Conceptualization of Terms Used in Smart Cities and E-Governance Research: A Scientometrics Study

Abstract

 In the modern era, the role of studies devoted to the digital transformations in governance, including the city governance, is growing. Despite the growth of such works, the academia have not developed a single definition of the basic terms used in this research area. In this article we present an attempt of the scientometrics literature analysis, devoted to this topic. By doing this we aim at finding the key research foci and at specifying the definition of the abovementioned terms.

For scientometrics we use a sample of 8.7 thousand publications from the Web of Science database, most of which relate to 2016-2017. VosViewer software was used for network analysis, clustering and visualization of scientometric data. 172 keywords were selected for analysis.

The article identifies a methodological problem, that is the lack of generally accepted definitions of phenomena related to social and technological processes that follow digital transformation. Our study suggests that smart city, smart governance and e-governance as terms are used in a multidisciplinary academic environment, but their conceptual volume is blurred. That leads to the lack of their explanatory power. The article addresses this issue by defining the terms.