IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i10p4251-d1651131.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Prioritizing Smart City Themes for Multi-National Enterprises and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Author

Listed:
  • Neeraj Sharma

    (Department of Management Studies, Graphic Era (Deemed to be University), Dehradun 248002, India)

  • Rupesh Kumar

    (Jindal Global Business School (JGBS), O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat 131001, India)

  • Nitin Simha Vihari

    (Business School, Middlesex University, Dubai P.O. Box 500697, United Arab Emirates)

  • Madhu Arora

    (Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune 412115, India)

  • Jatinderkumar R. Saini

    (Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune 412115, India)

Abstract

Cities’ role as major hubs of human activity and economic development is essential in attaining sustainable development, fostering a balance between economic, social, and environmental development, especially in light of the growing concern over Anthropocene-induced environmental issues like global warming and climate change. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a historic call for coordinated international action in this area, with SDG 11 specifically identifying “Sustainable Cities and Communities” as a primary objective. Therefore, it is clear that a paradigm shift in our approach to these challenges in terms of our thinking, sensibility, behavior, and responses is necessary. Implicitly, in view of their pivotal role in environmental sustainability, development of “smart” cities as healthy, citizen-friendly, economically viable, and sustainable cities for our future generations in today’s globally integrated world, as predominant centers of human settlement and activity with multinational enterprises driving economic growth, gains the immediate attention of researchers. In this light, this study aims to identify and thereafter prioritize key indicators of a smart city using the structured and consistency-focused best–worst multi-criteria decision-making (BWM) method, suitable for expert-driven decision-making with limited comparisons. While the UN’s SDG 11 promotes safe and resilient cities, our findings suggest a disparity in how local officials prioritize certain dimensions such as safety or recreation. This disconnect warrants closer examination of localized policy drivers. The findings of this study indicate that according to experts, among others, the priority themes are, in order, water and sanitation, wastewater, health, the environment, and the economy. Thus, these represent a key take-away for multinational enterprises for identifying and assessing significant thrust domains and areas of opportunity for intervention and contribution to the UN SDGs. It also enables a replicable framework for synergy between the public and private sectors towards contrastive intervention in other cities across the globe.

Suggested Citation

  • Neeraj Sharma & Rupesh Kumar & Nitin Simha Vihari & Madhu Arora & Jatinderkumar R. Saini, 2025. "Prioritizing Smart City Themes for Multi-National Enterprises and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-30, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4251-:d:1651131
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4251/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4251/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Mcintyre & Silvester Ivanaj & Vera Ivanaj, 2013. "Strategies for Sustainable Technologies and Innovations," Post-Print hal-01514504, HAL.
    2. [multiple or corporate authorship]., 2014. "Cities chapter: better growth, better climate: the new climate economy report," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60480, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Saujot, Mathieu & Lefèvre, Benoit, 2016. "The next generation of urban MACCs. Reassessing the cost-effectiveness of urban mitigation options by integrating a systemic approach and social costs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 124-138.
    2. Mook Bangalore & Stephane Hallegatte & Laura Bonzanigo & Tamaro Kane & Marianne Fay & Ulf Narloch & David Treguer & Julie Rozenberg & Adrien Vogt-Schilb, 2016. "Shock Waves," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 22787, April.
    3. Alfredo Sirkis & J.C Hourcade & Dipak Dasgupta & Rogério Studart & Kevin Gallagher & B Perrissin-Fabert & José Eli da Veiga & Etienne Espagne & Michele Stua & Michel Aglietta, 2015. "Moving the trillions a debate on positive pricing of mitigation actions," Post-Print hal-01692638, HAL.
    4. Samuel Fankhauser & Nicholas Stern, 2016. "Climate change, development, poverty and economics," GRI Working Papers 253, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    5. Etienne Espagne, 2016. "Climate Finance at COP21 and After: Lessons Learnt," CEPII Policy Brief 2016-09, CEPII research center.
    6. Neeraj G Baruah & J Vernon Henderson & Cong Peng, 2021. "Colonial legacies: Shaping African cities," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 21(1), pages 29-65.
    7. Khan, Irfan & Hou, Fujun & Zakari, Abdulrasheed & Tawiah, Vincent Konadu, 2021. "The dynamic links among energy transitions, energy consumption, and sustainable economic growth: A novel framework for IEA countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    8. Vogt-Schilb, Adrien & Meunier, Guy & Hallegatte, Stéphane, 2018. "When starting with the most expensive option makes sense: Optimal timing, cost and sectoral allocation of abatement investment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 210-233.
    9. Edilio Valentini & Paolo Vitale, 2019. "Optimal Climate Policy for a Pessimistic Social Planner," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 72(2), pages 411-443, February.
    10. Géraldine Thiry & Philippe Roman, 2016. "L’indice de richesse inclusive : l’économie mainstream au-delà de ses limites, mais en deçà de la soutenabilité ?," Revue française de socio-Economie, La découverte, vol. 0(1), pages 235-257.
    11. Monika Walicka & Marcin Zemigala & Wioletta Czemiel-Grzybowska, 2015. "Technology Entrepreneurship – State of the Art and Future Challenges," Eurasian Journal of Social Sciences, Eurasian Publications, vol. 3(4), pages 10-21.
    12. Alina-Petronela HALLER, 2016. "Tourism Industry Development In The Emerging Economies Of Central And Eastern Europe (Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania)," SEA - Practical Application of Science, Romanian Foundation for Business Intelligence, Editorial Department, issue 11, pages 181-187, July.
    13. Djoko Roespinoedji & Roeshartono Roespinoedji & Mohammed R.A. Siam & Mohd Farid Shamsudin, 2019. "An Empirical Study on Short Term and Long-term Consequences of Crude Oil on Economic Wellbeing of Indonesia by Applying Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(5), pages 474-480.
    14. Maja Levi Jaksic, 2016. "Sustainable Innovation of Technology and Business Models: Rethinking Business Strategy," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 14(2), pages 127-139.
    15. Favi, Claudio & Marconi, Marco & Mandolini, Marco & Germani, Michele, 2022. "Sustainable life cycle and energy management of discrete manufacturing plants in the industry 4.0 framework," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    16. Lööf, Hans & Martinsson, Gustav & Mohammadi, Ali, 2017. "Finance and Innovative Investment in Environmental Technology: The Case of Sweden," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 445, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    17. Stephen Dobson, 2015. "Urban translations: Regeneration through the lens of actor-networking," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 30(8), pages 944-960, December.
    18. repec:aud:audfin:v:20:y:2018:i:48:p:418 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Anissa Nurdiawati & Frauke Urban, 2021. "Towards Deep Decarbonisation of Energy-Intensive Industries: A Review of Current Status, Technologies and Policies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-33, April.
    20. Dorner, Zack, 2019. "A behavioral rebound effect," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    21. Dorner, Zack, 2017. "A Behavioural Rebound Effect: Results from a laboratory experiment," 2017 Conference, October 19-20, Rotorua, New Zealand 269390, New Zealand Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4251-:d:1651131. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.