Strategic Management of City Brands and Its Influence in Smart Cities
This current research aims to build and validate a city strategic management model which allows the development of medium-long-term city strategies. The empirical research design is based on mixed methods. Four exploratory interviews of mayors responsible
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Strategic Management of City Brands and Its Influence in Smart Cities Teresa Aragonez, Gonçalo Caetano Alves, and Alicia Blanco-González
Abstract This current research aims to build and validate a city strategic management model which allows the development of medium-long-term city strategies. The empirical research design is based on mixed methods. Four exploratory interviews of mayors responsible of city marketing preceded the collection and analysis of 400 informants’ sample obtained from face-to-face questionnaire-based surveys. The research took place in four Portuguese cities located in the Region Center of Portugal. The qualitative research shows that politicians of cities don’t take into consideration neither the city brand nor the objectives of smart cities. For them the strategic management of cities is only 4 years last. The quantitative research shows that citizens are involved with their city although half of them are unknown to public marketing efforts. The city attributes which are positively valued by citizens are activity and innovation, whereas stiffness, “to be outdated,” and no dynamism are considered negatively. Finally, the results indicate that city brands are perceived differently by visitors and residents.
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Introduction
It is estimated that by the end of the twenty-first century the world population will be peaked and stabilized; it is known that the vast majority live in cities and this fact is a unique opportunity to shape the future of global society through innovation in urban systems (Harrison & Donnelly, 2011). In a world where resources are scarce and the cities consume the vast majority of resources, it proves to be vital that cities think more sustainably creating advanced systems to improve and automate processes in order to play a leading role in smart cities (Hancke, Silva, & Hancke, 2012). The fact that cities around the world face new challenges as a result of the growing urban
T. Aragonez (*) • G.C. Alves IPAM–The Marketing School, Porto, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] A. Blanco-González Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 M. Peris-Ortiz et al. (eds.), Sustainable Smart Cities, Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40895-8_6
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population raises the level of importance of information and communication technologies (ICT) to make this growth sustainable (Doran & Daniel, 2014). Sustainable and competitive cities require medium-long-term planning and, while ensuring quality of life, should think the city as a product. Just like it occurs in industrial context, the city is a product to be desired and “bought.” Most cities (in Portugal) that were part of our study did not focus on the city as a brand and the respective city managers only associate the city brand to a mere logotype. The current instruments of strategic planning are insufficient to meet the new challenges of cities. The cities’ representatives should adapt their strategies to new t
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