Understanding and Acceptance of Smart City Policies: Practitioners’ Perspectives on the Malaysian Smart City Framework

Seng Boon Lim,Tan Yigitcanlar,Md Farabi Yussoff Md Yussoff,Jalaluddin Abdul Malek

doi:10.3390/su13179559

Seng Boon Lim, Tan Yigitcanlar + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179559

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Abstract

Whilst a plethora of research exists on the smart cities and project performance evaluations, only few studies have focused on the smart city policy evaluation from the perspective of its acceptance by practitioners. This paper aims to generate insights by evaluating the smart city policy through a developing country case study—i.e., Malaysia. This study employed a questionnaire survey method for data collection and analyzed the data by using Fuzzy Delphi analysis. A group of 40 practitioners was gathered in a focus group discussion through purposive sampling. The main objectives of this survey were to identify the understanding and acceptance levels of the seven smart city domains and respective strategies that are outlined in the Malaysian Smart City Framework. The results disclosed that the practitioners possessed divergent levels of understanding and acceptance in terms of smart city domains. The study participant practitioners accepted all understanding and acceptance objectives of smart economy, living, people, and governance domains (expert agreement 75–92% and threshold d value 0.123–0.188), but rejected all objectives for both smart environment and digital infrastructure domains (expert agreement 55–74% and threshold d value 0.150–0.212). Along with this, acceptance of smart mobility was also rejected (expert agreement 56% and threshold d value 0.245). The findings reveal that considering all opinions expressing dissensus is essential when building more inclusive smart city strategies. This study contributes to the smart city discourse as being one of the first in capturing professional practitioners’ understanding and acceptance on a national level smart city policy by applying the Delphi method in the smart city context. Most importantly, the study informs urban policymakers on how to capture the voices and perspectives of the general public on national and local smart city strategy and initiatives.

Highlights

Based on these research questions, this study aims to evaluate the understanding and acceptance of practitioners from various sectors who are involved in smart city development in developing countries
This paper aims to generate insights into how this framework is perceived with professional practitioners
In order to do so, this study conducted an empirical investigation concerning the seven smart city domains planned as part of a top-down national policy of the Malaysian Smart City Framework (MSCF)

Summary

Introduction

Since the early 2000s, smart city development has been gaining global momentum. Many models or concepts have been formed, adopted, and evaluated [1]. The seminal smart city concept by [2] laid the basis for the formation of six smart city domains (i.e., smart economy, people, governance, mobility, environment, and living) and emphasized activities that would cultivate independent citizens. Many models have been adopted and adapted from the concept of [2], such as the smart cities wheel by [3], the initiative framework of the smart city by [4], the alternative framework for Sustainability 2021, 13, 9559.

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