Globalisation has led to various changes in contemporary business practices. Recently, technological status has been altered as a result of continuous changes in the global markets. The increasing need and importance of technological business operations has prompted the interest for a fundamental thought of technology and innovation. Hence several concepts have been developed, for instance the Integrated Technology and Innovation Management concepts that stem from (Bleicher 1991) the integrated management theory (Tschirky 1998). Literature reveals (Cavalcante 2013; Cozzarin, Kim & Koo 2017) that a particular focus on the MTI reflects, on the one side, the escalating predominance of technology and innovation in deciding an organisation’s genuine business feasibility. On the other end, it makes up for the extremely disparaged effect of technological change on an organisation’s competitiveness as portrayed in present-day management literature (Tschirky 1998).

The innovative smart city government solutions arising from digital technologies, for instance, smart energy, smart food security and smart environments, must be applied appropriately to attain the sustainable goal of smart city governments with low-carbon, ecofriendly, green-energy, recycling and liveable environments (Wu et al. 2018). Technology management itself acclimatises to these new environmental settings with a change from managing technology towards managing technology-based organisations, both new and the already established ones. This implies the representation of technology management being the missing connection between science and technology (S&T) and overall management. Notwithstanding a missing link and along these lines an action ‘outside’ overall management, technology and innovation management should be considered as an incorporated part ‘inside’ of general management (Tschirky 2004). This move, which essentially happens within large, multinational companies merges the extent of the ‘Integrated Technology and Innovation Management’ in substantial and new technological innovation-based firms, in light of the fact that in new technology-based firms (NTBF), S&T and management are naturally firmly connected (Cavalcante 2013).

Przeybilovicz et al. (2017) investigated the use of information and communication technology to characterise municipalities: who they are and what they need to develop e-government and smart city initiatives? Their study examines the infrastructure characteristics and application of information and communication technologies of Brazilian municipalities contemplating on the prospect of developing e-government and smart cities actions. They employed a quantitative study technique of cluster analysis, using data from the research ‘Munic 2014’, which identified four different clusters, namely the Technology less, the Concerned-on citizen, the Concerned-on legislation and the ICT Supported. These four different clusters proposed various options of action in ICT. They found out that there are limitations in the application of ICTs by municipalities or city governments; however, there have been developments with regard to the scenarios of 2009 and 2012 (Przeybilovicz, Da Silva & Cunha 2015). The inadequate utilisation of ICT by most municipalities may result in investments in inefficient e-government efforts and smart cities (Attour & Chaupain-Guillot 2020; Visvizi et al. 2018; Zhao, Collier & Deng 2014).

The application of ICT has the potential to transform the economic prospective of the constituency and promote greater competitiveness, propelling towards new business prospects and innovation, whilst prompting the economic capability of a municipality or city government and its ability to transform into a smart city (Attour & Chaupain-Guillot 2020; Hashem et al. 2016). Determinations should be towards the application of ICT, aimed at transforming life and work in a constituency in a significant way. It is, therefore, imperative for poorer municipalities to obtain financial support and/or resources for financing basic ICT infrastructure from other sectors of government (Attour & Chaupain-Guillot 2020; Visvizi et al. 2018).

Elsewhere, El-Kholei and Al Jayyousi (2019) elucidated on the linkages between technology-driven innovation, innovative capabilities, activities and their influence on innovation performance in Dubai Municipality. They adopted the methodology of qualitative research using several sources of data, comprising reports, academic research papers, etc. Their study revealed that leadership, culture and infrastructure are critical determining factors for an innovative municipality. They argued that in order to improve innovation performance and sustainable innovation in cities, city governments must invest in digital transformation, smart infrastructure and e-governance. Shearmur and Poirier (2015) explored conceptually and empirically, the extent to which municipal innovation resembles innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Their investigation focused on exploring municipal innovation, emphasising on technological and original innovation in municipalities.

De Vries, Bekkers and Tummers (2016) observed that much of the city government’s infrastructure investments are all directed towards sustainable development, improving the quality of life of city inhabitants and strengthening the city government’s competitiveness. As the world is becoming progressively more digitised. cities are becoming digital models of the cyber ecospheres in which people dwell (Yu & Lee 2017) and the development and application of ICT is playing a significant role in this transformation.

Owing to the implementation of innovative ICT, Taiwan continues to support several initiatives associated with smart technology and strategies to build a modernised smart city with the following features: low-carbon, green and harmonious with a sustainable development (Wu et al. 2018). The Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK) demonstrated that the smart cities development must progress from the standpoint of resolving challenges to fulfill market requirements and with the prospect to construct value and nurture industry. Su et al. (2017) articulated that subsequent to a worldwide economic downturn and an upsurge of domestic economy, the development of smart cities has progressively changed globally to a great extent and encouraged public participation by using a bottom-up strategy and a state-of-the-art economic model of digital economic value added (EVA). The beneficial effects of smart city development can be considered in four proportions: ecological sustainability, social sustainability, economic sustainability and governance (Su et al. 2017).

The perspectives of citizens towards the environment and organisations enthusiastically partaking in the development of smart city are of huge significance (Yu & Lee 2017). Kaohsiung City Government embraces the management and governance framework that aimed at promoting green transportation information services, whilst improving public service efficiency, creating a new mobile objective for the city and establishing a favourable environment that has low-carbon emission and sustainable (National Development Council 2015).

The main prerequisite for innovation is that the product, process, promoting technique or organisational strategy must be new (or essentially enhanced) to the organisation. This incorporates products, procedures and techniques that organisations are the first to develop and those that have been received from different organisations or companies as observed in literature, the diverse brands of innovation include product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, organisational innovation and paradigm innovation amongst others (Gibbons 1994). All these forms of innovation either refer to the creation of something completely new or the improvement in the products of processes. In a nutshell, innovation is defined by Morck and Yeung (2001) as the implementation of new ideas in the business process or the first attempt to carry out an idea into practice.

Innovation is becoming progressively more influential in boosting competitiveness in organisational operations and service management (Rampersad, Plewa & Troshani 2012). Defined as ‘the process of turning opportunity into new ideas and of putting these into widely used practice’ (Lin & Ho 2007), innovation is essential to help firms to persist under adverse global financial circumstances and subsequently playing a key role in creating sustainable competitiveness (Wu & Lin 2009). Modern firms are knowledge-based organisations and their performance is influenced by both creativity and innovation (Martins & Terblanche 2003). The concepts of creativity and innovation are inseparably interconnected but also theoretically dissimilar (Dino 2015).

‘Creativity’ and ‘innovation’ have been used synonymously in various literatures (Lee, Hallak & Sardeshmukh 2019; Martins & Terblanche 2003), yet there are distinctions to be taken into account in their applications. ‘Creativity’ concentrates on the creation of new and innovative ideas, whilst ‘innovation’ is the application of creativity (i.e. new and innovative ideas) in a particular situation with the consequence of generating worth (Dino 2015; Lee et al. 2019). Innovation from an organisational perspective is defined as:

The concept of technological innovation stems from the scholarship of innovation studies and it explains the processes of technological change and its implications thereof. Initially, Freeman (1995) maintained that this concept was introduced under the scholarship of the Innovation System Approach (ISA) that maintains that the broad technological innovations are rooted in societal structures where the firms are based as opposed to niche firms or research institutions as the foundations of technological innovation. Freeman (1995) also noted through societal studies that society has significantly been influential in bringing about technological change, which positively impacts economic development and change. Visvizi et al. (2018) sought to tie technology-driven innovation on the one hand and both social and economic sustainability on the other. They contended that technology enablers lead to a smart city strategy, thus raising social well-being. The technology–innovation interface is clear in private sector companies. It is not the case in public sector institutions. Creativity in organisations can equally help to develop from actors outside the organisation. These outside actors can be customers, clients, professional bodies, cross-boundary networks, etc. (Anderson, Potocnik & Zhou 2014). Furthermore, creative ideas can be produced from observing and emulating competitors, collecting customer opinions or feedback, holding consultations with suppliers or gaining access to University and Government research (Lee et al. 2019). For the purpose of establishing what ideas are creative, one needs to know what ideas are not considered creative (Simonton 2016). Creative ideas are a ‘multiplicative product of originality, utility and surprise’, whilst uncreative ideas are repetitive or usual, casual responses (Simonton 2016).

However, although this is seen as an important aspect for development, scholars such as Suurs (2009) note that it is equally important to consider that knowledge that flows through research and development is not really sufficient to induce technological change and the development of an economy, hence it is also important to consider niche research areas as stimulators for innovation. Overall, technological innovation, when focused in terms of system dynamics, is broadly seen as a vital element in the competitive status of an organisation and is seen in the organisational structures, processes, goods and services in an organisation (Yam et al. 2004).

In light of these scholars, technological innovation is said to be related to the management of the components of the organisation through knowledge management, technics and skills improvement with the whole intention of increasing the competitiveness of the business entity (Yam et al. 2004).

Considering these contemporary explanations on technological innovations and its implications on competitiveness, early scholarly articles also raise similar arguments. In fact, current scholarly articles on technological innovation build upon early works on this subject (Na, Kang & Kim 2018). Schumpeter and Redvers (1934) talked about innovation as involving new products and services, new methods of producing and distributing goods, new sources of customers and suppliers, exploration of new markets and new organisation of businesses.

Considering the preceding discussion and the linkage of technology and innovation, scholars such as Şener and Sarıdoğan (2011) maintain that for technological innovation, there is need for intensive research and development and the intervention of various players in the society. Similarly, (Crespi 2004) also revealed that technological innovation is a complex aspect and is multifaceted to the extent that there are many factors that influence it where research and development play a key role. Whilst research and development are considered as an important aspect, Crespi (2004) further stated that it is equally important to consider that there is a need for the creation of a culture and environment that promotes technological innovation and related innovative activities on a local and national scale. Importantly, for there to be an effective technological innovation, there is need for the linkage between various players in the community such as business organisations, individuals, universities, state-owned research including the efforts of the civil society.

Figure 1 shows the linkages between different players of the community and how they influence the innovation process. The figure shows that the individuals, non-governmental organisations, state supported research, universities and firms all influence the innovation process. As previously observed, there is need for intensive research and development to ensure that there is continuous innovation in the organisation. On this note, the individuals are the key players in the research and development because without people and the related human capital, there will be no research or any technological and innovation aspects.

However, the humans on their own cannot trigger research and the development of various innovations. They need to be linked with the research centres, organisations, universities, the government an d other private organisations. The universities in this case are centres of higher education and they provide useful information, expertise, different methodologies and other research paradigms to come up with effective innovative ideas.

Similarly, the state-supported research institutions provide important knowledge and expertise at a subsidised cost. This is because the role of the state is to provide merit and community goods. Thus, in terms of technological innovation as an important aspect for economic development, the state can provide relevant information that will lead to the creation of new ideas that are beneficial for the nation and their intervention is at a low or no cost at all.

The involvement of the non-governmental organisation in the technological innovation process is also important in the sense that they link the individuals with important private players that play significant roles on the research in question. On this note, the linkage between the individual researchers or the civil society and the relevant people enables the creation of innovative ideas that can be adopted by the firms for their advantages. The firms in this regard refer to business organisations that are affected by the need for and the drive to introduce competitive and technologically innovative ideas.

Given that competition is an on-going concept in the organisation and it is therefore important that organisation such as city governments or municipalities need to stay abreast of their competitors in the market. In this context, the Porter’s Five Forces Model would help the city government or municipalities’ management to understand competition dynamics and how to overcome challenges faced through technological innovation. Porter’s Five Forces Model is a marketing aid that helps businesses (including city governments or municipalities) to appreciate the structure of their operative industry by enabling it to understand the threats and opportunities they may face outside their micro-environment (Porter 2008). In relation to this research investigation, this model is quite applicable in a sense that it would be useful to determine the key challenges facing metropolitan cities or municipalities in managing competitive advantage through technology and innovation. To this effect, the Porter’s Five Forces Model has five forces that shape competition within an industry and which have an implication on the performance of an organisation – measured through its profitability, attractiveness, market share, success and/or high production amongst other dimensions (Porter 2008). This is useful both in understanding the eminence of an organisation’s existing competitive standpoint and the significance of a position that an organisation may hope to move into. Figure 2 shows Porter’s Five Forces Model.

Figure 2 shows five forces that are found in the market environment of an entity and have an implication on the marketing and competitiveness of an organisation. These forces are the risk of entry by potential competitors, the bargaining power of buyers, the bargaining power of suppliers, the threat of substitutes and the resulting intensification of competitiveness amongst prevailing competitors (Porter 1979, 1996, 2008). In terms of risk of entry by prospective competitors, emphasis is placed on potential competitors who have not yet explored the market and exert competitive pressure on the organisation in question. These organisations, however, have the capability to explore the market and join in the competitive race of being the best entities amongst others. Whilst the firm’s capacity may enable it to explore new markets, thus posing the actual competitive forces – it is essential to note that entry into markets is determined by the barriers to entry. The risk of entry worries potential contenders who are not yet contending in your industry but rather have the ability to do as such on the off chance that they pick. These competitors may only become real competition if they determine and overcome the barriers to entry into the new markets, which are usually explained by the costs involved, for example, how costly an investment in question is and how much profits can be achieved if an organisation decides to join in the race (Porter 2008). The issue of entry of potential competitors is even more complex in the contemporary business environment where technological innovation is at its best because new production processes are introduced, which further increases competition amongst different firms.

Whilst the discussion on technological innovation is continuing, there are various links that have been found on how technology can lead to competitive advantage for an organisation. According to Porter and Millar (1985), the main aim of the adoption and use of technological devices by businesses is to save costs. On this note, Porter and Millar (1985) observed that the use of technology has an implication on saving money, effort and time and importantly, achieving a competitive advantage more than their rivals. This can be achieved in several ways that include the selection of only the best systems, relying on support that grows as the organisation develops, staying true to the organisation’s core business, cutting costs on recruitment and the use of experts at their call (Porter & Millar 1985).

One of the essentials of technological innovation in the organisation as identified by Porter (2008) is that it gives them the propensity to select the best possible systems from the pool of solutions to choose from. This is especially important in the present-day tenders and procurement processes where the organisation has to carefully pick the right suppliers to deal with that added value to the entity and their customers. The use of technological innovation allows them to easily access alternative suppliers’ recommendations, references and certifications and decide on the best possible supplier amongst all of them (Uyarra et al. 2014). Similarly, technological innovation allows business enterprises to also request demos and trials to get a first-hand experience of a digital tool’s design and usability. In a nutshell, Porter (2008) stated that with the available technologies, an organisation has all the available resources at its disposal to make a well-informed decision and conclude the deal. This is made possible with the available software that allows them to compile cost–benefit analysis on any available proposal and make a decision that best suits their purpose (Porter 2008).

In addition to the issue discussed here, Porter (1996) also observed that the use of technological innovation is essential for competitive advantage in the sense that it allows organisations to grow together with changes in technology. In light of this, organisations are able to design their advanced tools to oblige organisations of various sizes, and also changes in those sizes. This leaves organisations with the flexibility to become uncontrolled without worrying about supporting issues. This is certainly an edge over their rivals that need to control their development as a result of absence of sufficient support (Porter 2008).

Another challenge that organisations face is that of increased recruitment and selection costs. Literature reveals that the contemporary business practices are characterised by high employee turnover and workers mobility as they seek better working conditions and opportunities for their relevant experience. On this note Porter (2008) is of the view that the available technological innovation allows an organisation to build a strong connection between information technology and human resources department such that the link between these two will enable the organisation to cut costs when recruiting and selecting key employees for the available jobs. The available technologies should be able to screen potential employees to the extent that huge costs associated with inviting wrong candidates for interviews are minimised. If a business is able to save costs in this regard and is able to implement these aspects better than its competitors, it is more likely to gain a competitive advantage in the short- and long-term.

Use of technological innovation for operations – further, the availability of technological innovation is seen as essential for the benefit of the business in its operations. Porter (2008) furthermore stated that technology itself is a fast-growing business aspect and is essential for making the business competitive in a market full of contenders. The use of technological devices adds value to the organisation in the sense that they make it easier for the clients to communicate with the organisation through the available technologically innovative systems. Porter (2008) also mentioned that use of information technology in organisations is often an overlooked resource, but once business enterprises know how to harness it, Information Technology (IT) expertise will be within their reach without the added cost. Studies conducted by McAdam and Keogh 2004 to ascertain the relationship between the performance of firms and their familiarity with innovation and research came to the conclusion that the ability of firms to lean from their innovation is essential for their competitive standings in the market.

They found that technological innovation allows them to be unique, apply efficient business practices, reduce waste and increase their chances of improving in relation to the existing market dynamics. In similar studies conducted, it was found that technological innovation enables a firm to attain competitive advantage as opposed to its contenders in the market.

A comprehensive secondary data analysis technique was exploited in this research study. The subjective research technique is utilised to assist answering inquiries concerning the nature of phenomena with the motivation behind depicting and understanding them from the secondary data analysis point of views. Denzin and Lincoln (2008) alluded that ‘qualitative research is multi-technique in emphasis, comprising an explanatory real-life way to deal with its topic’. In other words, the qualitative research methodology makes it easy for the analyst to assess things in their natural surroundings while endeavouring to understand or interpret occurrences concerning the consequences on individuals. Furthermore, this research is not restricted in esteem rather it provides a comprehensive investigation of the subject area being considered (Bryman et al. 2018).

Whatever kind of research you are directing or carrying out, it is advisable to know about its qualities and confinements. A standout including the best favourable conditions is that compared with essential research, secondary research is reasonable and cost-effective (The Oxbridge Exploration Gathering Ltd 2017). Primary research more often than not requires spending a considerable measure of resources in terms of money. For instance, people from the research cluster should be remunerated. You might require recompensing for workplace space and equipment and compensate your associates for involvement. There may be further operating cost expenditures too. These costs do not occur whilst conducting secondary research. Despite the fact that investigators might require acquiring secondary data sets, this is in every case less expensive than if the study were to be steered without any preparation (The Oxbridge Exploration Gathering Ltd 2017; McAdam & Keogh 2004).

Johnston (2012) submitted that technological developments have prompted immense measures of information that has been gathered, ordered and chronicled and that is currently effectively available for research. Although secondary analysis is adaptable and could be used in a few different methods, it is likewise an experimental workout and a deliberate technique with bureaucratic and evaluative advances, similar to gathering and assessing primary data. This study affirms that secondary data analysis is a feasible strategy to use during the time spent on request when a deliberate method is taken after and gives an explanatory research presentation using secondary data analysis in managing technology and innovation study.

This study collected secondary data through comprehensive analysis about various aspects such as workshops, document analysis/review or desktop study, official statistics, technical reports, scholarly journals, literature review articles, trade journals, reference books, government documents, research institutions, universities, libraries, inter alias, in order to obtain relevant secondary data from management information systems (McCaston 2005) on a convenient basis from the Taiwanese Nationwide Document Delivery Service (NDDS), through the Science and Technology Policy Research and Information Center (STPI) under the Ministry of Science and Technology, which is related to the Kaohsiung City Government, Taiwan. The measuring instrument for this study was determined after a thorough literature review had been carried out.

The comprehensive and detailed secondary data analysis was critically analysed, scrutinised and evaluated for completeness and consistency. The results from secondary data analysis of diverse secondary data sources were organised into themes because of their qualitative nature and then compiled appropriately for analysis. The descriptive analytical methods such as frequency (both absolute frequency and relative percentage) were utilised to define the outcome. The findings were systematised, summarised and presented using tables, pie charts, bar graphs and charts for simplicity and contrast purposes.