City brand love: modelling and resident heterogeneity analysis

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate how city dependence and city social bonding determine city brand love. In addition, the study examines whether there are different resident segments that exhibit distinct behaviour in relation to city brand formation. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on primary responses collected from 595 residents from Khulna city in Bangladesh. The research model is tested using partial least square (PLS) structural equation modelling. The resident segments were identified using PLS prediction-oriented segmentation method. Findings Results show that city dependence (i.e. dependence on urban facilities and services provided by the city) and city social bonding (i.e. social interactions amongst residents in the city) lead to city brand love through city satisfaction and city identification. In addition, the study finds that city social bonding and city satisfaction are important for the relationship-reliant residents, whereas city dependence and city identification are important for the resource-reliant residents. Research limitations/implications Future research can investigate the relationship between the length of residence and native vs non-native residents’ influence on city brand love formation. Practical implications The city brand managers and planners should adopt a resident-inclusive approach that considers the different needs of the residents to engender city brand love. Originality/value The study contributes to city branding literature by empirically investigating the under-researched topic of city brand love by identifying the key constructs and their role in determining city brand love. Further, it shows that the route to city brand love formation is different based on residents’ needs.

City brand love: destination attractiveness and memorable tourism city experiences

“…This is consistent with the finding that city-related attributes influence city identification (Shafiee et al, 2021). Finally, these results also clarify inconsistent conclusions in the literature about whether satisfied or dissatisfied tourists are more likely to engage in WOM (Sadeque et al, 2022). In fact, the scope of WoM is a major consequence of city brand love, espousing the view that discontented tourists actively engaged in negative WoM.…”

“…Tourism literature has shown that a memorable tourism experience can form strong emotional bonds (Ardyan and Susanti, 2018). As reported in previous studies, tourists can express love for the city they have visited (Insch and Walters, 2018;Sadeque et al, 2022). Shafiee et al (2021) underlined the positive effect of the cognitive and emotional dimensions and evaluated tourist-destination identification on love for the destination.…”

“…The city brand attractiveness scale was borrowed from Ardyan and Susanti (2018) and Snieska and Zykiene (2015). To measure city brand identification, we used the study of Sadeque et al (2022). The memorable city brand experience was measured by the scales introduced by Shafiee et al (2021), Ardyan and Susanti (2018) and Zhang et al (2018).…”

“…The result of this study supports the social identity theory that explains the positive effects of city brand identification on city brand love. Third, researchers have increasingly been examining place branding from the tourists’ perspective (Sadeque et al , 2022; Shafiee et al , 2021) and to understand the place consumers’ (i.e. tourists’) perception of “place products” (Warnaby, 2009).…”

Role of place satisfaction and residents’ ambassadorship behaviours (RAB) on place attachment to city and neighbourhood

“…To attract new residents, investors and other stakeholders, place marketing and branding have become an important part of the overall city’s marketing strategy. The focus is now on providing an “experience” to the residents by creating better quality facilities and a place to create social bonds with other residents (Sadeque et al , 2021). RAB is seen as a cost-effective and efficient way to promote a city compared to traditional advertisements (Wassler et al , 2021).…”