Economic opportunities for creating smart cities in Poland. Does wealth matter?

The development of smart cities in practice requires significant investments and financial expenses, therefore, the authors of the article decided to identify and evaluate the economic conditions of this process, which is rarely analysed in the literature on the subject. For this purpose, they conducted representative surveys in 287 Polish cities, taking into account 5 groups of parameters related to the subsequent stages of the evolution of smart cities. According to the obtained results, the key barrier to the development of smart cities in Poland is the unsatisfactory level of prosperity of the residents and the difficult financial situation of cities, which means that the vast majority of the surveyed areas are not able to attempt to get closer to the Smart City 1.0 generation. In contacts with stakeholders, Polish cities prefer the triple helix model, focused on business cooperation and creating favourable conditions for commercial entrepreneurship. Relationships of higher order helices (with communities or ecological organisations) are not a priority for them, which may contribute to the aggravation of urban pathologies in the form of unsustainability and socio-economic exclusion. Conclusions and recommendations resulting from the research contribute to the economics of smart cities and can be used in the practical improvement of the process of their creation and development.