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The competing dynamics and relationships in corporate and local government agency constructions of place
Russell, Natalie Adderley, Simon Stokes, Peter Scott, Peter
Russell, Natalie
Adderley, Simon
Stokes, Peter
Scott, Peter
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2014-01-01
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Abstract
This paper explores the dynamics of how private sector business entities and local government bodies perceive and interact with the identity of the locality in which they operate. It identifies tensions and differences in, and consequences
of, the dynamics and relationships between how private sector business entities view constructions of ‘place’
and how government and publicly-funded place-marketing organisations portray and promote localities.
These issues are examined through the phenomenon, brand and slogan of ‘visit, live, invest’ which is gaining credence
in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world. The paper develops data using in-depth interviews and a smallscale
survey set within an overall interpretivistic case study approach.
The data and the case-study demonstrate that, despite the rebranding of the local government agencies as a placemarketing
organisation committed to the new ‘live, visit, invest’ initiative and brand agenda, there is an ongoing ‘cultural
hangover’ from previous place promotion policies. There are also serious impacts and consequences for
relationships between the public and private sectors and with other stakeholders. The prevailing image of UKTown
(real name anonymised) by business leaders is one that sees this town fundamentally as a historic, traditional and
conservative town. This image has been the product of many years of older style promotion in this vein. While such
an image may suggest pleasant aspects of the living environment, it has little to do with corporate image, values and
concerns and many private sector business entities do not identity with it. In several instances it is even considered by
certain business sectors to be ‘detrimental’ to the need for a dynamic business environment and the forms of relationships
and activities these necessitate. The paper indicates a number of strategic moves that could be adopted in
order to improve this predicament.
Keywords: private business entities, local government agency, place identity, place marketing, branding, perception
Citation
Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, 2014, 3(1), pp. 3-16
Publisher
Slovenian Academy of Management
Journal
Dynamic Relationships Management Journal
Research Unit
DOI
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
Language
en
Description
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Series/Report no.
ISSN
2350-367X