The growing literature on city branding has widely overlooked the relationship between firms and city brands. This paper analyses firms, with a focus on local SMEs as city image consumers and users, but it also draws attention to them as producers of city images. From a smart specialisation perspective, this analysis suggests that firms may contribute to a new wave of ‘innovation brands’ according to which the place-based approach to innovation is made visible and perceived locally and internationally. The city brand may represent a source of values and symbols that legitimise and help understand local smart specialisation rationale, hence fostering the path of innovation at local and regional scale.
City Branding and Local SMEs: A Smart Specialisation Perspective
Pasquinelli C
2015-01-01
Abstract
The growing literature on city branding has widely overlooked the relationship between firms and city brands. This paper analyses firms, with a focus on local SMEs as city image consumers and users, but it also draws attention to them as producers of city images. From a smart specialisation perspective, this analysis suggests that firms may contribute to a new wave of ‘innovation brands’ according to which the place-based approach to innovation is made visible and perceived locally and internationally. The city brand may represent a source of values and symbols that legitimise and help understand local smart specialisation rationale, hence fostering the path of innovation at local and regional scale.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.