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This dissertation explores how smart city strategies are being used in Macau, focusing on what everyday citizens think about them. It explores both the positive aspects and the problems with how these policies are being put into action. While the Macau government has introduced several digital services. For example, the Macau One Account, electronic payments, and smart transport systems. There are many people who feel there’s a gap between technology and how well it actually includes everyone. The research is based on a close look at government plans (like the Macau SAR Five- Year Plan 2016–2020) and interviews with people from different age groups. Using a method of analyzing themes in the data, the study found that younger and middle- aged people generally find these tools useful and convenient. However, older adults often struggle because they aren’t as comfortable with smart city services and don’t get enough support. Also, even though the government says it welcomes public input, most people said they weren’t really involved in decisions, showing that the process is mostly top-down. The study points out some big challenges, like digital inequality, lack of public participation, and a mismatch between what policies aim for and what people actually need in daily life. It suggests making smart city planning more inclusive by offering digital tools in multiple languages, involving citizens in budgeting decisions, and providing digital training for those who need it. Overall, it argues that smart city development should focus more on fairness, access, and building public trust to truly improve urban life in a lasting and meaningful way.

This dissertation investigates the implementation of gender mainstreaming in career development in the Macao Public Security Police Force, specifically how the institutional policies and socio-cultural contexts interact within and influence careers in a traditionally structured organization. The study utilizes the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explore the impact of Attitude, Subjective Norms and Perceived Behavioral Control in influencing career development outcomes. Adopting a qualitative approach, utilizing policy analysis with in-depth interviews to identify gaps in academic studies and assess the effectiveness. Findings demonstrate that while some progress is observed, highly entrenched biases and traditional views of roles remain present and pose significant challenges. Police officers throughout the organization expressed a desire for reducing structural barriers, and enhancing support for employee work-life balance to benefit all personnel. By analyzing the local conditions in Macao and reflecting on relevant global practices in gender mainstreaming, this study concludes that sustainable equality in the workplace requires a balance of institutional and cultural factors, including organizational policies, workplace norms, gender stereotypes and societal expectations. In essence, the study contributes to the multidimensional discussion on how we can all leverage positive practices and offers valuable advice on improving workplace equality.

This dissertation examines the implementation of smart policing in Macau, focusing on the adoption and challenges of facial recognition technology within the Macau Urban Electronic Surveillance System. As Macau pursues its smart city ambitions, the integration of advanced technologies into law enforcement has become a central strategy for enhancing public safety and operational efficiency. However, the actual acceptance and use of these technologies by frontline police officers remain underexplored. The study adopts a mixed-methods approach. documentary analysis of government policies and strategic documents provides an overview of Macau’s smart policing initiatives and the legal and infrastructural frameworks supporting them. The core of the research is a quantitative survey of Macau police officers who have direct experience with the facial recognition system. The survey is structured around the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), with additional attention to compatibility and perceived legal knowledge. The results reveal that performance expectancy and perceived legal knowledge are the strongest factors influencing officers’ adoption of facial recognition while effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and compatibility are less influential. Practical challenges were discovered through the Macau police officers.

This research examines aspects that influence career development for women in the public sector in Macau. The combination of local customs and what remains from Portuguese rule in Macau has led to a special society that influences how gender is dealt with in public institutions. While nations promise gender equality, women do not hold many leadership positions in their government agencies. To conduct this study, qualitative research using semi-structured interviews was performed with 12 female public sector staff, some in leadership positions and some aiming for them. Analysis of interview data shows that cultural norms, organizational structures and new technological trends together block women from advancing at work. It appears that strong cultural habits about gender keep valuing women’s domestic duties over professional goals, supporting the belief that top management should be mostly male. Women in these sectors which are largely male, are doubted about their ability to lead. Organizational barriers, including opaque promotion practices, gender-biased recruitment, lack of mentorship, and limited access to gender-sensitive leadership development programs, further impede women's career advancement. Even though work-life balance policies exist in the handbook, managers often ignore them and consider them a hindrance for women hoping to move ahead.In parallel, the study explores how digital transformation—the so-called "Internet+" era— offers both opportunities and challenges for women in the public sector. Although digital tools improve skills and career paths, poor training often keeps women from gaining from these resources. The impact of digitalization brings out more gender inequality, because women find it harder to access major leadership roles in high-tech sectors. To tackle these different problems, the dissertation recommends strategies such as running gender-focused mentorship programs, making sure work-life balance policies are properly enforced, increasing transparency during promotions and launching digital skill training just for female employees. Equally importantly, it stresses the need for shifts in cultural values together with new policies, encouraging campaigns to raise awareness and welcoming new leadership models opposed to patriarchy. The research, by considering Macau’s special setting, helps advance the debate on gender equity in governance and provides useful tips for supporting inclusive leadership paths in societies with similar characteristics.

This study provides an empirical assessment of public servants’ integrity in Macao’s public sector, exploring how integrity is perceived, practiced, and promoted amid Macao’s unique administrative and socio-cultural context. Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with ten public servants from diverse departments and hierarchical levels, the research adopts a qualitative approach guided by the Theory of Public Service Motivation (PSM). The findings reveal that integrity fundamentally prioritizes public interest above personal gain, grounded in honesty, self-discipline, and ethical commitment. While organizational missions and formal codes offer guidance, individual values, professional ethics, and personal motivation are central to upholding integrity. Key enablers include mission-driven values, ethical leadership, supportive organizational culture, non-monetary incentives, and recognition. However, integrity is undermined by inconsistent ethics training, weak supervision, ineffective reporting mechanisms, and cultural factors such as close social networks and fear of retaliation. The effectiveness of mechanisms, such as internal regulations, anti-corruption agencies, and ethics training, varies across departments, often hindered by procedural gaps and societal norms. The study concludes that sustaining integrity in Macao’s public sector requires strengthening ethics education, enhancing leadership and culture, improving internal systems, and addressing systemic and societal risks. Limitations include the small, non-generalizable sample and focus on qualitative insights. Recommendations are targeted at policymakers, the supervisory institution, the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC), and institutional leaders for future reforms.

This dissertation investigates the key factors influencing citizens to adopt e-government services in Macao, focusing on the Macao One Account platform. Using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework, the study examines factors such as Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, and Facilitating Conditions, with additional factors including Trust and Perceived Risk. This study is essential to provide a guideline for adopting e-government services effectively, helping policymakers and government entities optimize digital platforms for improved service delivery and user engagement. The research employed a quantitative methodology. The survey data was collected through an online survey in Google Forms distributed to Macao residents who use the Macao One Account platform. The responses of the 126 respondents were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods to identify trends and relationships between the key constructs. The findings reflect that performance expectations, effort expectations, trust, and facilitating conditions are the most influential drivers, with social influence playing a more moderate role. Perceived risk is low, indicating minimal concerns about security or privacy. Usability is an important driver, as most respondents find the platform easy to learn and use. Additionally, the users’ attitudes to the e-government platform could be affected by their trust in the government; reducing risk and increasing confidence can improve the platform's reliability to users. This study shows the need to improve the e-government platform by focusing on users. It includes making it easier to use, building trust with strong data protection, and making it accessible to all citizens. These results give ideas for adopting e-government in Macao and offer simple steps for policymakers to create more inclusive digital services.

This study aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the dual effects of Macao's economic diversification policy, with the intention of exploring its role in fostering economic sustainability. By thoroughly examining Macao's economy, which has traditionally been heavily reliant on the gaming and tourism industries, the study uncovers the implementation effects of the economic diversification policy, the challenges it encounters, and its potential influence on the economy's future trajectory. The research utilizes a mixed-methodology approach, integrating extensive quantitative data analysis with qualitative interviews to ensure the comprehensiveness and systematic nature of the findings. The study's outcomes underscore the beneficial effects of Macao's economic diversification policy in stimulating the growth of new industries, bolstering economic resilience, and attracting foreign investment. However, the policy also faces challenges such as skill shortages, uneven resource distribution, and the impact on traditional economic pillar industries. The research indicates that despite certain progress, Macao's economic diversification process still needs to overcome various internal and external obstacles. In response to the research findings, this study proposes a series of targeted recommendations, including strengthening the connection between education and industry, optimizing resource allocation strategies, stimulating innovation and entrepreneurship, and promoting the collaborative development of traditional and emerging industries. These suggestions aim to assist the Macao government in effectively addressing current challenges and laying a solid foundation for the long-term development of Macao's economy.

As a special administrative region of China, Macau, despite its small size and limited resources, has been actively promoting low-carbon development to address the global climate change challenge. In recent years, Macao has provided important support for achieving the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality by formulating a series of policies, such as energy management, promotion of green buildings and optimization of waste treatment. However, despite the clarity of the policy framework, its actual implementation and effectiveness still need to be systematically reviewed. This study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, interviews and questionnaires to gain an in-depth understanding of the social acceptance and public participation of policies, and quantitative data to analyze the implementation effects of policies, with a view to revealing the advantages and disadvantages of low-carbon policies in Macao. The research results will systematically evaluate the effectiveness of low-carbon policies in Macao from multiple levels. On the one hand, quantitative data will provide a clear empirical basis for the progress of low-carbon policies; On the other hand, qualitative research will reveal key social and technological barriers to policy implementation, helping to understand the impact of public attitudes and behaviour on policy effectiveness. These results can not only provide reference for Macao's future low-carbon policy adjustment, but also provide experience for other similar cities to cope with similar challenges in low-carbon development. The importance of this study lies in its dual contribution to academia and practice. At the academic level, this study has enriched the theoretical research on low-carbon city development, especially the special challenges of carbon emission reduction in resource-limited cities. At the practical level, the results of this study can directly provide policy makers with specific suggestions for improving low-carbon policies, such as resource allocation, technology introduction and public awareness. Through these analyses, the study hopes to provide a practical roadmap for Macao to achieve its goal of carbon neutrality, as well as a valuable reference for the low-carbon development of similar cities around the world.

Macau is facing problems on how to moderately diversify its economy, improving its air quality, water quality, and waste management, and improving its biodiversity. The research aim is to investigate and propose how Macau can achieve moderate economic diversification, environmental protection, ecological protection and preservation in line with sustainable development goal 8, 9, 12, 13, and 15. Using documentary analysis, extensive literature review, and analyzing of Macau situation, the following findings are suggested: - Research and development using the university institutions on areas ranging from hospitality and tourism management, telecommunication engineering, electrical & electronic engineering, automation and control, computer science and engineering, transportation science and technology, nanoscience & nanotechnology, instrument science and technology, biomedical engineering, as well as relevant infrastructure, policy and financial support, - Talent attraction for specialised industries with stringent requirements due to the limited capacity of Macau, - Financial market development for financing, capital accumulation, and wealth management, - Focus on tourism-related industry, then big data and technology leveraging Hengqin, and then financial industry for supporting, - Better method to reduce air pollution through more energy efficient industrial facilities with less greenhouse gases emission, - Better water quality and pollution management through water pollution management, water resource conservation, the development of environmentally friendly technologies to control water pollution, - Polluter pay law such as Japan's Basic Environment Law, Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law, - Producer’s responsibility law such as home appliance recycling law, containers and packaging recycling law, and - A framework for biodiversity protection including a combination of legislative, technical, and community-based initiatives, as well as a comprehensive wildlife protection law.