Sustainability in Smart Cities is a current and trendy topic in a global sense. The primary impetus for writing this article was to create a general implementation model for the smart governance of European Smart Cities based on the American best practice. The ambition is to be able to modify the generally created model to meet the local conditions of all countries. The aim of the article is to point out the essential elements and differences between the implementation standards, models and clusters in the cities of North America and Europe, including their benefits and limitations. This article compared standards, implementation and cluster models for Smart Cities in North America and Europe through a secondary analysis from Arcadis and IDC consultants, standards agencies, and relevant sources. In addition, comparisons and summaries of the results were used. The results of this article point out the fundamental differences between the American and European approaches to building Smart Cities. American models are more centrist-oriented to people and complex in their simplicity, thus achieving a higher degree of reputation. Europeans are less consistent and top-down oriented. The new model will make European Smart Cities more focused on the needs and expectations of all stakeholders. The main results of this article are the answers to the research questions and the general implementation model, the verification of which will take place in practice in the future.

Building Smart City management concepts is based on the implementation and use of advanced technologies. The primary impulse for writing the article was the ambition to identify the current advanced technologies of Smart City management. The aim of the article is to propose a general model for the implementation of advanced technologies for Smart City management, based on the knowledge gained from the analysis of literature and case studies. In order to fulfill the set goal, it is necessary to obtain answers to two research questions. The findings were obtained through a secondary analysis of the literature, i.e., relevant articles from the scientific databases Web of Science and Scopus analysis of case studies of the best Smart Cities practices. According to the Smart City Index 2020 and IESE Cities in Motion, the leaders among the Smart Cities are Singapore and London, followed by Helsinki. In addition to the analyses, the article also uses methods of summarization, comparison, creativity, logic, induction and deduction. Smart Cities use 12 identified advanced technologies in their practice. Strategic management in Singapore, London and Helsinki adapts technology to the needs and requirements of its citizens, thus connecting the technological aspect with the managerial and social aspects. The contributions of the work include results for fellow researchers and a model for strategic management of new Smart Cities. The results of the article provide fellow researchers with the findings of a secondary analysis of relevant articles, from which they can draw when writing their own publications without the need for time-consuming search of the articles about this topic in databases. The general model of implementation of advanced technologies serves as a basis for strategic management of new Smart Cities that want to implement a technological base and at the same time do not want to forget the managerial and social aspects. Testing the model in practice with a new Slovak Smart City is part of future research activities.

Water is a critically important element of human life. The best practice of effective water management comes from ancient civilizations that, despite their technologies and practices, were unable to prevent collapse from water scarcity. In the 21st century, in an era of climate change, pollution or population explosion, cities are looking for innovative ways to effectively manage scarce resources for future generations. Which elements should cities of the future follow to avoid water collapse? The following article aims to identify the key elements of effective management and to represent them graphically in the form of a recommended model, which will be verified in the future in Slovakia. The article uses case analysis of best past and current practices, comparison and summarization to identify the elements, creativity, and logic in the development of the model, including induction and deduction. The article serves as a basis for fellow researchers (analyses carried out) and strategic urban management (effective urban water management). The main finding of the article is that ecological change puts pressure on social elements and therefore it is necessary to focus on the area of strategic management. Cities should not only know how to manage resource abundance or short-term scarcity, but also long-term scarcity. They should use elements of trust, awareness and continuous improvement through modern monitoring technologies (UAVs, sensors) and prediction (machine learning). This is the only way to generate water sustainability in the urban concept of the future.

No abstract

This article deals with the analysis of the reputation of global automobile manufacturers primarily in the territory of the Slovak Republic for their comparison. The reputation of brands in the wider Central European and global context has also been considered. The selected brands were Volkswagen, Toyota, KIA, and Peugeot. Selected car brands either have a production plant in Slovakia or are well known in Slovakia, thanks to high global brand awareness. E-business marketing activities in the automotive sector are a major challenge to sustainability in the industry. The analysis took into account official information provided by automotive companies for the purpose of reputation management, as well as external data such as automotive media articles, independent reviews and customer feedback. The findings of the article include a detailed analysis of the online reputation of examined individual brands. The article also provides a list of the most important factors that can positively or negatively affect brand reputation, defined based on previous analysis. In conclusion, the authors try to make use of the findings and build a brief set of recommendations on how to correctly apply the reputation management principles to the overall strategy of the organization.