Radosław Malik

The chapter explores the intersection of service offshoring and digital internationalisation, providing a review of how multinational corporations (MNCs) leverage service offshoring for their internationalisation. Utilising science mapping analysis, a type of bibliometric analysis based on keyword co-occurrence, the study examines 554 articles published between 2004 and 2023, identifying 23 distinct themes and tracing their evolution over three subperiods. The findings highlight the field's progression from foundational themes such as “strategy” and “outsourcing” to specialised topics like “technological change” and “reshoring”. This thematic and quantitative evolution underscores the strategic role of service offshoring in facilitating digital transformation, enabling MNCs to enhance efficiency, access skilled labour, and integrate advanced technologies. Additionally, the analysis reveals trends in the volume of research, with a steady increase during the early years (2004–2013), peaking in 2013, followed by a gradual decline after 2018, potentially indicating a shift in focus to related areas of study. The study makes two key contributions: first, linking the concepts of service offshoring and digital internationalisation, offering a novel perspective seldom addressed in prior research; second, applying bibliometric analysis through keyword co-occurrence for the first time in this field, yielding a detailed thematic map of the research field.

The objective of this chapter is to rethink the smart city as a part of the broader regional context in which it is located. The smart city is not situated in a vacuum. As a provider of services, it serves the local community, i.e., city inhabitants. Smart services, however, are already available to anyone interested in them, regardless of their location. This posits a very interesting question of how, on the one hand, the intrusion of information and communication technology (ICT) in the fabric of the city, and, on the other hand, the processes of digitalization and smartification influence the already consolidated territorial divides, i.e., those between the urban and the rural, and between that which is in the administrative boundaries of the city and that which is not. An argument is made that an ICT-supported emergence of a virtual space, where a great number of smart services can be delivered, ultimately will change our understanding of what cities are and what they are for. To address this complex and multifaceted issue, the discussion in this chapter is framed by a set of overlapping concepts, including smart territory, smart services, smart services’ ecosystem, cohesion, regional disparities, digitalization, and others.

This chapter delves into the discourse on spatial order and the evolution of smart cities, offering insights into three research themes that pertain to non-technology-centric facets of smart city expansion. Initially, a semi-systematic literature review on the implementation of the smart city concept is employed as a research methodology to delineate the current advancements in the development of smart cities in Poland. This review reveals that numerous commendable outcomes have been realized in this domain, predominantly attributed to initiatives backed and jointly funded by the European Union (EU) Operational Programs in Poland. Nevertheless, these accomplishments do not address the central issue faced by Polish cities, i.e., a poorly managed urban development strategy resulting in excessive urban density and escalating traffic congestion. Subsequently, intelligent transport systems (ITSs) are explored as an emergent factor influencing the spatial growth of smart cities and a prospective solution to urban sprawl and other impediments to sustainable urban expansion. In conclusion, the introduction of ITSs in Poland and their consequent outcomes are showcased as potential catalysts for urban revitalization and enhancers of the spatial dimensions of economic cooperation. This chapter posits that for a comprehensive approach to the spatial growth of smart cities, an amalgamation of non-technology and technology-driven solutions might yield nearly optimal results.

Purpose: Against the background of the I50 paradigm, this paper queries in what ways blockchain and blockchain-based applications deployed in the smart city context facilitate the integration of the I50 paradigm in smart urban contexts.Design/methodology/approach: A mixed methods approach is applied. First, by means of desk research and thematic literature review, a conceptual model integrating the I50 paradigm, smart city and blockchain-based solutions is built. Second, science mapping bibliometric analysis (SciMat) based on keywords’ co-occurrence is applied to a sample of 491 research articles to identify key domains of blockchain-based applications’ use in smart city. Third, a semi-systematic literature review complements insights gained through SciMat. Fourth, the findings are interpreted through the precepts of the conceptual model devised earlier.Findings: The key blockchain-based applications in smart cities pertain to two domains, i.e. the foundational, service facilitation-oriented domain, including security (and safety), networks, computing, resource management and the service delivery-oriented domain, including mobility, energy and healthcare. Blockchain serves as the key building block for applications developed to deliver functions specific to each of the thus identified domains. A substantial layering of blockchain-based tools and applications is necessary to advance from the less to the more complex functional domains of the smart city.Originality/value: At the conceptual level, the intricacies of the (making of the) I50 paradigm are discussed and a case for I50 – smart city – blockchain nexus is made. Easton’s input–output model as well as constructivism is referenced. At the empirical level, the key major domains of blockchain-based applications are discussed; those that bear the prospect of integrating the I50 paradigm in the smart city are highlighted. At the methodological level, a strategic move is made aimed at restoring the literature review’s role as subservient to the key line of exploration, to justify and ultimately support it, rather than to showcase the literature review as the ultimate purpose for itself.

Against the backdrop of the expanding debate on smart cities, the objective of this paper is to examine to what extent and to what end the connection between smart services and smart cities has been explored in the literature, and what to make of it. It is argued that smart services, including demand- and innovation-driven service development, constitute an essential part of the broad concept of smart city. Viewed in this way, smart services serve as one of the key levers through which smart cities grow, develop, and build their resilience. By placing the analysis in the broader context of the smart city as smart service system, this paper sheds light on the still underexplored fields of research and suggests how they could be examined. For the purpose of the analysis, the Science Mapping (SciMat) method is employed as it allows to quantify and to visualize research output featured in Scopus and Web of Science (WoS), thus aiding the analysis. The added value of this paper is two-fold, i.e., (i) the SciMat analysis identifies the key dimensions of the nascent smart services in smart cities debate, and consequently, (ii) allows for suggesting topics that should be further investigated to detect the drivers for cities’ growth, resilience, and sustainability.

This paper explores walking and walkability in the smart city and makes a case for their centrality in the debate on the resilience and sustainability of smart cities, as outlined in the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is argued that, while the human/inhabitant-centric paradigm of urban development consolidates, and research on walking, walkability, and pedestrian satisfaction flourishes, the inroads of ICT render it necessary to reflect on these issues in the conceptually- and geographically-delimited space of the smart city. More importantly, it becomes imperative to make respective findings useful and usable for policymakers. To this end, by approaching walking and walkability through the lens of utility, the objective of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework in which the relevance of walking and walkability, hereafter referred to as w², as a distinct subject of research in the smart cities debate is validated. This framework is then employed to construct a model of a composite w² smart city utility index. With the focus on the development of the conceptual framework, in which the w² utility index is embedded, this paper constitutes the first conceptual step of the composite index development process. The value added of this paper is three-fold: First, the relevance of walking and walkability as a distinct subject of research in the realm of smart cities research is established. Second, a mismatch between end-users’ satisfaction derived from walking and their perception of walkability and the objective factors influencing walking and walkability is identified and conceptualized by referencing the concept of utility. Third, a model smart city w² utility index is proposed as a diagnostic and prognostic tool that, in the subsequent stages of research and implementation, will prove useful for decisionmakers and other stakeholders involved in the process of managing smart cities.