ICT Governance in Brazilian Smart Cities:: An Integrative Approach in the Context of Digital Transformation

Abstract

A smart city can be described as an organizational environment that seeks to provide a better quality of life for citizens by applying digital technologies to public services. In general, ICT governance involves managing investments and ICT resources to guide organizations to achieve their strategic goals. Thus, ICT governance in smart cities should evaluate, direct, and monitor Information Technology to achieve public value for the local community by providing digital services. Most research investigated ICT governance in private and public organizations and smart governance in smart city environments, but few focused on ICT governance in smart cities, especially in developing countries. Thus, this research investigated ICT governance in the context of Brazilian smart cities by developing a conceptual and practical integrative approach for the cities. To achieve this objective, a literature review and a survey with Brazilian professionals were conducted to identify relevant ICT governance practices applied to this context. As a result, this work introduces a set of related practices that municipalities can track when designing smart city projects in a digital transformation environment.