Methodology

A total of 19 guided in-depth interviews were conducted for the qualitative part of the study. The interviews lasted up to 90 minutes each and provided an opportunity to conduct a differentiated investigation of issues relating to the topic of smart cities. Five representatives of four international cities and 12 representatives of 10 German cities were interviewed, as well as nine representatives of five companies and institutions that are actively involved in the development of smart city solutions or are implementing appropriate strategies.

The interviews with international city representatives were transcribed, translated into German, and condensed into written transcripts. The interviews with company and institutional representatives were processed using the same method, with the exception of translation. This made the country-specific perspectives and the views of the solution providers linguistically accessible and at the same time systematically comparable.

A different approach was taken for the interviews with German city representatives, where the focus was on analytical evaluation. The statements collected were structured according to the core questions and transferred into thematic clusters. This formed the basis for the qualitative chapters on goals, obstacles and solutions, which provide a condensed representation of the discourse in German cities. Representative quotes were integrated into the presentation of the results as verbatim passages in order to convey the core content of the arguments precisely and authentically.

In addition to the qualitative approach, a stan­dardized online survey was conducted. A total of 236 decision-makers from local government and municipal and quasi-municipal companies in Germany took part. The aim was to assess the prevalence of smart city projects, identify existing obstacles, and highlight the overall conditions for financing.

Thirteen percent of respondents work in towns and cities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, 27 percent in towns and cities with 5,000 to fewer than 20,000 inhabitants (small towns), 28 percent in towns and cities with 20,000 to fewer than 100,000 inhabitants (medium-sized towns), and one-third in large cities with 100,000 or more inhabitants. Twenty-five percent of respondents from the latter category work in towns and cities with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants, and 8 percent in cities with half a million or more inhabi­tants.<