# Clustering Smart City Services: Perceptions, Expectations, Responses
## 3 Research Methodology and Research Model  
The arguments elaborated in this paper derive from critical analysis of the existing debate on smart cities. These have been enriched by a pilot survey that garnered 102 responses (see Appendix A) from a carefully selected international focus group. The respondents, highly educated individuals, have been selected on the basis of their ability and their propensity to use smart city services. The hypothesis against which the so-constructed focus group was established was that a positive direct correlation exists between respondents' education level and their awareness, ability, and propensity to use smart city services. Drawing from the literature review and critical analysis, a research model was developed (See Figure 3 below) and the questionnaire was constructed. Given the breadth of the questionnaire and the ground the answers covered, the survey and its outcomes offer answers to several research questions. Indeed, this paper adds to our earlier work [2].  
The discussion in this paper employs findings associated with the following research variables: intention to use smart city services; the existence of enabling ICT infrastructure; quality and reliability of the existing infrastructure; sustainability and policy-making implications. Likert-type questions were developed to measure respondents' perceptions and expectations to relevant issues, constituting respective research variables in this context. These were complemented by an integrated meta-analysis of the responses.  
Our research model is an amalgamation of desktop research, quantitative and qualitative research. The stages of our research methodology are summarized as follows (Figure 4):  
* Outline the conceptual framework, based on 'the normative bias' of smart cities research thesis [1; 2; 3],
* conduct a thorough literature review on ICT-enhanced services in smart cities context,
* devise an outline of existing smart city services,
* establish criteria of categorization of ICT-services, and
* identify clusters of smart city services and elaborate on them.  
Figure 3: The integrated research model of our study [3].  
In the following move, drawing on the outcomes of a pilot international survey conducted in 2018, [2]  
* citizens' perceptions and awareness of smart city services they have access to are examined and
* grouped according to the clusters of smart city services' defined earlier.
* Against this backdrop, citizens' perceptions and awareness of smart city services are correlated with vendors', policymakers', businesses' etc., prerogatives in the field of smart city services.
* In this way, in the concluding part, a set of recommendations for respective stakeholders is outlined.  
The insights, concerns, and considerations inspired by the rich body of literature on smart cities that exists guided the process through which the research objectives of this study were formulated. These included the following questions:  
* What are the perceptions of smart city services users for the selective technology-enabled smart cities services and applications?
* Which are the key enabling technologies that are adopted from smart city services users in their daily life?
* What are the interpretations of these perceptions for the design of future smart city services?
* What are the sustainability and policy-making implications of our research?  
In the next section, we present the main findings of our research.  
Figure 4: Research Methodology of our study.