From Vision to Reality - Theories and Perspectives for Smart City Transformation

Advancing urbanization and the complex challenges it brings (including in the areas of sustainability, participation, and organization) make the transformation of cities into smart cities essential. This cumulative dissertation presents a holistic analysis of these dimensions and combines insights from 16 research papers.

The results show that sustainable innovations only have an impact if citizens are informed at an early stage and actively involved. It also becomes clear that new forms of leadership and cooperation are necessary to ensure social cohesion in the virtual space. Finally, the dissertation highlights that successful smart city transformations require flexible organizational structures that equally involve municipal administration, the local economy, and civil society in order to unlock technological potential.

Methodologically, the dissertation combines qualitative, quantitative, and multi-method approaches and provides solid insights for science and practice. The dissertation thus makes a theoretical contribution to information systems and also identifies concrete courses of action for municipalities and decision-makers, helping to make smart cities not only technologically but also socially sustainable and resilient.