Strategic Smart City Development Through Citizen Participation: Empirical Evidence from Slovakia

The article examines the relationship between city size, strategic capacity, and stakeholder participation in the development of Smart City strategies in Slovak municipalities. Although Smart City initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe are expanding, empirical evidence on their strategic foundations remains limited. This research bridges that gap by analyzing data collected from 35 Slovak cities with populations above 20,000 inhabitants. Using a structured questionnaire and applying nonparametric statistical methods (Spearman correlation, Chi-square test, ANOVA, and Kruskal–Wallis test), the study explores how city size affects the presence and thematic orientation of Smart City strategies as well as the intensity of stakeholder participation. The results reveal a moderate and statistically significant correlation between city size and Smart City strategy development, while thematic orientations remain similar across cities. Larger municipalities show higher levels of strategic capacity and greater cooperation with academic institutions, confirming partial support for the proposed hypotheses. The findings underscore the need to strengthen the institutional and participatory capacities of smaller municipalities to achieve balanced and inclusive Smart City governance. The study contributes to the literature by integrating strategic, technological, and participatory dimensions into one analytical framework applicable to the CEE context.