Emma Björner

International positioning through online city branding: the case of Chengdu

Purpose: The aim of the present study is to add to the existing research on online city branding by studying how metropolitan cities are internationally positioned using the Internet and online bra ...

Strategic creation of experiences at Shanghai World Expo: a practice of communification

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the underlying rationale for why companies participate in mega‐events in general, and in mega‐events in emerging economies – such as the 2010 Shanghai Expo – in particular. Of particular interest are the ways that companies use an event to advance their own purposes, and how experiences are created that use aspects of an event setting such as Expo 2010.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a participatory, ethnographic and longitudinal field study focusing on the VIP section of the Swedish Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo, using additional data from other national pavilions and respondents with insight into Expo 2010 and its organization.Findings – The study indicates that even though companies operationally used the World Expo and the VIP section in many different ways, an underlying element appears to be to use the event for the “practice of communification”.Practical implications – The study provides practitio...

Introduction: setting the scene

The purpose of this introductory chapter – as the title says – is to set the scene for the coming chapters: providing definitions of some of the more central concepts, and a description of the overall structure of the book and how the different chapters relate to each other. However, we would like to start the chapter with some general comments on the role and importance of cities in the world today.

Urban Development and Branding Strategies for Emerging Global Cities in China

This chapter sets out to analyze urban development and branding strategies for emerging global cities in China. It takes as its starting point that there has been a shift from a focus on economic dimensions toward a global city discourse in which various dimensions are at play, including economic, cultural, social, and environmental. The empirical focus is five large, globalizing Chinese cities, namely Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. The findings show that multidimensionality, and hence being a center of not only economy and finance but multiple elements (such as those pertaining to culture, social factors, and the environment), increasingly defines emerging global cities in China, as well as tomorrow’s global cities.