Drivers of Public Demand of IoT-Enabled Smart City Services: A Regional Analysis

City councils are increasing their investments in smart city projects to face the challenges of growing urbanization. In this context, it becomes important to understand the motivations that drive public spending. Through a survey administered to Italian municipal policy-makers and managers, a framework of influential factors is developed and three main drivers are revealed: savings on public budget, better quality of life of the citizens, and city’s wealth. This work allows researchers to better understand the public demand for smart city solutions, policy-makers to gain insight on their return on smart city investment, and private smart city service providers to tailor their solutions.