Navigating the institutionalisation of smart technologies for urban sustainability: A Grounded Theory Approach

Globally, cities strive to attain sustainability goals by leveraging smart technologies. Accordingly, there have been consistent scholarly efforts to elucidate the connection between adopting smart technologies (smartness domain) and achieving sustainability goals (sustainability domain). However, very little attention has been paid to exploring the processes through which these two domains are systematically integrated. This paper addresses this gap by asking: How are smart technologies institutionalised within socio-technical systems to achieve urban sustainability, particularly at the technology selection or experimentation stage? To answer this question, the paper aims to (1) identify and analyse drivers, enablers, and barriers (DEBs) to institutionalising smart technologies to achieve sustainability outcomes and (2) develop a conceptual model to elucidate complex socio-institutional interactions between 'smartness' and 'sustainability' domains. We draw on interviews with policymakers, practitioners, and technical leaders in 23 smart city projects funded by the Australian federal government to identify a set of overarching DEBs, and a Grounded Theory Approach to construct a four-phase path model to formalise the institutionalisation of smart technologies for sustainability outcomes: Compatibility, Alignment, Co-adaptation, and Integration. The paper provides policymakers and practitioners with deeper insights into and crucial implications for enhancing implementation and institutionalisation strategies in current and future smart city programs in pursuit of sustainability. • Institutionalising smart technologies for sustainable goals faces many limitations. • We identified and analysed drivers, enablers, and barriers to institutionalisation. • We built a four-phase path: compatibility, alignment, co-adaptation, and integration. • Negotiating shared visions builds scaffolds for smart cities towards sustainability. • Smart technologies compatible with sustainable visions tend to evolve and diffuse.