Governing the City, Financing the Future: Sequencing Urban Development Management and Islamic Financial Engineering for Smart City Resilience in Saudi Arabia – a Conceptual and Methodological Framework

Abstract

This conceptual and methodological paper proposes a sequenced framework to explain how Urban Development Management (UDM) and Islamic Financial Engineering (IFE) operate in succession to build the Resilience of Smart Cities (RSC) in Saudi Arabia. Drawing on systems theory, the resource-based and dynamic-capabilities views, institutional theory and the objectives of the Shari’ah (maqasid), it develops four testable propositions. UDM is positioned as the enabling layer that makes resilience-oriented projects identifiable, bankable and governable, while IFE acts as the financing channel through which part of that effect reaches resilience outcomes. The paper then specifies a protocol for testing the propositions through a cross-sectional survey of specialized professionals, analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), including mediation testing and predictive assessment. No empirical results are reported; the propositions are claims awaiting test. The framework offers researchers, urban authorities and Islamic financiers a reusable design for studying resilience-oriented urban development under Vision 2030.