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Nation branding strategies are gaining priority as an area of research because of increasing market complexities and the rising importance of national competitiveness ranking. The sustainable development of a nation brand, when properly managed, will provide the economic incentive to attract investors, tourists and generate income for local communities. Therefore, this paper aims to focus on delineating the strategic imperatives for sustainable market competitiveness of nation brands.

The research adopts an eclectic approach in examining a wider range of factors such as sustainability and market competitiveness to develop a synergistic nation brand.

For nation brands to remain competitive, it is essential to understand the key determinants of market competitiveness. These determinants include sustainable tourism factors such as culture, heritage, environmental and integration of internal and external stakeholder groups from the public and private sectors.

This paper provides a framework for the analysis of sustainable market competitiveness factors of the nation brand. It also provides implications for nation branding and future research agenda.

In this volatile and increasingly fast-revolving world, it has become crucially important to monitor, measure and manage nation image and its dynamic changes in real time. However, few studies have been conducted on a model to measure the image and/or its changes. The purpose of this paper is to find an economically affordable methodology to measure nation image and its changes online in real time.

The study took an approach to build dynamic ontology that may reflect to change nation image in real-time. With it, the authors attempted to measure nation image in real time.

Among many social media, the authors found that Wikipedia is particularly suitable for the purpose of measuring nation image. An ontology of nation image was built from the keywords collected from the pages directly related to the big three exporting countries in East Asia, i.e. Korea, Japan and China. The click views on the pages of the countries in two different language editions of Wikipedia, Vietnamese and Indonesian were counted.

The study confirms the objective: the data from a social media service, Wikipedia, may work very well as an economically affordable real-time supplement to offline nation image indices that are currently used.

The purpose of this paper is to present a study of the transformation of First Nations’ health governance, describing the development of partnerships between First Nations and provincial and federal governments for co-creating solutions to address First Nations’ health inequities in British Columbia (BC). The paper frames this transformation in the context of a Canada-wide reconciliation initiative stimulated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

This qualitative case study was a joint initiative between Simon Fraser University and the BC First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), involving interviews with senior leaders within the BC health system, FNHA and First Nations communities. In addition, a policy roundtable was held in February 2015 which gathered 60 participants for further dialogue on the process.

Key themes included: partnership and relationships, governance and reciprocal accountability, First Nations perspectives on health and wellness, and quality and cultural safety. Findings indicate that significant transformational changes have happened in the relationship between First Nations and the mainstream health system. The creation of the FNHA has led to more representation for First Nations people at all levels of governance and health service planning, which will ultimately lead to more culturally safe health services that incorporate a First Nations perspective of wellness.

The transformation of First Nations health governance in BC can serve as an example in other indigenous health settings both within Canada and internationally.

This paper describes a transformative health governance process in First Nations communities that is an historical first in Canada.

Historians of technology have for the past decade begun to recognize the important role that technology plays in nation-building. From the development of the steam locomotive in Britain in the early 19th century that was integral to the Industrial Revolution to America’s emphasis on its technological progressiveness in its national narratives in the 20th century, studies have shown that the history of technology is necessarily the history of nations as well. While the majority of previous research focuses primarily on Western nations (and unsurprisingly so, considering that a greater proportion of technological advancements have happened in these countries in the recent past centuries), less have studied how other countries have dealt with the rise of modern technologies in the development and maintenance of their national identity. This paper seeks to expand the critical scope by examining Brunei’s stance on technology in the 1960s – just after the 1959 Constitution was established declaring the nation an independent, sovereign Sultanate – a time when Brunei was still in the early stages of defining its own identity. I propose that Brunei used modern technologies in order to further solidify its Muslim identity as a response to modernization and globalization, which is distinct to many previously-studied countries that focus more on boosting their military and/or industrial prowess. Brunei’s approach, then, notably counters oft-perceived contradictions between religion and technology. This study will focus on Brunei’s first film, Gema Dari Menara (1968), which was tellingly commissioned by the Religious Affairs Department, and will examine the portrayal of modern technologies that seek to break the binary between religion and modernity to show an image of Islam that is compatible with a developing Brunei.

The objective of this research is to propose a framework which is apt to assess how a nation branding campaign could promote cultural identity by ultimately curbing political polarization.

By relying on a multidisciplinary approach that blends theoretical constructs from different fields the methodology is based on a mixed-method approach whereby the qualitative data stemming from a set of interviews with key-informants is coupled by a survey of Colombian citizens in order to gain in-depth insights over the impact of nation branding on political polarization.

From the findings, it emerges that a campaign based on nation branding and targeting domestic citizens could curb political polarization within Colombia, by also fostering cultural identity.

The study considers only Colombia. To fully assess the robustness of the framework it would be useful to extend the analysis to a broader range of countries and to a wider set of domestic issues.

The research not only provides in-depth insights on how nation branding can be used effectively in order to curb political polarization but also practical guidance on how a nation branding campaign can be effectively designed. The findings are relevant to policy-makers that have the opportunity to implement informed and educated nation branding campaigns not just overseas, but also to strategically address important domestic issues by engaging the domestic stakeholders.

While country branding has been extensively investigated within the context of international business, we have a relatively limited understanding of its domestic impact. In contrast to traditional country branding literature, this paper aims to theoretically advance our understanding of nation branding and its effect on political polarization, as well as gauging its impact on cultural identity.

This paper examines the national solidarity in Brunei Darussalam during the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequential impact on younger generations. Utilising Emile Durkheim's solidarity theories, I examine how young people's social media use builds on state discourse in the pandemic. I contend that a shift towards an organic society is visible through a social cohesion that is based on differentiated roles. I argue that the citizenry plays a vital role in the forward momentum toward Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0, which illustrates that solidarity cannot be forged as a top-down directive. By prompting economic and creative divisions of labour, the local use of social media in a public health crisis has shown the government a new way to foster solidarity. Significant implications for youth as future leaders of the nation are discussed.

The Arab world is made up of 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa. These countries are subjected to many social, economic, political and geographical vulnerabilities contributing to increased risks or ineffective emergency and disaster management. This paper examines these vulnerabilities, how they may impact the country's ability to face disasters, and how they can improve disasters' overall management.

The author selected Qatar, Oman to represent the Arab oil-rich countries, while Jordan, Egypt and Morocco to represent non-oil rich countries. The research was conducted in a qualitative, inductive systematic literature review based on a well-established systematic literature review methodology. Selected literature was based on its recency and the countries in question.

The review reveals population gaps that could threaten the social system in the event of a disaster in countries like Qatar and Oman. The majority of the countries lack community engagement and pre-planning for emergency preparedness due to social and cultural barriers. Other nations like Jordan, Egypt and Morocco are prone to long-lasting economic challenges due to lack of resources, mismanagement or corruption. The paper also highlights the need to raise the educational attainment among citizens to understand disaster risk reduction.

This study utilized the research method developed by Williams et al. (2017) to present a comprehensive systematic and comparative review of disaster management in the Arab world. Considering that disaster and emergency management has remained disproportionately unexplored in the Arab world, this paper reviewed several vulnerabilities and how those vulnerabilities may affect disaster and emergency management efforts in the Arab countries.

Ideas related to “the Nordic” are important in the reconstruction of national identities in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and these countries’ modern national narratives are structurally highly similar. At the same time, there are clear differences between the Nordic countries regarding their national images. The purpose of this study is to a examine the relationship between ideas of the Nordic and national images through a qualitative study of brand manifestations on Nordic web portals for foreign visitors.

The two guiding research questions are: How do Nordic branding strategies and national stereotypes impact on nation-branding content toward visitors in the Nordic region? What traces of the Nordic as a supranational concept can be found when the Nordic is translated into concrete national brand manifestations? The analysis focuses on brand manifestations such as brand visions, codes of expression, differentiation, narrative identity and ideologies.

The analysis shows that clichés about the nations prevail in contemporary brand material and that Nordic branding strategies impact on the portals in diffuse and implicit ways. There are, however, some important common denominators, pointing toward a new Nordic brand related to exotic, untouched yet easily accessible nature, with a focus on pure, fresh and clean food with new tastes, in combination with happy and welcoming people.

The results from the study contribute with insight in how ideas of the Nordic on a supranational level transform when used in concrete and practical branding material. Further, this paper proposes a new Nordic branding focus, which contests traditional Nordic ideas.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical and current accounting of the state of refugee education in both the USA and Sweden. The growing diaspora of people around the globe implores educators to utilize effective models and strategies to meet the needs of refugees, as well as to advocate policies that aid in this utilization. Sweden has the highest rate of refugee acceptance in Europe, and the USA has the greatest number of immigrants in the west.

A review of the literature formatted to provide the reader with a historical accounting of the states of refugee education in both host nations, as well as the current states. Strategies and promising policies are introduced based on the literature and the author’s own research conducted in Sweden.

The paper addresses the history and present situations of two host nations, Sweden and the USA, who have differing education systems and histories of immigration. Concerns and two possible solutions offered were to increase opportunities for interaction between native and refugee populations; and bolster funding for the education of refugee school-age children and adolescents, and adults so that effective strategies and environment described in the literature can be put into place by effectively trained educators. These solutions could improve the cultural competence among all peoples in both nations, better enabling the two countries to provide economically and socially sustainable environments for all of their inhabitants.

The examination of these two nations’ education of refugees may shed light on the worldwide challenges of refugees and mass immigration.

The solutions offered in the paper could improve the cultural competence among all peoples in both nations, better enabling the two countries to provide economically and socially sustainable environments for all of their inhabitants.

A comparison of US refugee education with that of a high-volume European host nation does not yet appear to have been published.