The objective of this study is to critically review the smart city research paradigm and to find possible pitfalls, conflicting results and topics for further study and improvement. A qualitative comparison of the smart city initiatives in selected target countries and cities were done. The research strategy in this study approximates the grounded theory, utilising inductive reasoning to generate arguments and conclusions about the form, validity and future of the smart city. Various actors responsible to convert a traditional city to a smart city are defined and analysed within the context of this study. The main conclusion of this study was that the current research on smart city does not fully address the complex nature, conflicts and interdependencies of the smart city objectives. Moreover, the study found that the smart city initiatives form complex and multidisciplinary platforms that require holistic evaluation as the current evaluation methods and rankings of the smart cities vary considerably, making the evaluation of the success of the smart cities difficult.

这项研究的目的是批判性地审查智慧城市研究范式，并找出可能的陷阱，矛盾的结果和主题，以进行进一步的研究和改进。对选定的目标国家和城市中的智慧城市计划进行了定性比较。本研究的研究策略近似于扎根的理论，利用归纳推理来产生有关智慧城市的形式，有效性和未来的论点和结论。在本研究的背景下，定义并分析了负责将传统城市转变为智慧城市的各种角色。这项研究的主要结论是，当前关于智慧城市的研究并未完全解决智慧城市目标的复杂性质，冲突和相互依存关系。而且，