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Place marketing approaches are increasingly employed by public authorities competing to attract capital. While a growing number of studies have provided valuable insights, scholars appear to be struggling to advance their theoretical understanding. This is arguably the result of failure to produce evidence‐based research, excessive focus on small‐scale case studies, difficulties bridging disciplinary boundaries, and reluctance to advance generalizations. To overcome these problems, the purpose of this paper is to present a framework that can be used to generate empirically testable hypotheses and thereby provide a structure for research.

A brief literature review first identifies obstacles that prevent place marketing research from making significant progress. Second, to overcome these obstacles, the paper identifies the need to consider spatial competition for capital, which has, remarkably, been overlooked. Third, drawing on these insights, a conceptual framework is presented. Fourth, from this framework, six propositions are deduced that may enable the development of a theory of place marketing.

This work first identifies the need for a more rigorous approach to the scientific study of place marketing. Second, a conceptual framework is suggested, based on spatial competition for capital. Third, the paper demonstrates that testable hypotheses can be deduced from the framework to provide a structure for research. Arguably, empirically testing such hypotheses would significantly advance our understanding of place marketing.

This paper identifies a feasible way to structure future research that should interest place marketing researchers seeking a more rigorous approach to theoretical advancement.