Citizen satisfaction is an important issue for global city managers in the construction of a smart city. To date, little research has been done on the effect of citizen participation on citizen satisfaction in a smart city. From the perspective of citizen involvement and based on the theory of involvement and American Customer Satisfaction Index model, this study explores the impact mechanism of citizen participation on citizen satisfaction in a smart city and constructs a theoretical model of citizen satisfaction. The data were collected in Qingdao, which is a smart city in China. The analysis shows that citizen involvement has a significant positive influence on citizen participation both cognitively and affectively. Furthermore, citizen participation produces a direct and significant positive impact on citizen satisfaction. Last, citizen participation can also have a significant positive influence on citizen satisfaction through perceived quality and perceived value. The main contribution of this study focuses on the construction of the impact mechanism model. Based on this model, researchers and city managers can understand the entire reaction process of the citizen ranging from subjective judgement to practical actions and then actual experiences in the construction of a smart city.