Identifying Strategic Planning Patterns of Smart Initiatives. An Empirical Research in Spanish Smart Cities

Abstract

The Smart Cities’ projects favor the improvement and efficiency in public services, as well as the dis-closure and access more information, offering extraordinary opportunities for cities to spark a new wave of wealth creation. However, despite the relevance and complexity of designing strategic planning for smart city development, it continues to be ignored. This research contributes to prior research through the analysis of the demographical and citizens profile of SCs, identifying key patterns in the strategic planning processes of the smart initiatives in city governments in order to ensure the success of SCs initiative implementation. To achieve this aim, this paper has sought to analyze strategic planning process in a number of Spanish SCs under the microscope examining a total of 1,635 smart initiatives with the aim at identifying patterns in the strategic planning design. Findings show that smaller-size cities with a higher proportion of older people usually perform formal strategic planning processes.