City Branding in China’s Northeastern Region: How Do Cities Reposition Themselves When Facing Industrial Decline and Ecological Modernization?

Urban-Rural Fringe Long-Term Sequence Monitoring Based on a Comparative Study on DMSP-OLS and NPP-VIIRS Nighttime Light Data: A Case Study of Shenyang, China

Urban-rural fringes, as special zones where urban and rural areas meet, are the most sensitive areas in the urbanization process. The quantitative identification of urban-rural fringes is the basis for studying the social structure, landscape pattern, and development gradient of fringes, and is also a prerequisite for quantitative analyses of the ecological effects of urbanization. However, few studies have been conducted to compare the identification accuracy of The US Air Force Defence Meteorological Satellite Program's (DMSP) and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) nighttime light data from the same year, subsequently enabling long time series monitoring of the urban-rural fringe. Therefore, in this study, taking Shenyang as an example, a K-means algorithm was used to delineate and compare the urban-rural fringe identification results of DMSP and VIIRS nighttime light data for 2013 and analyzed the changes between 2013 and 2020. The results of the study showed a high degree of overlap between the two types of data in 2013, with the overlap accounting for 75% of the VIIRS data identification results. Furthermore, the VIIRS identified more urban and rural details than the DMSP data. The area of the urban-rural fringe in Shenyang increased from 1872 km² to 2537 km², with the growth direction mainly concentrated in the southwest. This study helps to promote the study of urban-rural fringe identification from static identification to dynamic tracking, and from spatial identification to temporal identification. The research results can be applied to the comparative analysis of urban-rural differences and the study of the ecological and environmental effects of urbanization.

A comparison analysis of the decoupling carbon emissions from economic growth in three industries of Heilongjiang province in China

Growing environmental pressure urges China to develop in a sustainable and low carbon way, and thus China strives to achieve a carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. As the main energy and heavy industry based in China, carbon emissions in Heilongjiang Provice play a crucial role in achieving China's climate change targets. Compared with countries with similar populations, Heilongjiang Province (HLJP)'s carbon emissions are still at a low level. In the research on Heilongjiang Province's carbon emissions among three industries, we apply Tapio decoupling and the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method to analyze the decoupling elasticity and effort index of three industries' growth and carbon emissions in HLJP from 2005 to 2017. Moreover, Deng's grey relation model is adopted to judge the relation degree between industries and carbon emissions. The results show that: (1) with respect to decoupling, the secondary industry is in a relatively stable state of decoupling; however, the decoupling state of the primary industry is not stable at all, which appears expansive or negative in the studies over the past years. (2) The carbon emissions of three industries show an upward trend during the study period, of which the economic scale effect contributes most, while the energy intensity was the main inhibitor to carbon emissions. (3) Three industrial-economic structures are related to carbon emissions at a high level. The tertiary industry ranks the first, which is followed by the secondary industry and then the primary industry. The economic growth of the tertiary industry is much faster than the other two, hence, its relation degree is the highest. Overall, our analysis can provide an effective reference for the decline of carbon emissions in each industry.

Marketing in the Public Sector—Benefits and Barriers: A Bibliometric Study from 1931 to 2020

The global economy has brought economic and social changes that have led organizations to extend their vision beyond consumer and business markets. Particularly, in the marketing of public sector (MPS), the extant theoretical foundations require more comprehensive investigations not only into the main topics researchers have looked into the past, but also into the new challenges they will face in the future. Thus, the purpose of this study is to provide a thorough a bibliometric overview of the theoretical framework and to identify benefits and barriers of marketing in the public sector. We provide an overview of the theoretical framework and identify the benefits and barriers of marketing in the public sector through a bibliometric study. To achieve this objective, a systematic literature review was conducted of 3926 articles from 1931 to 2020. The results allowed the identification of four main theoretical clusters: educational, public health, social economics and urban politics. It also offered benefits and barriers in the context of MPS. Conclusions and implications to the academia and managers are drawn. Future research opportunities are also provided.

Factors Determining City Brand Equity—A Systematic Literature Review

The aim of this study is to analyze factors determining city brand equity (CBE) on the bases of a systematic literature review (SLR) according to a procedure developed by Tranfield. Five databases were searched (Scopus, Web of Sciences, Google Scholar, EBSCO, and Elsevier) for studies containing the term ‘city brand equity’. In addition, databases were searched for ‘destination brand equity’ and ‘place brand equity’ statements focusing on city brands. This SLR contains 36 empirical studies and does not include conference materials, and books. The analysis was based on three issues: general information (author/authors, year of publication, research tools, sample size, city and country as well as sample population), research specification (variables, hypotheses or research questions, statistical methods and research tools), and findings related to CBE and practical implications for destination marketing organizations, and destination or city managers. In summary, there are many factors determining CBE, including brand image, brand quality and brand awareness. These factors are related to cultural, environmental and ecological elements, as well as infrastructure and services offered to tourists. Brand assets related to the perception of the city brands in various aspects also proved to be important.

New Town Development and Sustainable Transition under Urban Entrepreneurialism in China

New towns are a major form of urban growth in China. In recent years, increasing numbers of large new town projects have been planned and built in and around existing cities. These new town projects have frequently been employed by city governments as central elements of pro-growth strategies, based on ideas of urban entrepreneurialism, which seek to promote economic growth, project a dynamic city image, and increase urban competitiveness. This article studies how the pro-growth, urban entrepreneurial approach affects the planning and development of Chinese megacities. A conceptual framework focusing on land-leasing revenue and new town development strategies is employed to explore the linkages between urban growth mechanisms and urban outcomes. Empirical material from four cities in the Pearl River Delta—Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, and Zhuhai—is presented. The analysis indicates that new town developments in these cities have different levels of dependency on spatial expansion and land revenue, and emphasize different issues of sustainable development in their plans. Cities with a lower dependency on physical and economic growth are be more likely to emphasize the quality of the built environment and address issues of sustainable urban development more closely when planning and implementing new town projects.

City Brand Personality Projected by Municipalities from Central and Eastern Europe Countries—A Comparison of Facebook Usage

City branding is becoming more and more popular, not only as a field of research, but also as a practice of local governments. Municipalities attempt to introduce this concept into their sustainable transformation process, positioning a city among its stakeholders as, for instance, an eco-oriented, innovative, or smart city. An idea that fosters building a strong and consistent city brand is brand personality. The aim of the paper is to diagnose a city’s brand personality dimensions/traits communicated via posts published on official Facebook accounts of cities and to identify differences occurring within this scope between cities of two selected Central and Eastern European countries—Poland and Ukraine. To achieve this aim, the research involved a content analysis of 1700 posts published by 34 municipalities representing regional capital cities of Poland and Ukraine. On the basis of these study results, the authors have supplemented the Aaker (1997) five-dimensional scale of brand personality with the sixth dimension: Prosocial Attitude, which includes cooperative and bureaucratic traits, to better comply with the approach of cities to problems of their inhabitants and their surrounding environment, which is consistent with the idea of sustainability. Furthermore, the fifth trait has been added to characteristics which make up Aaker’s Excitement dimension. Dubbed as patriotic, it refers to the city’s activities related to the local celebration of historical events, indicating national pride and identification with its place of residence. Bureaucratic and patriotic traits were quite frequently observed in posts published on the official Facebook accounts of Ukrainian cities. Moreover, the research proves that in case of Polish cities the dominating brand personality dimensions are Sincerity and Excitement. Ukrainian cities tend to exercise communication based on the Sincerity and Competence dimension.

Tracing the Origins of Place Branding Research: A Bibliometric Study of Concepts in Use (1980–2018)

Place branding is seriously studied in various academic disciplines. Its impact on strategic development plays a vital role in processes of sustainable urban transformation. Place branding originated in tourism management and over time its research focus spilled over and evolved in environmental science, urban studies and public administration. Scholars and policy makers are currently faced with a myriad of concepts in place branding research, which show considerable overlap but should be carefully distinguished from each other. To increase our understanding of this body of research, this article observes a strong pattern of the concepts in use, in their references to location types (i.e., urban, city, destination, place) and broadcasting activities (branding, marketing, promotion). It builds on this observation by collecting studies from the Scopus database by location type and broadcasting activities (LT–BA) reference pairs and systematically analysing and reviewing these from 1980 to 2018. A total of 2665 articles and reviews were identified and analysed based on (1) occurrences per reference pair, (2) co-occurrences per reference pair, and (3) co-occurrences for each reference pair with other concepts. On that basis, the origin and evolution of the research field including multiple reference pairs in use is explored and described.