2012 Awards for Excellence

Citation

(2013), "2012 Awards for Excellence", Journal of Place Management and Development, Vol. 6 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpmd.2013.35506aaa.002

2012 Awards for Excellence

Article Type: 2012 Awards for Excellence From: Journal of Place Management and Development, Volume 6, Issue 1

The following article was selected for this year's Outstanding Paper Award for Journal of Place Management and Development

“City branding: a state-of-the-art review of the research domain”

Andrea LucarelliSchool of Business, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

Per Olof BergSchool of Business, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to carry out a contemporary and concise “state-of-the-art” review of the city branding research domain, in particular how scholars have approached this field of study, what aspects of city branding have been studied, what cities have been chosen, and how the studies are designed.

Design/methodology/approach – Through an iterative search in multiple literature databases, 217 qualified research studies on city branding were identified and retrieved. Those studies were examined, analyzed and categorized according to six categories: bibliographical data, methodologies used, empirical foundation, conceptual frameworks, branding elements, and reported outcomes of branding efforts.

Findings – City branding is emerging as an internationally recognized research domain characterized by a high degree of multi-disciplinary, rapid proliferation in and between disciplines, and a somewhat fragmented theoretical foundation. On the basis of research interests, three perspectives were identified (producing, consuming, and criticizing city branding) emerging across academic disciplines

Research limitations/implications – The study is based on research articles in English, published in academic journals, which limits the international and professional scope of the study. Another limitation is the selected time period, which does not include studies prior to 1988 or later than 2009.

Originality/value – As a state-of-the-art review, the main contribution of this paper is a contemporary and comprehensive overview of the field as such. A methodological contribution is the attempt to run a multi-variate analysis of the branding elements in relation to the output and performance data reported in the studies. Another contribution is the identification of three cross-disciplinary research perspectives in the field today.

Keywords Brand management, Cities, Marketing, Research work

www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/17538331111117133

This article originally appeared in Volume 4 Number 1, 2011, pp. 9-29 Journal of Place Management and Development

The following articles were selected for this year's Highly Commended Award

“Place branding's role in sustainable development”

Vishwas Maheshwari, Ian Vandewalle and David Bamber

This article originally appeared in Volume 4 Number 2, 2011, Journal of Place Management and Development

“How to catch a city? The concept and measurement of place brands”

Sebastian Zenker

This article originally appeared in Volume 4 Number 1, 2011, Managerial Finance

Outstanding Reviewers

Martin BoisenUtrecht University, The Netherlands

Ares KalindidesINPOLIS, Germany