Anthea van der Hoogen, Margaret Cullen, Andre P Calitz, Lamla Luke
Abstract
Digital transformation integrates technology into all business areas, fundamentally changing how businesses operate and deliver value to their clients. Digital Transformation in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, has provided municipalities with a learning opportunity to change into data-driven smart municipalities to increase productivity, growth, and employment supported by the need for people with a variety of skills. A Value Alignment Smart City Stakeholder Model (VASCS) model was created in previous research and identified nine dimensions of a smart city, namely Smart Economy, Smart Environment, Smart Governance, Smart Living, Smart Mobility, Smart Organisation, Smart People, Smart Policies and Smart Technology.
The objective of this study was to propose and evaluate a similar Value Alignment Smart Municipality Stakeholder Model (VASMS) for municipalities in the Eastern Cape. The nine dimensions were empirically evaluated by stakeholders in four Eastern Cape municipalities. The results depict a change towards the importance of developing a smart municipality in the four municipalities, while following appropriate planning, designing, management, operations and governance guidelines. The respondents regarded the smart policy dimension as the most important dimension in the proposed VASMS Model. This study further provided practical guidelines for the adoption of smart municipalities in the Eastern Cape Province of S.A.