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PLACE BRANDING AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: AN INVESTIGATION OF CRITICAL CONCEPTUAL ISSUES
Place branding and city branding are multi-disciplinary rapidly growing research domains (Brown & Campelo, 2014; Kavaratzis & Hatch, 2013; Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2008; Lucarelli & Berg, 2011). However, there are problems with the lack of conceptualization and theoretical shortcomings in this field (Kavaratzis, 2004; Parkerson & Saunders, 2005; Skinner, 2008). In order to fill these gaps this paper introduces a novel approach towards place branding and social responsibility of the city.
In the present paper the brand attitude to living in the city (Merrilees, Miller, & Herington, 2012, 2013) is explained by four other concepts: 1) social responsibility of the city, 2) contribution of the city to the metropolitan area, 3) city brand identification, and 4) city reputation. These concepts are based on previous research in the fields of marketing and management and adapted to the context of the study. Social responsibility of the city has its background in the concept of corporate social responsibility (He & Li, 2010; Marin, Ruiz, & Rubio, 2008), which is a driver of brand loyalty (Marin et al., 2008), and brand value (Melo & Galan, 2011). The concepts of city brand identification and city reputation have been developed using the research on brand identification (Lam, Ahearne, Mullins, Hayati, & Schillewaert, 2013; Mael & Ashforth, 1992) and corporate reputation (Lai, Chiu, Yang, & Pai, 2010; Wang, Kandampully, Lo, & Shi, 2006).
Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the theoretical model with a data (N=400) on consumers' attitudes towards the city of Helsinki. The results of the model show that Social responsibility of the city has a very strong impact on City brand identification. Likewise, Contribution of the city to the metropolitan area has a very strong impact on City reputation. Moreover, City brand identification has a strong impact on Brand attitude to living in the city. Finally, the model demonstrates that City reputation has a very strong impact on Brand attitude to living in the city. Overall, the results show that both social responsibility of the city and contribution to the metropolitan area are strong drivers of city brand identification and city reputation. Moreover, the evidence shows that these are drivers of brand attitude to living in the city. This evidence is important as it develops and links the concepts of social responsibility and contribution to the metropolitan area to the concept of brand attitude to living in the city.
