The influence of institutional factors in the search for smart city models: a comparison between Shanghai and São Paulo

Ney Nakazato Miyahira and Wilson Aparecido Costa de Amorim

Revista de Gest??o, 2025, vol. 32, issue 3, 164-175

Abstract: PurposeThe article aims to clarify whether the Smart City concept can be universally adopted or whether it is reconfigured based on the conditions of a given reality, shaping a specific understanding of the Smart City.Design/methodology/approachThrough bibliographic analysis and contextual studies of two distinct realities – Shanghai and São Paulo – different political structures and market economies are identified, which highlight distinct institutional factors that, in turn, can lead to different understandings of Smart City.FindingsThe research findings warn against the adoption of absolute concepts of Smart City and allow for effective comparisons between different realities, considering the institutional conditions of each location, leading to different understandings of Smart City: e-autocracy for Shanghai and e-democracy for São Paulo.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the proposal to compare such different realities, one of which is Chinese, there is a language barrier and a scarcity of Chinese studies published in English, which makes it difficult to fully understand the Chinese reality.Practical implicationsThe article enables more coherent comparisons between different realities, avoiding the adoption of a universal parameter and considering the ambition of each locus to format a smart city.Originality/valueThis article shows that the understanding of smart city is distinct and influenced by the political structure and institutional factors in force in each reality, pointing out two concepts of a smart city: e-autocracy and e-democracy.

Keywords: Smart city; Institutional factors; Market economies; Democracy; Autocracy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:regepp:rege-11-2024-0163

DOI: 10.1108/REGE-11-2024-0163

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