Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the identification of stakeholders involved in town centre management (TCM) projects and the main areas of intervention according to their interests and needs. Design/methodology/approach -The proposed framework is tested in the town of Benevento, Italy. On the basis of stakeholder theory, key stakeholders were interviewed according to the different kinds of linkages they had with the TCM organisation. Findings -Results from the paper support a stakeholder-based approach to the development of TCM projects. In addition, a set of categories is proposed to define and evaluate the overall town centre offer. Practical implications -The proposed framework can be used by cities or towns for the evaluation of the role of different public and private stakeholders in TCM projects, and for the assessment of their "stake" in the town centre. Originality/value -Despite the need to promote a partnership approach between the public and private sectors having been recognised as a vital ingredient for the implementation of TCM, literature is still lacking which provides clear guidance for stakeholder analysis. This is one of the first papers to propose a theoretical framework addressing this issue.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to provide some insights for the evaluation of town centre management (TCM) effectiveness, by proposing the importance-performance analysis (IPA) as a valuable tool to ensure a multi-perspective evaluation. The need for more empirical methods of measuring town centre effectiveness is related to the risk of commonly used evaluation methodologies reflecting only the success criteria of dominant stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach -By reviewing the service management literature, a definition of the "town centre product" is proposed, and how IPA can be used to analyse the city users' quality perceptions is emphasized. The theoretical framework is enriched by an empirical case study: the city centre of Benevento. Findings -The results provide a clear guidance for the implementation of a TCM scheme in the historical centre of Benevento, by identifying the main area of intervention.Research limitations/implications -The paper addresses a gap in the academic literature by using the IPA as an alternative evaluating paradigm of TCM and providing a definition of the town centre servicescape. Further research could investigate the impact of the selected environmental variables on the city users' internal responses (e.g. satisfaction) and behaviours (e.g. desire to shop), beside on their quality perceptions. Practical implications -The paper proposes a handy tool both for the exante and the expost evaluation, As well, it could be used as a benchmarking tool. Originality/value -The paper has significant implications both for practitioners and for academics. It provides an original framework for further research and factual implementation.

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