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Jobs of communication professionals are closely linked to transformations in society and therefore the role of these professionals is changing rapidly. Communication students must be prepared for the new demands put on communication professionals in the field. In Ede, a new curriculum in communication was launched in order to enable students to become relevant partners in dialog with society. Not only has the content of the curriculum changed but also the organizational structure of our faculty and the educational role of the lecturers.

We can identify three areas in the new curriculum where fundamental transitions have been made, in order to meet the expectations of a profession in transition:

1. Decentralization. In order to create an agile educational environment, we choose flatter structures and more autonomy for development teams (including budgets). Creating educational ownership improved knowledge sharing and idea generation among lecturers.

2. An agile curriculum. We renewed the content of the curriculum and added subjects as online reputation management, web care, training skills, and advanced listening. What’s more: from now on we invest to improve the curriculum every year, in cooperation with stakeholders. Students participate in focus groups about the curriculum and partners in the field are invited as cocreators.

3. The role of lecturers. The ongoing development of the profession has huge implications for the role of the teaching staff. The lecturer used to be the expert. He shared his knowledge with the newcomers, the students. Nowadays lecturers only add value if they continuously gain experience from practice. Therefore, we encourage teachers and students to learn together with partners in the communication field.

The purpose of this paper is to examine developments in the use of events by places from a predominantly place branding role based on image and economic impacts towards a broader placemaking approach aimed at holistic improvements in place quality.

The research is based on a single case study approach, with the Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) as the focus. Data sources include resident surveys, depth interviews and analysis of policy documents.

The Den Bosch case illustrates the emergence of a more holistic approach to the use of events as a placemaking tool. The city shifted from an ad hoc events policy to the development of a multi-annual programme designed to produce economic, image, social cultural and network effects. This approach seems to have been successful in stimulating visitation, increasing visitor spend and raising the international profile of the city. At the same time, the city has developed many activities designed to mobilise local stakeholder groups and increase social cohesion, which provide essential support for the necessary investment.

There are indications that sustaining such a programme over the longer term is difficult in the face of political and economic change. Adoption of a holistic approach also requires the mobilisation of a wide range of stakeholders.

Critical success factors for placemaking are identified.

The Den Bosch programme helped to increase social cohesion in the city by involving residents and local cultural groups in different projects. However, this required a differentiated approach based on the needs of each group.

This study presents a placemaking model that can help to identify the different elements required in a successful placemaking programme. This is developed from a practice approach, which has the value of paying attention to how event programmes can be initiated and sustained by a group of actors.

This chapter offers a first-person account by a faculty member/consultant who advised a chemical manufacturing company, Albemarle (formerly Quality Chemicals Incorporated, (QCI)), on outreach with important external stakeholders that include a diverse community according to age, education, and income. Among this small PA town of residents with a motto of “quality of life comes first,” a community advisory council (CAC) consisting of members reflecting the diverse demographics of the town, launched a communication campaign with research steps to discover how to best prepare the community for risk events.

Northern Ireland (NI) has pervasively been a fragile and often disputed city-regional nation. Despite NI's slim majority in favour of remaining in the European Union, de facto Brexit, post-pandemic challenges and the Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP) have revealed a dilemma: people of all political hues have started to question aspects of their own citizenship. Consequently, this chapter suggests an innovative approach called ‘Algorithmic Nations’ to better articulate its emerging/complex citizenship regimes for this divided and post-conflict society in which identity borders and devolution may be facilitated through blockchain technology. This chapter assesses implications of this dilemma for a city-regionalised nation enmeshed within the UK, Ireland and Europe: NI through Belfast, its main metropolitan hub. The chapter explores digital citizenship in NI by applying ‘Algorithmic Nations’ framework particularly relating to intertwined (1) cross-bordering, (2) critical awareness, (3) digital activism and (4) post-pandemic realities and concludes with three dilemmas and how ‘Algorithmic Nations’ framing could better integrate NI's digital citizenship.

The university is changing. Its social role is growing in diversity and complexity. In a knowledge-based society, there is a huge public expectation in the results and impacts of the university’s activities. Its traditional roles – training and qualification of individuals and production of new knowledge – are no longer valid. As a result of university–industry interactions, policy-making began to give additional significance to the role of the university in regional development, mainly motivated by shining examples of success in transferring scientific knowledge to valuable innovation, many through academic entrepreneurship. This change in the role of the university is reflected not only in the mode of knowledge production, which became more transdisciplinary and applied, but also in the active engagement of different institutional spheres, the university, the firm, the government, and end-users, creating new hybrid and overlapping areas for the governance of innovative dynamics. This chapter defines and analyses the position of the university in contemporary society as a socially legitimised institution for the production of knowledge and innovation. Three different theoretical traditions – Actor–Network Theory, Stakeholder Theory and territorial innovation models – inspire the analysis of 15 in-depth interviews with key actors in their local innovation system and knowledge networks around the University of Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). The main conclusions suggest that the university today faces a huge challenge in responding to the expectations that society places on it.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptually and empirically explore and challenge the dogma of Corporate visual identity (CVI) consistency. The goal is to nuance the current polarized debate of consistency or no consistency.

A qualitative research strategy is employed in this paper. Specifically, the empirical work rests on an interview study with strategists from ten different CVI agencies. The interview transcripts are analyzed using template analysis.

In terms of findings, both empirical and conceptual arguments for and against CVI consistency are presented. Many of these arguments rest on conflicting assumptions of CVI communication, CVI authenticity and CVI management, which all influence the debate of CVI consistency.

CVI practitioners are presented with a more reflective approach to dealing with consistency and hands on examples for inspiration.

This paper offers alternative and more nuanced conceptualizations of CVI consistency. This includes seeing consistency and inconsistency as ends of a spectrum to be balanced rather than mutually exclusive and by differentiating between consistency across platforms and consistency over time – coined CVI continuity. Furthermore, several future research areas that can help to further develop the field of CVI are suggested.

Although the prominence of social media for companies is widely acknowledged, a close examination of the literature reveals a lack of empirical research pertaining to the effect of consistency specifically on social media. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to fill the gap in social media communication concerning the effect of consistent visual identity on social media users.

The study executed an experiment 2 (corporate visual identity condition) × 2 (organization type) between subjects design to map the effects of consistent visual identity on social media users appreciation of the visual identity, attitude toward the company, reputation and intention to commit to a company on social media.

The results of the study indicated the significant effects of consistent visual identity on social media users over the inconsistent conditions of visual identity on all dependent variables. Furthermore, there were insignificant main effects of organization type on general judgment, credibility, distinctiveness and reputation of the company.

This study presents the effects of consistent visual identity on social media platforms. The research will help marketing academicians, graphic designers and social media practitioners in online marketing by using its practical implications to strategically positioning their corporate brand in a social media environment.

This study provides novel insights on the impact of consistency on social media users. This is the first study to determine the role of consistent visual identity in the social media environment. It thereby adds to the literature of visual identity by developing the sphere of influence of consistency and its effects toward the user’s attitude.

This paper aims to evaluate the maturity matrix (MM) (a facilitated formative self‐assessment tool for organisational development in primary care) on satisfaction, differences between GP and staff, the extent to which practice teams worked on goals set, and to identify suggestions for change to MM.

The approach taken was a cross‐sectional survey administered to all participants by mail in 57 family practices, 278 participants, (143 GPs; 135 staff) in Denmark, one year after participating in the MM project.

At practice level 44 returned at least one questionnaire. At participant level, 144 returned the questionnaire: 82 GPs; 62 staff. A total of 93 gave positive statements on satisfaction with MM, 16 stated initial expectations were not met, 79 would recommend MM to colleagues. Differences between GPs and staff were only statistically significant regarding “increased insight into organisation of work after participation in the MM project”. There was a tendency that GPs were more positive and likely to give an opinion. A total of 22 planned how to meet the goals set at the first MM meeting and 18 felt that they achieved them. In 24 out of 44 practices MM was stated to contribute new ways of working. A total of 12 of 144 stated that they needed more follow‐up support.

The results indicate that MM is a workable method to assess and gain insight into practice organisation with no major differences between GPs and staff.

The paper examines participants views' on MM one year after introduction.

Absorptive capacity is a knowledge-processing ability that hospitality organizations should hone to create competitive advantage in a fierce business environment. This study aims to examine an integrative model explaining how hospitality organizations infuse external knowledge into competitive advantage via absorptive capacity processes and opportunity-capturing abilities.

This study used structural equation modeling, using the R Lavaan package, with 288 survey responses collected from hospitality employees.

Structural equation modeling with multiple indirect relationships presents a holistic picture of how hospitality organizations develop externally acquired knowledge into organizational outcomes through detailed absorptive capacity processes. Unit size is found to positively moderate the indirect relationship between external acquisition and competitive advantage through knowledge transformation only. Competitiveness level negatively moderates indirect relationships through assimilation and transformation.

The findings highlight the importance of hospitality organizations’ knowledge management capabilities through acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation processes. These integrative mechanisms can be facilitated by intraorganizational coordinative processes through collective interpretations and applications of knowledge and effective organizational routines based on management and technical support.

This study proposes an integrative model encompassing a process perspective and the role of intraorganizational coordination in bridging potential and realized absorptive capacity.