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A Smart‐City Scope of Operations Management
Author(s) -
Qi Wei,
Shen ZuoJun Max
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
production and operations management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.279
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1937-5956
pISSN - 1059-1478
DOI - 10.1111/poms.12928
Subject(s) - scope (computer science) , smart city , sustainability , smart grid , business , scale (ratio) , business model , computer science , process management , knowledge management , marketing , computer security , engineering , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics , electrical engineering , biology , programming language , internet of things
We are entering an era of great expectations towards our cities. The vision of “smart city” has been pursued worldwide to transform urban habitats into superior efficiency, quality, and sustainability. This phenomenon prompts us to ponder what role the scholars in operations management (OM) can assume. In this essay, we express our initial thoughts on expanding OM to the smart‐city scope. We review smart‐city initiatives of governments, industry, national laboratories and academia. We argue that the smart‐city movement will transition from the tech‐oriented stage to the decision‐oriented stage. Hence, a smart city can be perceived as a system scope within which planning and operational decisions are orchestrated at the urban scale, reflective of multi‐dimensional needs, and adaptive to massive data and innovation. The benefits of studying smart‐city OM are manifold and significant: contributing to deeper understanding of smart cities by providing advanced analytical frameworks, pushing OM knowledge boundaries (such as data‐driven decision making), and empowering the OM community to deliver much broader impacts than before. We discuss several research opportunities to embody these thoughts, in the interconnected contexts of smart buildings, smart grid, smart mobility and new retail. These opportunities arise from the increasing integration of systems and business models at the urban scale.