| Author: | Tam, Chi Wai Carlos |
| Title: | An exploratory study of the critical success factors of smart services providers in the smart city era |
| Advisors: | Cheng, T. C. Edwin (LMS) Choy, Petrus (LMS) |
| Degree: | D.B.A. |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Subject: | Organizational effectiveness Service industries Industrial management Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Faculty of Business |
| Pages: | xiv, 301 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Urbanization has never been stopped since the 18th century. It is anticipated that the world's population will reach over 10 billion by 2050 (2020: around 7.8 billion), out of which approximately 80% will be resided in suburbs or cities by then. In the recent past five years, city development has become the hottest topic with the highest priority of governmental plans and mandates to well-plan ahead for their citizens. To make people happier, healthier, smarter and more prosperous, it is necessary to re-structure, re-configure and re-establish the status quo into more modern cities, not to say smart cities, to cope with existing and future challenges. In Hong Kong, there are around 1,500 technology startups and practitioners situated and operated in Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited, which are engaging in smart services businesses. It is an urgent issue to examine the core elements that allow smart services providers to sustain and/or grow their business in response to the increasing and vast demand for smart products, services and solutions in the smart city era whereby one of the possible answers could be the development and identification of the critical success factors, which drive and motivate smart services providers to move and go faster, higher and farther aiming at attaining and achieving their business objectives on one hand and maintain their corporate sustainability and growth on the other. In this view, the research objective of this study is to identify the critical success factors of smart city services providers in the smart city era and their relationships with organizational performances. In this connection, this study conducted an organizational-level field study and adopted a quantitative approach to collect and analyze data collected from smart services providers through structured survey questionnaires. Based on the data collected from 123 respondent firms, Exploratory Factor Analysis was applied to identify and define the potential critical success factors and organizational performance measures pertinent to smart city services providers in the smart city era, and then Multiple Regression Analysis was adopted to examine and predict their relationships to identify the critical success factors of smart city providers in the smart city era provided that the potential critical success factors are statistically significant to the respective organizational performance measure pertinent to smart city services providers in the smart city era. Based on the empirical findings of this study, the seven critical success factors that are statistically significant, at different levels and degrees, to the six organizational performances measures were found - the seven critical success factors are (i) Risk Management and Governance, (ii) Technology and Innovation, (iii) Ecosystem, (iv) Corporate Social Responsibility, (v) Human Resource Management, (vi) Marketing Responsiveness and (vii) Quality Management; and the six organizational performance measures cover (i) Innovative and Technological Performance, (ii) Service Quality Performance, (iii) Social and Governance Performance, (iv) Financial Performance, (v) Operational Performance and (vi) Marketing Performance. It is found that Risk Management and Governance and Ecosystem are the two most prominent critical success factors that are significantly associated with most of the organizational performance measures of this study. The first case study of Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) Limited, one of the pioneers and forerunners providing smart services in Hong Kong, was conducted to validate and triangulate the statistical findings of this study focusing on the measures, practices and activities relating to the identified critical success factors that generate its corresponding organizational performances. The second case study was further carried out on another leading and prominent smart services provider in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited, for benchmarking purposes. Academically, this study enriches the existing body of knowledge and studies on critical success factors and their relationships with organizational performances whereby this study was specifically focusing on the critical success factors of smart services providers in the smart city era and their organizational performance implications. Practically, the findings of this study offer and provide practical insights to the senior management members of smart services providers to path and solidify their focal point to prioritize and allocate scarce resources to emphasize on those pivotal critical success factors that help them generate the most desirable and superior organizational performances for bettering their business excellence and sustainability. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5466.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 3.16 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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