Stakeholders’ readiness in the development of an Islamic smart city

Abstract

Background - Smart City integrates systems with the latest technologies to enable fast track of information and decision making by individuals, government, businesses, and public. Smart City connects people and information to manage public amenities, control crime rates, enhance services effectiveness, create vibrant, competitive, and innovative cities, and improve quality of life. Islamic Smart City can be defined as a smart city that incorporates the Islamic Syariah from Al-Quran and Hadith as a way of life; and impart the main component of Islamic Syariah compliance in individual and organisational behaviour aspects such as ethics, cleanliness, trust, security, and others. This research aims to explore the stakeholders’ readiness in four aspects of technology, human, institutional and Islamic factors, which are important in the development and implementation of the Islamic Smart City. Methods – This qualitative research design collected data through interviews with 20 selected stakeholders. Results– The findings provide the state government with insights into stakeholders’ readiness, which is crucial to the development of Islamic Smart City. The findings also show that the stakeholders’ readiness in the technology is high; but it is lacking in the Institutional and Islamic factors. Conclusion: This research provides insights that the development of Islamic Smart City requires major concern such as ensuring the stakeholders’ readiness for technology, human factors, the institutional and the Islamic factors are met.