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The King Abdullah II award for excellence in government performance and transparency which established by a royal decree in 2002 to develop and improve the performance of the ministries and public institutions in serving the Jordanian community and investors by increasing the awareness of distinguished performance concepts, quality and transparency and highlighting the exceptional efforts of the public sector institutions whilst presenting their accomplishments in the development of their systems and services. This award has been positioned local municipality boosting the innovativeness of cities and regions have gained significant interest (KAA, 2015). Like this award have been positioned as an example of such methods: innovation awards or prizes have for long been discussed as important incentives for private firms to invest in R&D and other innovation activities (Kay, 2012; Williams, 2012). Innovation awards have already received professional attention from the city planners in regard to the concept of smart cities (Makkonen & Inkinen, 2014). The King Abdullah II award is also designated to aid the optimization of the local business environment for innovative talent, this Award is considered the highest award of excellence for the public sector on the national level (KAA, 2015). The Award aims to enrich the culture of excellence in the public sector, which is based on three main pillars: customer focus, results orientation and transparency.
The city of Rotterdam has plans for linking innovation awards in their policy to characterize themselves as a smart city (City of Rotterdam Regional Steering Committee, 2009). Thus, there is a potential but still underutilized connection between innovation awards and the urban knowledge-based development. This study aim to review the future of smart cities in the knowledge based urban development innovation awards in relation to the concept of smart cities and to conclude with a policy discussion concerning the use of innovation awards as a government policy instrument as well as a tool for developing smart cities. The distinguished institution is the institution that achieves and maintains superior performance levels meet and exceed the needs and expectations of all stakeholders involved, and a culture of excellence based on the adoption of a set of values and a commitment by all employees in the organization. King Abdullah II Award criteria for excellence in government performance and transparency (excellence model) represented on nine criteria, five of which are “enablers “, and four are “results”. Standards cover “enablers” what you are doing any institution and how to do it. The standards cover the “results” achievement of any institution. “Results” comes a product of the “possibilities (means)”, and is improving the “possibilities (means)” Through the feedback of the “results”. Each of the nine standards has its own definition of standards, which explains the general meaning of that standard. To illustrate the general meaning, we find that each standard is supported by a number of sub-criteria, which is a more detailed items are examples of a general practice or applied in distinct institutions and what should be taken into consideration during the evaluation process.