ABSTRACT
While many countries have policy goals for building smart cities, ultimately, their implementation depends on local citizens and entrepreneurs. Smart cities should help firms do business and attract investments, thus raising living standards.
The purpose of this study is to explore perceptions of smart transition among the general population and entrepreneurs in Estonia, a small country with 1.3 million people. The perception among entrepreneis investigatedgatebased onf 2022, a survey with 551 respondents carried out by the Estonian Business School. The survey focused on green transformation, which is seen in this article as an essential component of building smart cities. The result shows that the essence of green transformation needs to be better communicated with firms. There are significant differences in the responses of large and small firms as well as between exporters (one-third of responding firms) and non-exporters. The perception of the general population living is based on the satisfaction survey about urban environments conducted among Estonian inhabitants (over 11 thousand respondents) in 2020. The results show that cities require investment, smart firms, and engaging citizens to develop innovative city ecosystems.
