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from these interactions are smarter essential services, which will eventually have a positive impact on
competitiveness, quality of life, citizen participation, and social empowerment.
The development and implementation of smart city solutions must consider not only business
enterprises, universities and research institutes, but also (and mainly) policy and governance
mechanisms, institutions, and a broad societal structure in which people, firms, research institutes, and
technology itself are embedded. On the one hand, local governments can play a central role in smart cities
through the design and implementation of supportive policies, creation of economic opportunities,
implementation of transparent governance, promotion of collaboration between multiple players,
promotion of entrepreneurship, investment, targeting schemes, and definition of priorities for smart
cities initiatives, among other strategic actions. On the other hand, the institutional structure provides
incentives and constraints for individual actions. As discussed in the next section, social rules, norms,
expectations, conventions, and beliefs can be determinant factors for the diffusion and scale-up of some
smart city solutions.
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework
Feedback loops and multidirectional causal relationships are also considered. People affect and are
affected by technology, as are policy, governance, and institutions. In addition, resulting outcomes and
impacts also affect the system as a whole. For instance, some solutions may have a positive impact on
education, which, in turn, may provide an opportunity for enhancing citizen participation and influence
over local decision-making, or enhance absorptive capacity for the use of existing technologies. Moreover,
other outcomes may generate further impacts that can be self-reinforced. For example, better quality of
life can attract a high-skilled labor force that, in turn, can be determinant for the success and further
improvement of competitiveness of cities, or a Smart City can be deemed more attractive for investments,
which can also enhance different systemic factors.
From the above, a matrix is envisaged to position smart city solutions according to the type of agents and
expected outcomes associated, as presented in Table 2. Such an arrangement will be one important
criterion for selecting the cases of smart city solutions in Brazil presented in the next section.
The following section presents two cases positioned differently in the matrix. While Integrated
Operations Centers enhance the quality of life in Brazilian big cities, the Smart Grid Application attracts
investments and enhances competitiveness in a specific region. Tendencies have been identified from
specific conditions of Brazilian cities and local competencies developed in response to an increasing
demand for technological solutions applied to cities´ problems. As it will be seen, type of actors differs in
each case.
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