Evaluation of the smart city: Applying the dematel technique

Abstract

The smart city is a growing multi-dimensional and systematic urban model that offers smart, technological, and sustainable solutions for urban challenges and is separated into various conceptual main and sub-dimensions. In this paper, the smart city concept is addressed by developing a hybrid methodology consisting of two phases. In the first phase, a qualitative analysis is established to determine the smart city concept. In the second phase, the DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) technique is used to examine smart city focusing on the dimensions derived from the literature in the form of six main and 33 sub-dimensions. Data is collected by contacting ten academia experts through a questionnaire specifically designed; open-ended questions and DEMATEL technique assessments. Results indicated that both phases had different outputs. While technology was highlighted and possible managerial issues emerged in the qualitative section, on the contrary, in the quantitative section, ‘smart people’ has emerged as the most important predictor of the smart city while ‘smart governance’ was the least. By the DEMATEL, not only the most and the least important dimensions within each group revealed but also the causer and receiver effects of each dimension. Further, the results and implications of the study are discussed.