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This paper aims to assess the extent to which the perceived images and personalities of places mirror their prevalent production orientations, or “vocations”. It also investigates the factors that shape the expectations and desires of residents, tourists, local firms and export markets, as well as these users’ overall place experience.

In all, 600 questionnaires containing both closed-ended and open-ended questions were administered in four local territorial systems (LTSs) of a Southern Italian province. Data were analyzed by using both quantitative and qualitative techniques.

Results showed that place image mirrors the respective productive orientation for only one of the examined LTSs. Meanwhile, for all four LTSs, place image was congruent with place personality.

The generalizability of the results is limited, as the research focused on LTSs located in a specific geographical area.

The paper provides suggestions regarding the formulation of marketing policies aimed at improving the willingness of residents, tourists, local firms and export markets to use the products/services/resources of the studied LTSs. Communication and branding strategies that leverage the personality traits of the examined LTSs are also illustrated in the paper.

By examining the coherence among place image, personality, and prevalent vocation, this research addresses a neglected area of investigation. This study is one of the few that provides empirical evidence of misperceptions of the actual production orientation of places.

The purpose of this research is to explore the conception of marketing held by entrepreneurs of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), in comparison with that proposed by researchers using different paradigms (i.e. the transactional, relationship, or inductional marketing). It then seeks to examine the determinants of the entrepreneurs' intention to adopt a marketing approach in their firms.

The research is articulated in a pilot and a main study, which were carried out on a stratified sample of more than 200 Italian entrepreneurs. It adopts exploratory research techniques to investigate the entrepreneurs' perceptions of the marketing concept and applies Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior to quantitatively assess the psychological antecedents of their intention to adopt a “marketing approach” (i.e. what they mean by that).

Results clearly show that the “concept of marketing” as perceived by Italian SME entrepreneurs differs from that proposed by academic researchers and subjective norm (as an indicator of corporate culture) is the main determinant of the entrepreneurs' intention to adopt a marketing approach.

The research stresses that a wide gap exists between academic researchers' and entrepreneurs' conceptions of marketing. The existence of a proper organizational culture can foster the diffusion of a marketing approach among firms.

The research contributes to the literature on contemporary marketing theory and practice, by showing the existence of a need “to market the marketing approach” at least among Italian SME entrepreneurs.