Vol. 11 No. 2 (2025)
June

Articles

The smart village concept from 1.0 to 4.0 in the context of ICT entrepreneurship development in the Polish villages

Published 2025-06-30

  • Hanna Godlewska-Majkowska
    • ,
  • Agnieszka Komor
    • ,
  • Patrycjusz Zarębski

Hanna Godlewska-Majkowska
SGH Warsaw School of Economics

Agnieszka Komor
University of Life Sciences in Lublin

Patrycjusz Zarębski
Koszalin University of Technology

Abstract

Objective: The article aims to show the development process of smart villages from 1.0 to 4.0, analogous to the smart cities development, along with indicating the conditions of this process. Moreover, the goal was to examine how ICT enterprises influence the development of smart villages at the 1.0 level in rural areas and what their connections are with other sections of economic activity (based on the example of Poland).

Research Design & Methods: The study used statistical data from Statistics Poland (GUS). We used methods of cartographic presentation of data on the share of technology enterprises (Section J 62) and support enterprises (Section J63) in the total number of enterprises in rural areas in Poland, as well as changes in the share of these companies in Poland in 2012-2023. We analysed the enterprise structure in municipalities characterised by a high share of ICT enterprises according to the type of municipality (functional urban, border, and other). We used the network analysis method to identify ICT enterprises’ links with other economy sectors.

Findings: The ICT enterprises have numerous linkages with other sections, indicating their key role in providing the ICT technologies necessary for the smart villages development. We also found that rural municipalities with the highest share of ICT firms located in close proximity to cities have a high concentration of firms providing business-related services and services to residents. In the border municipalities with the highest share of ICT companies, we identified a high share of the sections responsible for administration and defence, tourism, and agriculture, while a distinctive feature of the other municipalities is the high share of companies involved in transport and storage management.

Implications & Recommendations: Among the actions to support the further development of smart villages, we identified the following: strengthening the links between ICT entrepreneurship and other key economic activities for smartification processes, expanding ICT infrastructure, supporting local initiatives through funding and advice, promoting education and training in new technologies for villagers, and encouraging cross-sectoral cooperation through the creation of platforms for the exchange of knowledge and experience.

Contribution & Value Added: We may consider the smart villages concept in analogy to the smart city concept as an innovation organising spatial structures according to a new pattern. We present the development of smart villages from 1.0 to 4.0 in analogy to the development of the smart city, together with a presentation of the conditions of this process related to the specificity of rural areas.

Keywords

smart villages, entrepreneurship, rural areas, ICT, smartification processes, network analysis

(PDF) Save

Author Biography

Hanna Godlewska-Majkowska

Professor, Head of Institute of Enterprise, Collegium of Business Administration at SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland; vice-rector at SGH Warsaw School of Economics in 2016–2020. Her research interests include issues in local and regional development, business location, and investment attractiveness of regions and are and are linked to her role as an expert in local government units.

Agnieszka Komor

PhD in Economics, Assistant Professor at University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Department of Management and Marketing (Poland). Her research interests include regional and local development, smart economy, bioeconomy, and circular economy.

Patrycjusz Zarębski

PhD in Economics, Assistant Professor at Koszalin University of Technology, Department of Economics, (Poland). His research interests include local development and innovation systems.

References

  1. Adamowicz, M. & Zwolińska-Ligaj, M. (2020). The “Smart Village” as a way to achieve sustainable development in rural areas of Poland. Sustainability, 12(16), 6503. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12166503
  2. Atkočiūnienė, V. & Vaznonienė, G. (2019). Smart village development principles and driving forces: the case of Lithuania. European Countryside, 11(4), 497-516. https://doi.org/10.2478/euco-2019-0028
  3. Aziiza, A.A. & Susanto, T.D. (2020). The smart village model for rural area (case study: Banyuwangi Regency). In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol. 722, No. 1, p. 012011). IOP Publishing.
  4. Babin, A.A., Covalenco, I.V., Tutunaru, S.A., & Babina, E.A. (2022). Some Aspects of the Formation of an Innovation Ecosystem for the Sustainable Development of Smart Villages in the Republic of Moldova. In Proceedings of the Central and Eastern European eDem and eGov Days (pp. 46-53). https://doi.org/10.1145/3551504.355151
  5. Bhosale, S., Patil, S., & Sankhe, D. (2023). The Internet of Things for India’s Smart Villages. In 2023 IEEE 11th Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10-HTC) (pp. 323-328). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/R10-HTC57504.2023.10461805
  6. Ciolac, R., Iancu, T., Popescu, G., Adamov, T., Feher, A., & Stanciu, S. (2022). Smart Tourist Village—An Entrepreneurial Necessity for Maramures Rural Area. Sustainability, 14(14), 8914. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148914
  7. Cvar, N., Trilar, J., Kos, A., Volk, M., & Stojmenova Duh, E. (2020). The use of IoT technology in smart cities and smart villages: Similarities, differences, and future prospects. Sensors, 20(14), 3897. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20143897
  8. EU Action for Smart Villages. (2019). European Commission. Retrieved from https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/common-agricultural-policy/rural-development/supporting-smart-village-strategies_en on July 7, 2024.
  9. Fajrillah, F., Mohamad, Z., & Novarika, W. (2018). Smart city vs smart village. Jurnal Mantik Penusa, 22(1), 1-6. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fajrillah-Fajrillah/publication/336144342_SMART_CITY _VS_SMART_VILLAGE/links/5e527d4aa6fdcc2f8f59ea0b/SMART-CITY-VS-SMART-VILLAGE.pdf on July 7, 2024.
  10. Fennell, S., Kaur, P., Jhunjhunwala, A., Narayanan, D., Loyola, C., Bedi, J., & Singh, Y. (2018). Examining linkages between Smart Villages and Smart Cities: Learning from rural youth accessing the internet in India. Telecommunications Policy, 42(10), 810-823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2018.06.002
  11. Gorain, B.K. (2022). Leveraging physical, digital and knowledge connectivity for smart villages. In V.I. Lakshmanan, A. Chockalingam, V.K. Murty & S. Kalyanasundaram (Eds.). In Smart Villages (pp. 153-175). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68458-7_13
  12. Johnson, T.G. & Altman, I. (2014). Rural development opportunities in the bioeconomy. Biomass and Bioenergy, 63, 341-344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2014.01.028
  13. Kalinowski, S., Komorowski, Ł., & Rosa, A. (2021). Koncepcja smart villages. Przykłady z Polski. Warszawa: Instytut Rozwoju Wsi i Rolnictwa PAN. https://doi.org/10.53098/9788389900623
  14. Kinelski, G. (2022). Smart city 4.0 as a set of social synergies. Polish Journal of Management Studies, 26(1), 92–106. https://doi.org/10.17512/pjms.2022.26.1.06
  15. Korneluk, K., Bielawska, M., Zygadło, S., Dominiak, B., & Kruczek, A. (2019). Human Smart City – Przewodnik dla samorządów. Warszawa: ThinkIt Consulting Sp. z o.o., Ministerstwo Inwestycji i Rozwoju. Retrieved from https://www.popt.gov.pl/media/71378/Podrecznik_HUMAN_SMART_CITY_do_dystrybucji.pdf on 19 July 2024.
  16. Lee, J. & Lee, H. (2014). Developing and validating a citizen-centric typology for smart city services. Government Information Quarterly, 31, S93-S105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2014.01.010
  17. Maja, P.W., Meyer, J., & Von Solms, S. (2020). Development of smart rural village indicators in line with industry 4.0. IEEE Access, 8, 152017-152033. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3017441
  18. Malik, P.K., Singh, R., Gehlot, A., Akram, S.V., & Das, P.K. (2022). Village 4.0: Digitalization of village with smart internet of things technologies. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 165, 107938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2022.107938
  19. Mitra, S., Kumar, H., Gupta, M.P., & Bhattacharya, J. (2023). Entrepreneurship in smart cities: elements of start-up ecosystem. Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management, 14(3), 592-611. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTPM-06-2021-0078
  20. Mohanty, S., Mohanta, B., Nanda, P., Sen, S., & Patnaik, S. (2020). Smart Village Initiatives: An Overview. In S. Patnaik, S. Sen & M. Mahmoud (Eds.) Smart Village Technology. Modeling and Optimization in Science and Technologies (17, pp, 3-24). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37794-6_1
  21. Murty, V.K. & Shankar, S.S. (2020). Towards a scalable architecture for smart villages: the discovery phase. Sustainability, 12(18), 7580. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12187580
  22. Naldi, L., Nilsson, P., Westlund, H., & Wixe, S. (2015). What is smart rural development?. Journal of Rural Studies, 40, 90-101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2015.06.006
  23. Novotný, R., Kuchta, R., & Kadlec, J. (2014). Smart city concept, applications and services. Journal of Telecommunications System & Management, 3(1), 2167-0919. https://doi.org/10.4172/2167-0919.1000117
  24. Paniagua, A. (2020). Smart Villages in Depopulated Areas. In S. Patnaik, S. Sen & M. Mahmoud (Eds.) Smart Village Technology. Modeling and Optimization in Science and Technologies (17, pp. 399-409). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37794-6_20
  25. Park, C. & Cha, J. (2019). A trend on smart village and implementation of smart village platform. International Journal of Advanced Smart Convergence, 8(3), 177-183. https://doi.org/10.7236/IJASC.2019.8.3.177
  26. Ranade, P., Londhe, S., & Mishra, A. (2015). Smart villages through information technology–need of emerging India. IPASJ International Journal of Information Technology (IIJIT), 3(7), 1-6. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pinak-Ranade/publication/280613118_SMART_VILLAGES_THROUGH_INFORMATION_TECHNOLOGY_-_NEED_OF_EMERGING_INDIA/links/55beedf008aec0e5f445e5a1/SMART-VILLAGES-THROUGH-INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY-NEED-OF-EMERGING-INDIA.pdf on July 7, 2024.
  27. Rwakihembo, G.D.M., Faggioni, F., & Rossi, M.V. (2024). The Dimensions of Digital Sustainable Development in Smart Villages: A Case Study Analysis. In A. Visvizi, O. Troisi & V. Corvello (Eds.) Research and Innovation Forum 2023. RIIFORUM 2023. (pp. 163-173). Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Cham https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44721-1_13
  28. Salemink, K., Strijker, D., & Bosworth, G. (2017). Rural development in the digital age: A systematic literature review on unequal ICT availability, adoption, and use in rural areas. Journal of Rural Studies, 54, 360-371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2015.09.001
  29. Singh, K.B., Sengar, N., Das, D., & Misra, S.C. (2022). Village 5.0: Enabling Technologies and its Applications in Development of Smart Village. In 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Smart Electronic Systems (iSES) (pp. 556-561). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/iSES54909.2022.00122
  30. Syaodih, E. (2019). Smart village development. In The 9th International Conference Rural Research & Planning Group (pp. 22–33). Universitas Mahasaraswati Denpasar. Retrieved from https://e-journal.unmas.ac.id/index.php/IC-RRPG/article/view/231/224 on July 19, 2024.
  31. Szanyi-Gyenes, X. (2019). The Role of Smart and Medium-sized Enterprises in the Smart Villages Concept. In A. Visvizi, M.D. Lytras & G. Mudr (Eds.) Smart Villages in the EU and Beyond (pp. 111-124). Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78769-845-120191009
  32. Utamajaya, J.N., Meyliana, Prabowo, H., Hidayanto, A.N., & Ramadhan, A. (2023). Concept, Technology, Barriers To Smart Village: A Systematic Literature Review. In 2023 11th International Conference on Cyber and IT Service Management (CITSM) (pp. 1-6). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/CITSM60085.2023.10455521
  33. Visvizi, A. & Lytras, M.D. (2018a). It’s not a fad: Smart cities and smart villages research in European and global contexts. Sustainability, 10(8), 2727. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082727
  34. Visvizi, A. & Lytras, M.D. (2018b). Rescaling and refocusing smart cities research: From mega cities to smart villages. Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management, 9(2), 134-145. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTPM-02-2018-0020
  35. Visvizi, A., Lytras, M.D., & Mudri, G. (Eds.). (2019). Smart Villages in the EU and Beyond. Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78769-845-120191017
  36. Wolski, O. (2018). Smart villages in EU policy: How to match innovativeness and pragmatism?. Wieś i Rolnictwo, 181(4), 163-179. https://doi.org/10.7366/wir042018/09
  37. Zwolińska-Ligaj, M., Guzal-Dec, D., & Adamowicz, M. (2018). Koncepcja inteligentnego rozwoju lokalnych jednostek terytorialnych na obszarach wiejskich regionu peryferyjnego na przykładzie województwa lubelskiego. Wieś i Rolnictwo, 2(179), 247-280. https://doi.org/10.7366/wir022018/13

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Similar Articles

1-10 of 231

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.