Exploring the Ability of Tomorrow'S Leaders to Support Smart City Projects

The concept of smart city is more and more explored in different disciplines. Thecitizen and the community in general are highlighted as the core of a successful smart citytransition, in which strategic actors are transforming together a city. However, a dynamiccollaborative model is effective only if communities are accepting and supporting theimplemented projects. To explore this supportive willingness, this paper focuses on the imagethat tomorrow's leaders, which can be categorized as potential smart citizens, build regardinglocal smart city projects. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative research is developed on a sample composedby 215 tomorrow's leaders in Belgium. A survey was designed and distributed online askingrespondents to select uncertainties, opportunities and threats that they associate to smart cityprojects developed locally. A factor analysis is proposed to analyze the data. Findings: Smart city projects are perceived as an opportunity to reinforce sustainability, qualityof life and city digitalization. As a result, tomorrow's leaders are more supportive if they havea clear vision of potential benefits and consequences induced by local smart city projects. Research/practical implications: This research offers new insights on scholars developed byJun and Weare. As for innovative programs, smart city projects need to be aligned to globalsocial expectations and to subgroup-based interest (taking into account the age, the gender andthe cultural identity) in order to reinforce the capacity of the ecosystem to accept change and todevelop an adequate behavior. Originality/value: The paper proposes an original research in the Belgian context, where smartcity policies are focusing on human factors. Thus, these findings help Belgian cities inunderstanding how citizens think and behave in face of a progressive transforming city.