New smart city clusters’ construction level evaluation under economic circles: the case of Shandong, China

China’s Shandong Province plans to create a new smart city cluster that is developmentfocused, demand-led, people-oriented, and data-driven. This entails the scientific assessment of construction levels, analysis of potential hurdles, and formulation of upgraded strategies. However, existing research has mainly focused on measuring single or multiple traditional smart cities, therein overlooking the construction level of new smart city clusters. Thus, this study takes the new smart city clusters in Shandong Province and uses both entropy method and the Moran index to analyze the construction level and spatial differences in the four dimensions of social livelihood, economic production, innovation-driven development, and safeguard measures. Results show that the construction level of the provincial capital economic circle is uneven and has polarization issues. Meanwhile, the construction level of Jiaodong economic circle is relatively good, although the economic driving capacity needs further improvement. The low urbanization rate of the Lunan economic circle occupies a gathering zone with low construction levels, making the construction of digital villages necessary. Targeted suggestions in improving the radiationdriven capacity of core cities, improving digital infrastructure, and developing smart industries are then forwarded to promote the establishment of new smart city clusters and achieve top-notch economic growth.