Smart city strategies—Technology push or culture pull? A case study exploration of gimpo and Namyangju, South Korea

This study aims to address strategies, models, and the motivation behind smart cities by analyzing two smart city project cases in medium-sized cities, i.e., Gimpo and Namyangju in South Korea. The case of Smartopia Gimpo represents a top-down, infrastructure-focused smart city innovation that invested in building state-of-the-art big data infrastructure for crime prevention, traffic alleviation, environmental preservation, and disaster management. On the other hand, Namyangju 4.0 represents a strategy focused on internal process innovation through extensive employee training and education regarding smart city concepts and emphasizing data-driven (rather than infrastructure-driven) policy decision making. This study explores two smart city strategies and how they resulted in distinctively different outcomes. We found that instilling a culture of innovation through the training of government managers and frontline workers is a critical component in achieving a holistic and sustainable smart city transformation that can survive leadership changes.