Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Towards an Impartial Evaluation of Cities’ Smartness: A Multivariate Statistical Approach

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Marketing and Smart Technologies

Part of the book series: Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies ((SIST,volume 280))

  • 1530 Accesses

Abstract

The issue of mapping the smartness of cities has attracted the attention of various stakeholders. One of the ways of quantifying city smartness and benchmarking cities based on the level of the achieved smartness is using composite indicators (CIs). However, the topic often cited as the slippery slope of CIs includes methodological issues when combining several indicators into one synthesized value. Aiming at providing a possible remedy to the subject, we employed the I-distance method to the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Cities of Opportunity Index. The results pointed out leader cities in terms of smartness, with the additional benefit of the study being encapsulated in much-needed inputs of essential components of the index. Consequently, decision-makers can foster the inputs of the study to raise the bar for a particular city.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Osman, A.M.S.: A novel big data analytics framework for smart cities. Futur. Gener. Comput. Syst. 91, 620–633 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Huovila, A., Bosch, P., Airaksinen, M.: Comparative analysis of standardized indicators for smart sustainable cities: what indicators and standards to use and when? Cities 89, 141–153 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Landaluce-Calvo, M.I., Gozalo-Delgado, M.: Proposal for a dynamic composite indicator: application in a comparative analysis of trends in the EU member states towards the Europe 2020 strategy. Soc. Indic. Res. 154(3), 1031–1053 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Greco, S., Ishizaka, A., Tasiou, M., Torrisi, G.: On the methodological framework of composite indices: a review of the issues of weighting, aggregation, and robustness. Soc. Indic. Res. 141(1), 61–94 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Ivanovic, B.: Classification of underdeveloped areas according to level of economic development. East. Eur. Econ. 2(1–2), 46–61 (1963)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. OECD: The OECD-JRC Handbook on Practices for Developing Composite Indicators. OECD, Paris (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Paruolo, P., Saisana, M., Saltelli, A.: Ratings and rankings: voodoo or science? J. R. Stat. Soc. A. Stat. Soc. 176(3), 609–634 (2013)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  8. Maricic, M., Egea, J.A., Jeremic, V.: A hybrid enhanced scatter search—composite I-distance indicator (eSS-CIDI) optimization approach for determining weights within composite indicators. Soc. Indic. Res. 144(2), 497–537 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Freudenberg, M.: Composite indicators of country performance: a critical assessment. OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers, 16, 35 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Nardo, M., Saisana, M., Saltelli, A., Tarantola, S., Hofman, A., Giovannini, E.: Handbook on constructing composite indicators. OECD Statistics Working Papers (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Greco, S., Ishizaka, A., Matarazzo, B., Torrisi, G.: Stochastic multi-attribute acceptability analysis (SMAA): an application to the ranking of Italian regions. Reg. Stud. 52(4), 585–600 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Zhou, P., Ang, B.W., Zhou, D.Q.: Weighting and aggregation in composite indicator construction: a multiplicative optimization approach. Soc. Indic. Res. 96(1), 169–181 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Zhou, P., Ang, B.W., Poh, K.L.: Comparing aggregating methods for constructing the composite environmental index: an objective measure. Ecol. Econ. 59(3), 305–311 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Mathis, S., Kanik A., (2021), Why you’ll be hearing a lot less about ‘smart cities’ https://citymonitor.ai/government/budgets/why-youll-be-hearing-a-lot-less-about-smart-cities

  15. Bakici, T., Almirall, E., Wareham, J.: A smart city initiative: the case of Barcelona. J. Knowl. Econ. 4(2), 135–148 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Science for Environment Policy.: Indicators for sustainable cities, In-depth Report 12. Produced for the European Commission DG Environment by the Science Communication Unit, UWE, Bristol (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Bogdanov, O., Jeremić, V., Jednak, S., Čudanov, M.: Scrutinizing the smart city index: a multivariate statistical approach. Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci: časopis za ekonomsku teoriju i praksu 37(2), 777–799 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Rafaj, O.: Cities and human capital. In: 6th Winter Seminar of Regional Science Society for Regional Science and Policy—Slovak Section of ERSA (2016). Available at http://ersa.sk/Zbornik/files/Rafaj.pdf. Accessed 22 Sept 2021

  19. Vlasenko, L., Ivanova, I.: Urbanization processes and practices of smart city as factors influencing youth’s social values. MATEC Web Conf. 106, 01020 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Pultrone, G.: Participation and governance for more human smart cities, Tema. J. Land Use, Mobility Environ. 7(2), 159–172 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Brundtland, G.H.: Our common future—call for action. Environ. Conserv. 14(4), 291–294 (1987)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Yiftachel, O., Hedgcock, D.: Urban social sustainability: the planning of an Australian city. Cities 10(2), 139–157 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Alkis, N., Çaldag, M.T., Gokalp, E.: An integrated holistic success model for evaluating smart city initiatives. In: Proceedings on the International Conference on Internet Computing (ICOMP), pp. 16–21. The Steering Committee of the World Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Applied Computing (WorldComp) (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Snieska, V., Zykiene, I.: The role of infrastructure in the future city: theoretical perspective. Procedia-Social Behav. Sci. 156, 247–251 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Bhattacharya, T.R., Bhattacharya, A., Mclellan, B., Tezuka, T.: Sustainable smart city development framework for developing countries. Urban Res. Practice 13(2), 180–212 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Cities of Opportunity.: PWC cities of opportunity (2021). Available at https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/asset-management/real-estate-insights/assets/real-estate-cities-opportunities.pdf; PWC Report.: In-depth report of PWC cities of opportunity (2021). Available at https://www.pwc.nl/nl/assets/documents/pwc-cities-of-opportunity-7.pdf

  27. https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-maps/toronto-progress-portal/world-rankings-for-toronto/pwc-cities-of-opportunity-7/

  28. Ivanovic, B.: A method of establishing a list of development indicators. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Paris, 1973. SHC/WS/291

    Google Scholar 

  29. Jeremic, V., Bulajic, M., Martic, M., Radojicic, Z.: A fresh approach to evaluating the academic ranking of world universities. Scientometrics 87(3), 587–596 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Radojicic, M., Jeremic, V., Savic, G.: Going beyond health efficiency: what really matters? Int. J. Health Plann. Manage. 35(1), 318–338 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Jeremic, V., Radovanovic, S., Damnjanovic, V.: One size doesn’t fit all: going beyond weights in the evaluation of cities’ smartness. In: XIX International Triple Helix Conference, Sao Paulo, Brasil (online) (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Savić, D., Jeremic, V., Petrovic, N.: Rebuilding the pillars of sustainable society index: a multivariate post hoc I-distance approach. Problemy ekorozwoju–Probl. Sustain. Dev. 12(1), 125–134 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Perna, L.W.: The benefits of higher education: sex, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic group differences. Rev. High. Educ. 29(1), 23–52 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Li, J.: World-class higher education and the emerging Chinese model of the university. Prospects 42(3), 319–339 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Aabø, S.: Valuing the benefits of public libraries. Inf. Econ. Policy 17(2), 175–198 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Livingstone, S.: Critical reflections on the benefits of ICT in education. Oxf. Rev. Educ. 38(1), 9–24 (2012)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  37. Vicente, M.R., Gil-de-Bernabé, F.: Assessing the broadband gap: from the penetration divide to the quality divide. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang. 77(5), 816–822 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Ross, A., Banerjee, S., Chowdhury, A.: Security in smart cities: a brief review of digital forensic schemes for biometric data. Pattern Recogn. Lett. 138, 346–354 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Bloom, D.E., Canning, D., Fink, G.: Implications of population ageing for economic growth. Oxf. Rev. Econ. Policy 26(4), 583–612 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Haggard, D.L., Haggard, K.S.: The impact of law, religion, and culture on the ease of starting a business. Int. J. Org. Theory Behav. (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Rose, A.K.: The foreign service and foreign trade: embassies as export promotion. World Econ. 30(1), 22–38 (2007)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  42. Acuto, M., Pejic, D.: Shaping a global comparative imagination? Assessing the role of city rankings in the “global city” discourse. Area (2021). https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12710

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Taubenböck, H., Reiter, M., Dosch, F., Leichtle, T., Weigand, M., Wurm, M. (2021). Which city is the greenest? A multi-dimensional deconstruction of city rankings. Comput. Environ. Urban Syst. 89, 101687 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  44. Saez, L., Heras-Saizarbitoria, I., Rodriguez-Nunez, E.: Sustainable city rankings, benchmarking and indexes: looking into the black box. Sustain. Cities Society 53, 101938 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Belgrade, Jove Ilića 154, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Veljko Uskoković, Milica Maričić & Veljko Jeremić

Authors
  1. Veljko Uskoković
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Milica Maričić
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Veljko Jeremić
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Veljko Jeremić .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University Institute of Maia—ISMAI, Maia, Portugal

    José Luís Reis

  2. FHNW School of Business, University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Olten, Switzerland

    Marc K. Peter

  3. Universidade Portucalense, Porto, Portugal

    Ricardo Cayolla

  4. Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Zorica Bogdanović

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Uskoković, V., Maričić, M., Jeremić, V. (2022). Towards an Impartial Evaluation of Cities’ Smartness: A Multivariate Statistical Approach. In: Reis, J.L., Peter, M.K., Cayolla, R., Bogdanović, Z. (eds) Marketing and Smart Technologies. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 280. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9272-7_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation