This study aims to analyze leisure involvement and voluntary simplicity as antecedents of leisure satisfaction and the relationship with experiential consumption. To this end, we conducted a survey with 815 Brazilian runners and cyclists, and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Age, education, and income were also investigated as moderators in the relationship between leisure involvement and leisure satisfaction. The main results showed that leisure involvement positively influenced leisure satisfaction and voluntary simplicity of its practitioners. Voluntary simplicity positively influenced leisure satisfaction and experiential consumption. The moderation test showed that the relationship between leisure involvement and leisure satisfaction is stronger for higher age, education, and income. We concluded that leisure involvement could be a path to a simple living choice, one source for a more sustainable world. The findings provide theoretical and practical implications for practitioners, policymakers, and society.

During the last several decades, the diversification of economic activities has become a paramount policy for nations and cities with heavy dependence on a single economic driver. Particularly island economies, relying mainly on tourism income, are among the most vulnerable ones to the shocks of global financial crises. In the recent years, some of these tourist islands had attempts to diversify their economic activities by moving towards a knowledge and innovation economy. This paper places one of these islands—Florianópolis, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina—under the microscope to address the question of ‘what it takes to transform a tourist island into an innovation capital’. In order to tackle this question, the study examines economic, social, spatial, and governance conditions and performances, along with the plans and processes of Florianópolis in moving towards an internationally recognized smart innovation island. The methodologic approach includes systematic review of the literature and qualitative analysis of the key development domains of Florianópolis through the lens of knowledge-based urban development. The results of this study provide insights into how to transform a resource-based economy into a knowledge-based one—by disclosing the transition journey of Florianópolis, including progress, challenges, and the new path creation processes. The findings are particularly useful for tourist islands that are aiming for an aspiring knowledge-based urban development and smart city transformation.

While smart city transformation is a remarkably popular topic among urban policymakers across the globe, there is little evidence on how to evaluate a city’s smartness level accurately. This study aims to bridge this knowledge gap by applying a novel assessment framework to a case study context and generating useful insights. To achieve this aim, the study evaluates the smartness levels of 27 Brazilian state capital cities through the indicators of productivity and innovation, livability and well-being, sustainability and accessibility, governance and planning, and connectivity and innovation. This urban smartness analysis is conducted through a smart city assessment framework that brings up three categories of smart city performance types—i.e., leading, following, and developing. The findings of the analysis revealed that the common characteristics of cities with leading smartness performance are having: (a) a strong innovation ecosystem; (b) Specific legislation for developing entrepreneurship; (c) Training opportunities for skilled labor; and (d) Conditions for knowledge-based development and digital transformation offerings and readiness. The analysis identified the smartest cities in Brazil as follows: Florianópolis, São Paulo, Vitória, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, and Cuiabá. This study offers insights from the application of a novel method in the Brazilian context for the local authorities to consider adopting for smart city performance and progress analyses and subsequently making necessary interventions to transform their smart city policy and practice to realize their desired goals.

During the last couple of decades, making cities smarter and more sustainable has become an important urban agenda. In this perspective, knowledge-based development is seen as a strategic approach for cities seeking to thrive through innovation and resilience. Accomplishing a knowledge-based development agenda is, however, challenging, and cities need support mechanisms to effectively develop and then incorporate such agendas into their decision-making processes. This study investigates the role of international events as one of these support mechanisms for the development and implementation of local knowledge-based development agendas. The study aims to address how international events contribute to the local knowledge-based development efforts. This study takes the Knowledge Cities World Summit (KCWS) series as the exemplar international event, and the Brazilian city of Bento Gonçalves as the case study city. The methodological approach of the study consists of semi-structured interview-based qualitative analysis and case study investigations. The findings of the study revealed the following: (a) international events can be fundamental drivers of local knowledge-based agendas; (b) these events contribute to host cities’ development, especially at an institutional level, by generating outcomes such as engagement in cooperation networks and leveraging local actors’ influence on the development process; and (c) KCWS was instrumental in placing the local university as a protagonist of the knowledge-based development movement of Bento Gonçalves. The study reported in this paper provides invaluable insights for cities seeking to use international knowledge-based development events for smart and sustainable city formation.