Influencing Factors of Smart Community Service Quality: Evidence from China

Smart community is an important constituent part of a smart city and an extension and deepening of the concept of the latter. When it comes to smart community, the digitalization upgrading of traditional community service is conducted via information technology, in an effort to improve the service experience of community residents and elevate their happiness index. From social functions, smart community also has the advantages in facilitating the smart transformation of cities, promoting the harmonious society construction, and improving governmental efficiency and image, among others. However, various problems persist in the construction and development process of a smart community, such as mismatching service contents and low service quality. To explore the influencing factors of smart community service quality, a total of 16 influencing factors were extracted from 5 dimensions: service object, service subject, government role, management system, and service content. The relationships among the influencing factors were analyzed via the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL)-interpretative structural modeling (ISM) composite model, and a multi-order explanation model was constructed for these influencing factors. Result shows that the legal guarantee is the root cause influencing the smart community service quality. Development standard, basic service, and expected service are deep influencing factors that play mediating roles. Middle-layer factors such as service and operating systems have a direct bearing on quality perception. The surface-layer factors directly decide residential assessment on the smart community service quality. This study has also manifested the feasibility of the integrated DEMATEL-ISM method in analyzing the action mechanism of influencing factors for smart community service quality, providing a new analytical idea and modeling method for the smart community service quality.