Exploring participatory place branding as an inclusive governance framework for sustainable place development

Project Information

BRANDSUS

Grant agreement ID: 895260

DOI

10.3030/895260

Project closed

EC signature date 16 April 2020

Start date 1 December 2020

End date 28 February 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 281 358,72

EU contribution

€ 281 358,72

Coordinated by

ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BRANDSUS (Exploring participatory place branding as an inclusive governance framework for sustainable place development)

Reporting period: 2020-12-01 to 2023-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

This project explored place branding as a governance tool for sustainable place development. It critically questioned utilitarian approaches to branding places often narrowly focused on supporting economic development and developed a framework for co-created, participatory place branding processes that can support sustainable place development. This project hence (re) conceptualized place brands as public, complex, socially constructed, embodied and dynamic marketing systems grounded in powerful and plural place identities. When co-created, place brands can provide a sense of place (united) and represent the aspirations and values of many place stakeholders (plural).
The BRANDSUS research project answered the following overall research question: How can Place Branding, as an alternative governance approach, warrant greater stakeholder engagement?
Our main premise was that understanding stakeholder engagement in place branding would assist the operationalization of co-creation models.
Main contributions:
1. Development and testing of an innovative new methodology (mixed methods: quantitative survey + qualitative PAR-SI) to operationalize the holistic and inclusive governance required for SPD. This project contributed to the current discussion on governance arrangements for SPD (and PB) by exploring stakeholder participation in action, inviting participants to actively reflect on their practices as they scope governance solutions.
2. Theoretical contribution: conceptualization of place brands as embodied and experiential marketing systems and reflection on implications for brand managers (see Eshuis & Ripoll Gonzalez, 2024).
3. Empirical testing of:
a. The role of network governance arrangement in place branding (see Ripoll Gonzalez & Eshuis; Ripoll Gonzalez et al., 2024a).
b. Determinants of citizen participation in place branding processes
c. Determinants brand citizenship behavior (support for the brand) of regional companies and organizations involved in region branding process (Ripoll Gonzalez et al., 2023)
d. Causal link between organizations’ engagement in the place branding process and brand citizenship behavior (Ripoll Gonzalez et al., 2023)
4. Development of a special panel around co-creation in place branding at the International Place Branding Association Conference (leading forum for place branding research and practice) and a series of workshops fostering practitioner-academic exchanges on co-creation as a governance tool for sustainable place branding (see Ripoll Gonzalez et al. 2024b)

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project consisted in four regional case studies (Muntanya d’Alacant in Spain; Zeeland and Drechsteden regions in the Netherlands and Northern Rivers NSW in Australia).
We engaged in 3 main research stages:
1) Literature review co-creation in place branding processes (article in review)
2) Qualitative interviews to better understand how the brand process unfolded, with a focus on governance and stakeholder engagement (4x reports on the governance of the brand process and 1x scientific article, Ripoll Gonzalez et al. 2024)
3) Quantitative survey to citizens in two of the areas under study (Spain and Northern Rivers) to study determinants of participation (2x factsheet and full reports and 1x scientific article being revised)
4) Quantitative survey to organizations engaged in branding the region (Drechsteden and Zeeland) to better understand the relationship between engagement in the branding process on support for the brand (brand citizenship behaviour) (1x scientific article Ripoll Gonzalez et al. 2023, 2x reports & presentation by Prof. Jasper Eshuis).
5) Action research process looking at a collective development of a place brand for the Muntanya d’Alacant region that resulted in 1 report and presentation of results in various regional forums in the area and 1x scientific paper on the groundbreaking methodology (accepted subject to minor revisions).

Publications to look out for:
Keast, R., Ripoll González, L., Murphy, H & Scott, A (2025, in press). Organizational Resilience: Insights from Neighboring Terms in Laura Frigotto & Romulo Pinheiro (Eds) Organizational Resilience.
Ripoll González, L & J Eshuis (2025, in press) Co-creation. Encyclopedia of Place Branding (eds. Eduardo Oliveira, Emma Björner & Efe Sevin).
Ripoll González, Laura, Jasper Eshuis, and Erik Hans Klijn. (under review). Managing brand co-creation through network governance. Marketing Theory.
Ripoll González, Laura (accepted with minor changes). A dynamic regional branding process as a governance tool for sustainability transitions. Action Research.


REPORTS:
Several BRANDSUS reports 2022-2024 (see www.brandsus.eu):
Governance of brand reports (Zeeland; Northern Rivers; Muntanya d’Alacant).
Survey result factsheets (Northern Rivers Brand; Grup d’Accio Local Muntanya d’Alacant brand; Smart Delta Drechsteden Brand; Zeeland).


SPIN OFF COLLABORATIONS:
Gent Municipality (Belgium) ‘A study on Gent city brand image’ (co-creation and branding), 2024. This project applies the learnings of the project to the development of a survey questionnaire to study determinants of engagement in co-creating place brands. I
Ripoll Gonzalez, L., Klijn, EH & Metselaar, S. (2025). Image of Gent. Study commissioned by the Municipality of Gent (Belgium).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The fellowship provided me with an excellent platform to assist my short-term goal of reintegration in academia. It has improved my academic skills, profile and funding capacity to achieve my medium-term goal to secure a large grant (EU ‘European Starting Grant’ or ESG; or an Australian Research Council ‘Discovery Early Career Researcher Award’ or DECRA and or in combination with private funding) to continue working on innovative action research methodologies to support greater citizen participation in Sustainable Development Processes (regional and urban levels). Continuing my research focus on developing inclusive governance models to improve citizens’ quality of life through participation in public life, contributing specifically to the sustainability objectives of the EU, Agenda 2030 and SDG 11 ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’ as well as to the implementation or the SDGs as per SDG 17 ‘Partnerships for the Goals’.
I have successfully achieved my longer-term career goal is to secure a tenured position in a leading centre of research in public administration (DPAS is #1 n Shanghai Ranking 2023) within 7 years of the fellowship (I achieve this 18 months into the fellowship). The fellowship has also provided me with enhanced teaching and supervision opportunities to strengthen my academic profile, improve the quality and dissemination of my work, and help me to grow my publications record (i.e. papers co-authored with top scholars in top-ranked journals in PA, PB and SPD), confirmed my expertise in PA (specifically in inclusive governance for SPD), and allowed me to further explore and refine current research questions and pursue future impactful lines of work at both academic and societal development levels (i.e. applying knowledge gained during the fellowship to further develop inclusive models of SPD through an ESG).

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