Public acceptance towards smart city implementation in Malaysia

Since 2020, Malaysian cities have integrated smart elements like IoT devices and data analytics to enhance urban services, including transportation, healthcare, and waste management, reflecting the nation's commitment to sustainable development and technological progress. Despite these advancements, the successful implementation of smart city initiatives hinges significantly on the public acceptance and support for these transformative technologies and policies. Several challenges impede the effective implementation of smart city policies, such as ineffective communication, lack of resources, inadequate skills, and low trust in leadership. Additionally, the multiethnic nature of Malaysian society complicates the public's acceptance of these technological implementation. Therefore, this research aims to investigates public acceptance to smart city and the possible improvement could be done in gaining public acceptance towards the implementation that has been applied in Malaysia. Hance, the objective is to determine the concept of a smart city, analyse public acceptance towards the implementation of smart city in Malaysia, and to identify the possible improvement could be done in gaining public acceptance towards the implementation of smart city in Malaysia. This study employs a mixed-method approach, combining a systematic literature review with quantitative analysis, focusing on Malaysian citizens aged 18 and above. At the end of this study, the analysis indicated the level of public acceptance toward the concepts of smart city, along with the factor influenced the perception of public, in addition, the suggestion on the potential improvement also being identified. Further study is suggested to investigate into the perspectives of rural residents concerning developmental advancements.