Small-Town Citizens’ Technology Acceptance of Smart and Sustainable City Development

Abstract

Citizens are an essential part of the process of smartification and sustainable development of cities as they must adopt, understand and interact with the enabling technologies of digital transformation of societies, cities, and public administration. Therefore, technology acceptance is crucial to creating smart and citizen-centered cities. This is even more challenging in small towns that suffer from an aging population, desertification, lack of infrastructure, and especially the digital divide. The purpose of this research is to investigate the adoption of an Urban Services Technology (UST) in tourism management within a tourism-oriented small town in Southern Italy. A questionnaire was then constructed according to the 12-variable Urban Service Technology Acceptance Model (USTAM), and 216 responses were obtained from a defined group of 1076 subjects. Analyzing the data with a quantitative approach by conducting Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the assumptions of the initial model were all rejected and new five factors emerged. The path diagram shows that only the factors Sustainability, Ease and Value have a positive correlation with technology adoption. Future research might investigate the mediating role of socio-demographic variables on technology acceptance by considering geographical and cultural diversity among small towns.

Smart Cities and Citizen Adoption: Exploring Tourist Digital Maturity for Personalizing Recommendations

“…The findings indicated that several factors significantly extended the TAM, among the most frequent factors were social media, perceived enjoyment, subjective norm, self-efficacy, perceived critical mass, perceived connectedness, perceived security, and perceived trust. In the same vein, in this other study [26], the digital gap that might exist across different generations was delved into and it was uncovered that age plays a significant role in influencing the optimism, innovativeness, and perceived usefulness concerning the adoption of social media. Finally, study [42] constructed a comprehensive model to investigate the influence of social-media-use factors on electronic banking adoption.…”

Challenges and Opportunities for Small Cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Study of Expert Perceptions

“…A review of the relevant literature informed this multi-lens approach, drawing from theoretical considerations, case studies of small cities, and official government documents. This research method focused on five critical themes drawn from the literature as having a substantial impact on the sustainability of small cities in Saudi Arabia: (i) existing infrastructure [8, [13][14][15][16][17][18][19]; (ii) urban governance and administration procedures [36][37][38]; (iii) relationships with other cities [47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56]; (iv) current economic activity [18,23,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]; and (v) potential development opportunities [57][58][59][64][65][66]. By exploring these five components in unison, it was possible to gain a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of the current experts' perception of small cities in Saudi Arabia, while considering the contributing factors which may shape their future growth.…”

“…An urban system is fundamentally a regional unit consisting of locations influenced by social, economic, and functional bonds that are connected hierarchically [51]. The advancement in communication technologies hastens these changes, strengthens the interactions between cities within the region, and amplifies their scope [52,53]. Consequently, it is imperative to approach cities as an amalgamation of urban settlements as opposed to separated entities independent of other localities in their region.…”

Innovative platforms for more compliant Smart Cities: A case study

“…A clear description and assessment of citizens' roles in smart cities might assist us in properly managing technology. In fact, smart cities frequently fail to fulfill their objectives because people (the end users) are not involved in their creation or are unable to use the technology for a plethora of factors [38]. Among other things, they are an excellent factor in assessing the service quality [39,40].…”