While the development of smart cities is not an alien concept and in the last
few decades, an increasing amount of investment both in terms of time and money is
done, the pecuniary or financial benefit of this investment is still much uncharted. Like
any other investment made, the return on investment plans and models are essential for
further development. This research aims to explore, comprehend, analyse and further
develop the return on investment in smart cities and various adjunct IoT and IoE-based
models. The presented study primarily analyses and explores various possible financial
benefits by deliberating multiple case studies of various smart cities and IoT-based
projects worldwide. Additionally, a complete and detailed framework for each assayed
case study is presented to comprehend the concept of RoI or return on investments
which are distinct for every analysed case study contingent on numerous factors like
investment, operational cost, area of application, etc. The presented study also aims to
provide a comprehensive and comparative study between various plans of RoI for
numerous case studies of smart cities and IoT-based projects.
Keywords: Internet of Things, Internet of Everything, Operational cost, Return on Investment (RoI), Smart cities.
