Today, smart cities offer many significant benefits. As a result, the smart city is usually described in highly benign terms, and it is often uncritically assumed that its implementation must lead to ...widescale improvements, at all levels of society. Yet, while smart cities undoubtedly offer advantages, they also carry associated risks and dangers which could outweigh the benefits. This raises the important question of to which extent the ordinary citizen is aware of these risks and dangers. This study sets out to examine this question. While the ‘downsides’ of smart cities have been the subject of research over the past few years, there have been no studies which explore the perception of smart city disadvantages among citizen-stakeholders in the GCC countries. This study seeks to fill this gap in the literature, by examining the perspectives of a representative sample of citizens from the GCC. The results show that, despite the ‘whitewashing’ effect of public messaging, the study’s participants have a range of significant concerns about smart cities which could affect their acceptance of such initiatives. The findings will inform smart city development bodies in the GCC and contribute to strategies for promoting smart cities and citizen engagement.
Over the past two decades, environmental sustainability has become a key corporate and organisational issue. Today, firms are increasingly turning to existing and emerging digital technologies to ...help ensure that they meet the medium and long-term needs and expectations of customers and other stakeholders with respect to sustainability performance. This raises the important question of which digitisation factors most significantly impact environmental sustainability performance, as well as the mediating factor of sustainability innovation balance (the ability of a firm to balance the exploration of new innovations with the exploitation of existing innovations). A comprehensive survey instrument was developed and refined through expert feedback and a pilot study, leading to data collection from 374 professionals in the Freight and Logistics industry in Saudi Arabia, all of whom held senior positions in areas such as business development, IT, and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) departments. This data was then analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results of this analysis showed that the key factors impacting sustainability performance were digital competence, strategy alignment, digital adaptability, innovation exploitation and innovation exploration. These findings contribute to the current literature by expanding our understanding of the real-world drivers of sustainability performance. In practical terms, the study will help managers improve sustainability performance by enhancing resource efficiency, streamlining, and supply chain management, as well as improving employee engagement and training, fostering a culture of sustainability within the organisation.
Since the idea of the smart city was first introduced, over two decades ago, there has been an increasing focus on sustainability as a core strategic priority. However, as the relevance, importance ...and even definition of sustainability is a function of cultural context, planners must take account of local and regional cultural factors in the selection and adaption of digital infrastructures, as well as in the management and encouragement of public acceptance. Achieving this is not a sequential process, but a concurrent one, as these factors are interdependent. This raises the question of what factors affect and mediate the technology, choice, and public acceptance of smart sustainable cities. This paper attempts to address this question by proposing a new model which advances our current, and considerable, understanding of Technology Acceptance Modelling—using an analysis based on Structural Equation Modelling. This new model, called the Culturally Informed Technology Acceptance Model, was validated using data from a survey of residents of a variety of Saudi Arabian cities. The proposed model is designed around important factors that can be influenced by cultural context, such as digital literacy, process improvements, cost savings and privacy, and is a useful tool for understanding the role of culture in the public acceptance of smart sustainable technology. This design focus is for a number of reasons, such as helping development bodies ensure that the technologies used align with the socio-cultural context. It will also help in the management of at-scale technology roll out in a way that is resource-efficient. Although the Culturally Informed Technology Acceptance Model has been developed and validated using data from Saudi Arabia, the authors believe that it could be adapted to meet the needs of countries/cities that are looking to implement smart city strategies matched to their own distinct socio-cultural identity.
The development of sustainable smart cities (SSCs) is pivotal for contemporary urban expansion, as highlighted by numerous international frameworks and scholarly studies. This study focused on Saudi ...Arabia to identify and assess the key challenges impeding the evolution of intelligent and sustainable urban environments. By categorizing and hierarchically analyzing these impediments, the research isolates the most significant barriers to SSC advancement. A total of 18 obstacles were identified, organized into four categories, and reviewed using existing scholarly literature. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders engaged in executing SSC initiatives, enriching the research from a practical perspective. Additionally, a survey ranked these barriers, revealing that social and economic factors pose the most significant challenges, followed by governance and legal, technology, and environment. The findings of this study offer critical insights for policymakers and governments to mitigate the barriers to SSC development efforts.
The concept of open banking has emerged only recently within the fintech sector, and it is rapidly becoming popular in many regions across the world. Currently, there are very few studies on the ...relationship between customer experience and intention to use fintech apps, none of which focus on open banking. This relationship is significant for a number of reasons, one of which is the emerging importance of the connection between fintech and an environmentally sustainable economy. This paper seeks to add to our understanding of the factors that shape the customer experience and that determine loyalty levels toward open banking brands and apps. We propose a model in which a number (six) of affective and cognitive factors influence customer experience, which ultimately determines loyalty intention. The model is tested using data collected via a quantitative (survey) methodology involving open banking users in Saudi Arabia. The results show that customer experience is affected by all of the proposed factors (ease of use, perceived value, quality of support, reliability, perceived risk and ability to innovate). These factors, in turn, actively influence the level of customer loyalty. The study contributes to the current literature by identifying the various cognitive and affective determinants of customer experience, which therefore influences loyalty intention in open banking, and provides valuable insights into how both new and established brands should integrate customer experience into promotional and development strategies.
The notion of the smart city offers significant benefits to citizens and enterprises alike. To realize these benefits, however, the city’s organizations and working processes need to undergo a ...digital transformation (DT) which reshapes work practices and demands a new mindset from city employees. The readiness of these employees to accept such a DT has an effect on the extent to which the city’s residents and businesses benefit from being in a smart city context. This raises the question of which factors have the most influence on employees’ acceptance of DT—a question that has thus far received limited attention from researchers. This study introduces a model that examines various influencing factors, using data collected from a survey of 1180 employees in 10 smart cities in Saudi Arabia. The factors examined take a variety of forms, including external elements such as management provision for employees and process complexity, which can lead to resistance to change, as well as internal elements, such as perceived advantages and inertia. The findings of the study show that management support for employees and the perceived advantages of DT have a positive relationship with acceptance by employees, while process complexity and inertia have a negative relationship with employees’ acceptance. These findings contribute to the growing body of literature concerning DT acceptance in a smart city context and will provide organizations with insights on which to base strategies for encouraging employee adaptation to evolving digital landscapes.
In recent decades, the increasingly competitive marketplace that has resulted from factors such as globalization and technological innovation has made it ever harder for businesses to deliver ...economic sustainability. At the same time, the pressure on businesses to achieve and maintain environmental sustainability has also grown significantly. This study examines the factors that influence economic sustainability, the relationship of economic sustainability to environmental sustainability, and the extent to which these two factors ultimately affect financial growth. In order to achieve this, this study analyses the results of 342 questionnaires completed by managers of manufacturing companies within Saudi Arabia’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector. This analysis, using structural equation modeling, showed that innovation inclination, customer centricity, supplier relationships, network maturity, and strategic agility all have significant effects on economic sustainability. This study also shows that economic sustainability has a significant impact on environmental sustainability and that economic sustainability and environmental sustainability positively impact financial growth. This study adds to the current literature by demonstrating an explicit association of innovation inclination, customer centricity, supplier relationships, network maturity, and strategic agility with economic sustainability, as well as a positive relationship between economic sustainability and environmental sustainability. The findings also contribute to the literature by showing the direct impact of both economic sustainability and environmental sustainability on financial growth. In practical terms, this study will help Saudi SMEs develop business strategies that drive both environmental and business performance and provide useful insights for Saudi policymakers and financial institutions looking to support the Saudi Vision 2030 aims by encouraging funding and support mechanisms that drive better business and environmental performance.
Knowledge sharing positively and significantly improves academics' research, instruction and community service. The study of knowledge sharing in Saudi higher education is limited and offers little ...guidance to administrators, as well as faculty on how to capitalize on knowledge sharing and utilize it to their own and organizations' benefits. This research presents findings from an original quantitative study testing a structural equation model linking social cognitive theory to knowledge sharing collection and donation measured by validated scales from the extant literature. Community characteristics including altruism and reputation carry significant positive effects on knowledge sharing collection and donation. Similarly, personal outcomes expectations possess a moderate positive effect on knowledge sharing collection and donation. Self-efficacy in knowledge sharing emerged as an important predictor of knowledge sharing activities among Saudi academics. The findings suggest the need for developing professional training seminars on using social media for knowledge sharing in formal departmental and college settings. Further, the results confirm the relevance of social cognitive theory for the study of knowledge sharing. This creates the need for Saudi universities to invest in mentorship programs using digital platforms where personal and community outcomes' expectations are likely to improve among academics thereby increasing knowledge sharing activity.
There is limited evidence of the effects of culture and context on student readiness for e-learning, and how these might interact with gender. This study addresses this gap by studying the effect of ...culture and context on the readiness of high school students to use e-learning in a unique setting: an education system in which male and female students are educated separately. A mixed methods research approach was adopted because of our emphasis on the subjective aspect of the concept of readiness. Findings demonstrate that there are clear differences between the genders, but that these must be interpreted carefully in this cultural setting. There is scope for further research that investigates this gender divide in other e-learning contexts, including those where male and female students learn together and those where other cultural factors may influence student readiness to use e-learning.
The concept of Society 5.0, first introduced by Japan in 2016, has become a widely accepted model for the development of social infrastructures across the world. It is a model which is expected to ...take root globally over the next few years. It is also a model which has smart cities, which are connected and inclusive, at its core. The role of open data is critical to smart cities, and the ability to design and implement strategies for its use is a crucial element in their growth and success. This requires a leadership and organisational culture that embraces the concept of open government data (OGD) and understands its key role in the development of smart cities. In this paper, we examine how the leadership and organisational culture in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries has impacted the progress of OGD initiatives and, therefore, the transition to smart cities. This is approached via a re-analysis of data from an earlier study in which semi-structured interviews were used to understand the views and attitudes of a range of senior government department personnel in OGD-related roles, where here a new thematic analysis seeks to identify clearer pointers to attitudes and practices directly relating to smart cities and Society 5.0. The focus on internal factors, such as leadership attitudes and organisational culture, as opposed to external factors, such as technology and resources, differentiates this research from previous studies and adds to our current knowledge. The findings lead to a discussion that identifies a likely gap in the leadership provided by more senior figures. A pilot study of a group of these leaders suggests a generalised problem with communication of policy, objectives and strategies, which is crucial to overcoming cultural impediments to smart city development. While further research is required, a need clearly emerges for significant changes in attitude and application at senior managerial and leadership levels if strategic goals are to be achieved. The paper also makes a number of specific recommendations for activities that could improve progress and indicate areas where more research would be beneficial.
PDF
