How smart cities transform operations models: a new research agenda for operations management in the digital economy

The notion of smart cities is growing in prominence in the digital economy. The integration of urban infrastructures with information and communication technologies (ICT), and the potentially increased transparency and predictability they offer, enables the development of new operations models across different sectors. Digitised infrastructures present new ways for public and private organisations to design and deliver products or services in a more customer-centric manner, particularly for those that require geographical proximity with consumers in the so-called O2O (online to offline) context. A framework is developed and used to analyse three case examples. These cases illustrate the emergence of new operations models and, demonstrates how smart cities are re-defining the characteristics of operations models around their scalability, analytical output and, connectivity. We also explore the feasibility, vulnerability and acceptability of each new operation. This paper contributes to our understanding of how smart cities can potentially transform operational models, and sets out a new research agenda for operations management in smart cities.