a sample of 6,257 companies, based in 55 countries and 8 typologies of capitalism. The independent variables are the characteristics of capitalism, measured through five indicators: cooperation between employees and employers, index of economic freedom, local competition between industries, human development index (HDI) and quality of the governance environment. To measure environmental performance, the authors created an index composed of 20 indicators. Data were analyzed using panel data regression and dynamic panel of the generalized method of moments.

The results indicate that the characteristics of capitalism can shape the environmental behavior of companies. The authors find that in countries with better cooperation between employees and employers, more economic freedom, and competition between firms, in addition to better HDI and national governance, companies have higher environmental performance. When they are in more developed countries, companies have a greater environmental performance.

Managers must consider the country's characteristics of capitalism when making their environmental decisions and strategies. The findings invite governments to incorporate into their regulations mechanisms to protect other interest groups, not just shareholders.

Few studies have examined environmental performance, which is less susceptible to greenwashing. The metric for environmental performance measures the company's concrete effort in relation to environmental issues and not just the disclosure of information. Additionally, the authors examine characteristics of capitalism supported by Varieties of Capitalism, an approach still little explored in the environmental management.

The advent of the 21st century marks a pivotal era where rapid urbanization intersects with technological advancements, giving rise to the concept of smart cities. These urban environments harness information and communication technologies to improve service efficiency and enhance the quality of life. Parallel to this development is the emergence of circular economy (CE) models, recognized globally as an essential response to environmental challenges. This chapter delves into the integration of CE principles in smart cities, emphasizing a shift from traditional linear models towards sustainable, resource-efficient urban landscapes. Exploring the evolution of smart cities and CEs, this chapter highlights synergies and potential benefits of this integration while acknowledging significant challenges. These include technological, infrastructural, financial, policy-related and social–cultural barriers. Through a comprehensive analysis of literature, case studies and best practices, effective strategies to overcome these challenges are presented. This chapter emphasizes the roles of technological innovation, policy reform, stakeholder engagement and community involvement in driving this transformation. This chapter identifies future research areas and emerging trends, underscoring the profound impact of integrating CE principles in smart cities. This integration is pivotal for shaping sustainable and resilient urban futures, thereby redefining the paradigm of urban development in the modern era.

This paper aims to analyze how smart city construction affects destination competitiveness and elucidates the potential mechanisms of digital economy. Also, the regional heterogeneity of smart city construction’s influence on destination competitiveness is discussed.

Given the quasi-natural experiment characteristics of China's smart city construction pilot, this study applies a time-varying difference-in-differences approach using a panel dataset of 272 Chinese prefectural-level cities to examine the causal effects of smart city construction on destination competitiveness.

Results indicate substantial enhancement of urban destination competitiveness from smart city construction, with this effect escalating annually. Digital infrastructure and digital finance serve as influence mechanisms. The positive impacts of smart city construction on urban tourism competitiveness do not differ by geographic location, rather there are significant differences between cities of different administrative levels. The impact of smart city construction on destination competitiveness is more significant in low administrative level cities. The improvement of economic development level and innovation ability helps to exert the positive impact of smart cities on tourism competitiveness.

This study constructs a new panel data set for smart city construction and destination competitiveness based on multi-source data and posits a theoretical linkage among smart city construction, digital economy and destination competitiveness. This paper provides invaluable insights on how to boost destination competitiveness by creating smart cities and leveraging the digital economy. Tourism sectors should proactively engage in smart city construction and foster the digital transformation of tourism.

本文旨在分析智慧城市建设如何影响目的地竞争力, 并阐明数字经济的潜在机制。此外, 还讨论了智慧城市建设对目的地竞争力影响的区域异质性。

鉴于中国智慧城市建设试点的准自然实验特征, 本研究基于272个中国地级城市的面板数据集, 采用双重差分方法检验了智慧城市建设对目的地竞争力的因果影响。

研究结果表明, 智慧城市建设显著增强了城市目的地竞争力, 这种影响每年都在增加。数字基础设施和数字金融是影响机制。智慧城市建设对城市旅游竞争力的积极影响不因地理位置而异, 不同行政级别的城市之间存在显著差异。智慧城市建设对低行政级别城市目的地竞争力的影响更为显著。经济发展水平和创新能力的提高有助于发挥智慧城市对旅游竞争力的积极影响。

本研究基于多源数据构建了一个新的智慧城市建设和目的地竞争力面板数据集, 并在智慧城市建设、数字经济和目的地竞争之间建立了理论联系。本文就如何通过创建智慧城市和利用数字经济来提高目的地竞争力提供了宝贵的见解。旅游部门应积极参与智慧城市建设, 促进旅游业的数字化转型。

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar cómo afecta la construcción de ciudades inteligentes a la competitividad de los destinos y dilucidar los posibles mecanismos de la economía digital. Se aborda también la heterogeneidad regional de la influencia de la construcción de ciudades inteligentes en la competitividad de los destinos.

Dadas las características de experimento casi natural del proyecto piloto de construcción de ciudades inteligentes en China, este estudio aplica un enfoque de diferencias en diferencias temporales utilizando un conjunto de datos de panel de 272 ciudades chinas de nivel de prefectura para examinar los efectos causales de la construcción de ciudades inteligentes sobre la competitividad de los destinos.

Los resultados indican una mejora sustancial de la competitividad de los destinos urbanos gracias a la construcción de ciudades inteligentes, efecto que aumenta cada año. La infraestructura digital y las finanzas digitales actúan como mecanismos de influencia. Los efectos positivos de la construcción de ciudades inteligentes sobre la competitividad Del turismo urbano no difieren en función de la ubicación geográfica, sino que las diferencias significativas se producen entre ciudades de diferentes niveles administrativos. El impacto de la construcción de ciudades inteligentes en la competitividad de los destinos es más significativo en las ciudades de bajo nivel administrativo. La mejora del nivel de desarrollo económico y la capacidad de innovación contribuyen al impacto positivo de las ciudades inteligentes en la competitividad turística.

Este estudio construye un nuevo conjunto de datos de panel para la construcción de ciudades inteligentes y la competitividad de los destinos basado en datos de múltiples fuentes y plantea un vínculo teórico entre la construcción de ciudades inteligentes, la economía digital y la competitividad de los destinos. Este artículo ofrece un valioso conocimiento sobre cómo impulsar la competitividad de los destinos mediante la creación de ciudades inteligentes y el aprovechamiento de la economía digital. Los sectores turísticos deberían participar de forma proactiva en la construcción de ciudades inteligentes y fomentar la transformación digital del turismo.

Amid rapid global urbanization, cities confront many complex challenges, including sustainability, waste management, energy consumption and resource allocation. Two emerging paradigms – smart cities and circular economies (CEs) – have shown promise in addressing these issues. Smart cities utilize cutting-edge technologies like internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics to create interconnected, efficient urban ecosystems. Meanwhile, the CE model aims for a regenerative system focused on minimizing waste and maximizing the utilization of resources. However, these paradigms have rarely been studied in conjunction, resulting in a gap in the existing literature. This bibliometric analysis aims to bridge this gap by mapping the interdisciplinary research landscape that integrates smart cities and CEs. Specifically, the study identifies key thematic intersections, influential authors, leading academic journals and potential directions for future research. Through this analysis, we provide a comprehensive overview of the existing body of work and lay the groundwork for the evolution of this interdisciplinary domain.

The purpose of this paper is to test if the digital economy improves the quality of life of our residents. Furthermore, if this finding is confirmed, what would be the mechanism behind its effect? Does the impact of the digital economy on quality of life vary according to its level of development?

A comprehensive index of the digital economy, income gap and quality of life was constructed empirically based on data from 220 cities in China from 2011–2020. A multi-dimensional empirical analysis was conducted in this paper.

The analysis of the pathways of action shows that narrowing the income gap is an important mechanism through which the digital economy actively contributes to the quality of life. The results of the threshold model show that the “marginal effect” of the digital economy on quality of life is non-linear and increasing. The results show that after a series of robustness tests, including instrumental variables, the digital economy still significantly enhances people’s quality of life.

This paper reveals the intrinsic link between the digital economy and quality of life and provides a theoretical basis for further improving people’s well-being.

Encouraging the development of the digital economy is a useful way to improve the quality of life by narrowing the income gap.

Data analysis of the digital economy from 2011–2020 in China to get an insight into what would be the mechanism behind the digital economy improving the quality of life of our residents.

Smart urban governance research has progressed over the past few decades following changes and increasingly complicated city management difficulties. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to use a scoping review and bibliometric analysis to examine all the publications on smart urban governance, especially in Asia.

A total of 1,900 smart urban governance articles indexed in the Scopus database was analyzed through scoping review and bibliometric analysis. The articles were analyzed by the number of publications per year, contributing countries, subject areas, authors, cited documents, related issues and cited papers. Furthermore, VOSviewer was used to provide a visual analysis of the co-occurrence of keywords.

This study indicated that urban smart governance publications continue to increase yearly. Even though the area of analysis is Asia, the USA and China seriously contributed to the analysis. Therefore, the topic of smart urban governance has become a discussion for scholars in the international. From the Scopus database analysis, the top three subject areas are social sciences (28%), environmental science (20%) and medicine (16%). The synthesis using bibliometric analysis by VOSviewer obtained 13 clusters.

This study only focuses on the Scopus database and one specific topic, using one bibliometric analysis tool. Meanwhile, national and international index databases are not used.

This paper examined publication trends on smart urban governance. This paper provided a comprehensive analysis of topic-specific knowledge areas based on previous studies. Additionally, this paper suggested the direction of the development of smart urban governance in the future.