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Extending the “Smart City” Concept to Small-to-Medium Sized Estonian Municipalities: Initiatives and Challenges Faced

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Information Systems (EMCIS 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 464))

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Abstract

This study investigated smart city initiatives and challenges faced by small to medium sized municipalities. The literature on smart cities is dominated by findings from large cities yet, both large and small municipalities are expected to contribute towards the fulfillment of the United Nation’s 17 sustainable development goals. A mixed method was used in which 35 municipalities were engaged. Study findings suggest that rural municipalities are yet to be fully aware of how they can harness the technology and become smart in the way they operate and serve inhabitants. Nonetheless, cities and towns seem to have an idea of what smart city initiatives to consider. Together, Estonian cities, towns and rural municipalities face several challenges in their efforts to assume “smartness” something that needs to be addressed in a pragmatic way. Municipalities face unique challenges; hence, solutions that work for one municipality may not work for another.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aalto University, Espoo, Finland

    Karin Amukugo Fröhlich, Karishma Jain, Antti Pinomaa & Marko Nieminen

  2. University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia

    Ralf-Martin Soe

  3. University of Mpumalanga, Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, South Africa

    Pardon Blessings Maoneke

  4. Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Antti Pinomaa

Authors
  1. Karin Amukugo Fröhlich
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  2. Ralf-Martin Soe
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  3. Pardon Blessings Maoneke
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  4. Karishma Jain
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  5. Antti Pinomaa
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  6. Marko Nieminen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karin Amukugo Fröhlich .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. British University in Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Maria Papadaki

  2. University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Paulo Rupino da Cunha

  3. University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Marinos Themistocleous

  4. University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Klitos Christodoulou

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Fröhlich, K.A., Soe, RM., Maoneke, P.B., Jain, K., Pinomaa, A., Nieminen, M. (2023). Extending the “Smart City” Concept to Small-to-Medium Sized Estonian Municipalities: Initiatives and Challenges Faced. In: Papadaki, M., Rupino da Cunha, P., Themistocleous, M., Christodoulou, K. (eds) Information Systems. EMCIS 2022. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 464. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30694-5_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30694-5_20

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-30693-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-30694-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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