Digital sustainability: how information and communication technologies (ICTs) support sustainable development goals (SDGs) assessment in municipalities

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to discuss the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the effective assessment of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) related to smart and sustainable city initiatives. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a systematic review of the literature within the Web of Science and Scopus databases, comprising the studies about ICTs related to smart and sustainable city initiatives and sustainable assessment. Findings The main results point out that there are several different ways of assessing SDGs performance related to ICTs use in smart and sustainable city initiatives. However, the effectiveness of these assessments can be questioned. The intensive use of technology understood as the core of smart and sustainable cities does not imply an improvement in sustainability unless these technologies are strategically addressed to underpin those objectives. Moreover, not all SDGs have considered the use of ICTs in their targets. Research limitations/implications The scope of the study is limited to “how” the information is used and managed, rather than analysing the sustainable performance itself. As a limitation, the findings and conclusions do not consider other sources of studies, such as grey literature. Practical implications This study suggests some requirements for providing better and more reliable sustainable assessment, making smart and sustainable city initiatives more correlated with the SDGs. Social implications By acknowledging the difficulties associated with SDGs assessment, concerning the municipal level, the study offers valuable insights into the effectiveness of public policies and public management. Besides, the findings shed some light on if and how the use of ICTs can effectively enhance sustainable development issues. Originality/value This study offers valuable contributions to the literature by providing a collection of insights regarding how the ICTs may genuinely lead to a sound assessment of sustainable development, especially regarding the SDGs.

Digital Transformation and Local Government Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Assessment of Its Impact on the Sustainable Development Goals

“…Thanks to the radical decrease in the cost of collecting, storing, and processing information ( Wysokińska, 2021 ), DT offers LGs the potential to achieve SDGs by providing managers with valuable information to establish programs for the progress and improvement of citizenship ( Mantovani-Ribeiro et al, 2021 ). Therefore, DT generates a favorable context for constructing sustainable communities by efficiently and sustainably managing data and digital information ( ElMassah & Mohieldin, 2020 ).…”

Vinculum of Sustainable Development Goal Practices and Firms’ Financial Performance: A Moderation Role of Green Innovation

“…For instance, the existing literature on SDGs is investigating factors that increase SDG practices (Santos and Bastos 2020); for instance, scalable solutions to SDGs through social entrepreneurship (Goyal et al 2020), the role of ISO (Khan et al 2021d;Toha et al 2020), environmental policy (Coscieme et al 2021), the implication of SDGs' sustainable reporting (Calabrese et al 2021), and firms' contribution through community partnerships over SDGs have been studied, with a majority of positive outcomes (Ordonez-Ponce et al 2021). The literature also contains studies that have investigated the effect of the industrial revolution on IoTs such as digital sustainability contribution (Ribeiro et al 2021), digitalization and integration (Onyango and Ondiek 2021), Big Data (Hassani et al 2021), and blockchain (Parmentola et al 2021) in promoting sustainable development goals amongst firms. In addition, the literature also shows data at the country level and indicates a significant positive relationship amongst SDGs (Pradhan et al 2017).…”

Fintech Attaining Sustainable Development: An Investor Perspective of Crowdfunding Platforms in a Developing Country

“…Fintech is an interlink between finance and technology, which refers to digital innovation to improve, develop, and automate financial services to promote and support enterprises, business owners, and investors in managing their financial activities [1][2][3]. Fintech and information communication technology (ICT) have been cited as the main drivers of financial inclusion in recent research [4].…”

“…Therefore, the novelty and contributions of our research are as follows: (1) The impact of behavioral characteristics on crowd investors' intention, which is currently a gap in developing countries like Pakistan [31], utilizing a large primary dataset that includes most of Pakistan's provinces, is a distinctive aspect of this study. (2) Using the lens of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) by [32], the majority of studies observed TPB's predictive power on online purchases [33][34][35], but only a few investigated the TPB linked to investor intention in crowdfunding [5,34,36,37], with an additional factor of trust that strengthens the role of the platform in consumer decision making [38][39][40][41][42], which is rarely used in literature, especially in a developing country context. (3) Platform-related factors of crowdfunding with the addition of blockchain technology as an additional factor affecting investors' trust for investing in a crowdfunding platform.…”