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This study aims to examine the influence of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city. The study also compares the effects of perceived brand image of the city on the emotional attachment to the city across two groups: local residents and visitors.

A total of 207 usable questionnaires were collected from 107 residents of the city of Bratislava, Slovakia and 100 visitors to the city. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used for data analysis.

This study establishes that perceived city brand image significantly influences emotional attachment to the city. The study concludes that affective city image has a greater impact on emotional attachment to the city among the residents than visitors. By contrast, the influence of cognitive city image on emotional attachment to the city does not vary across the two categories of residents and visitors to the city.

City tourism marketers should focus on improving city brand images to enhance tourists’ emotional attachment to the city to promote repeat visits among visitors.

This study contributes to improving understanding of the impact of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city across the two groups, residents and visitors, using social exchange theory (SET). Furthermore, the findings come from a relatively under-researched Central and Eastern European (CEE) region.

This study aims to investigate how residents’ perceptions of the image of their place of living influence their level of commitment toward it. The mediating role of human place bonds (place attachment and place identity) and the moderating effect of the socio-demographic characteristics of the host community in this relationship is specifically examined.

The theoretical direct–indirect–moderation relationships are examined using structural equation modeling and moderated-mediation or condition process analysis (Hayes and Preacher, 2013). Data were collected from 472 residents living in Belgrade (Serbia).

The findings support the contention that place attachment and place identity mediate the relationship between place image and commitment. The study further shows that the conditional indirect relationship of place image with commitment through place attachment and place identity is significant for age. Age and place of birth are found to moderate the relationship between place image and place attachment.

A stimulating avenue for future research is to explore the effect of culture (individualist, short-term oriented and low on power distance vs collectivist, long-term oriented and high on power distance cultures) on model’s relationships as well as on commitment specifically.

To enhance their residents’ commitment, place marketers should focus on two levels of action. The first lever is to assess how residents perceive the image of the place where they live as it can serve as a strategic outline to explore their level of support and address the possible negative feelings they may have toward any development project. The second level of action is developing bottom up strategies that are likely to enhance residents’ commitment which aims at transforming residents into active place ambassadors and actors of the public life of the city.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first in the place branding research domain to examine the role of human place bonds in the relationship between place image and commitment using mediation, moderation, and moderated-mediation analyses. Moreover, place branding literature is underdeveloped regarding the current issues most post-communist countries face.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between local entrepreneurs’ perception of the city’s decline and their place attachment (measured in terms of commitment to the declining city and sense of how the declining city compares to other cities).

The authors surveyed entrepreneurs in a relatively small sample (N = 105) from a declining city of about 78,000 residents in the USA.

The authors found significant inverse correlations and found that, after controlling for length of residency, the entrepreneur’s perception of the city’s decline predicted lower place attachment. The authors also tested a moderation hypothesis and observed that, whereas professional-service entrepreneurs with both stronger and weaker perceptions of the city’s decline showed similar place attachment, non-professional entrepreneurs showed significantly more variation, displaying both the highest place attachment when weak in perceptions of the city’s decline and the lowest place attachment when strong in perceptions of the city’s decline.

The authors discuss implications for place attachment, place image and place branding research, as well as for the study of place context’s effects on entrepreneurship.

Results hold implications for place branding’s participative development and for reasons to expect some difficulty in place branding when the context is a declining city.

Relative to prior research in place management, the research features a neglected segment of the city’s population, business owners, to study place attachment. Relative to prior entrepreneurship research, the authors advance the study of context’s effects on entrepreneurship by extending it to the place context of declining cities, which are not usually featured in entrepreneurship studies.

Image congruence is one central metrics that significantly influences image transfer. Nevertheless, studies on impact of image congruence on consumers' attitudinal and behavioral components in the context of sport tourism remain few. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the relationship among image congruence between sport event and host city, spectators' attitude toward the event and city and their intention to revisit and recommend the event and city. A mediating role of attitude in the relationship between image congruence and behavioral intention was also examined.

The study selected non-local spectators of the F1 Chinese Grand Prix and Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 as the participants. A total of 491 valid questionnaires were obtained from the survey of two events, including 222 from F1 Chinese Grand Prix and 269 from Shanghai ATP Masters 1000. Among respondents, 360 were Chinese spectators from other regions (73.3%) and 131 were international spectators (26.7%). The data were analyzed via descriptive statistics, correlations, factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), hierarchical regression analysis and ANOVA.

The results showed that image congruence between sports event and host city had a positive impact on spectators' attitude toward and intention to recommend the city; but it had no significant impact on attitude toward event, intention to revisit and recommend the event and intention to revisit the city. Attitude toward event had a positive impact on intention to revisit and recommend the event, and attitude toward host city had a positive impact on intention to revisit and recommend the city. In addition, attitude toward host city fully mediated the relationship between image congruence and intention to recommend the city.

The current study provides a meaningful contribution to the existing literature by examining the impact of image congruence on spectators' attitudinal and behavioral components in the context of sport tourism.

Focussing on the event “Tlemcen Capital of Islamic Culture 2011”, the purpose of this paper is to examine the changing perception of the city’s image, assess its durability and determine its relationship with the development of sustainable cultural tourism.

This research is tested by an empirical study that combines a qualitative and a quantitative approach. The qualitative study is based on semi-directive interviews, whereas quantitative study is based on statistics from the Wilaya Tourism Department.

The results of this study indicate first of all that the perception of the city’s image by the inhabitants is not static and that it follows the same process of evolution of the perception of the image by tourists but in relation to other factors such as awareness and age. The second result shows that the sustainability of the image must be verified both inside and outside to achieve sustainable cultural tourism.

This study is in line with previous research with another point of view on the city’s image and another case study which is the historical city of Tlemcen. It serves to examine the evolution of the perception of the city’s image produced by the event and to assess its sustainability.

This study aims to apply the concept of brand love to a destination and investigate its antecedents and consequences. It also explores the moderating effects of time elapsed since the establishment of the destination brand love relationship on the outcomes of destination brand love.

A total of 5,511 valid responses were obtained from an online survey distributed among former international students from the Erasmus program of the European Union. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was conducted to assess the hypotheses.

Destination brand love was found to have a significant impact on electronic word of mouth (eWOM), WOM, WOM intensity, recommendation and revisit intention. Moderation analysis revealed that the amount of time elapsed since the establishment of the destination brand love relationship did not affect these outcomes. Moreover, destination image and the Erasmus experience had a positive effect on destination brand love.

Destination marketers should focus on enhancing the Erasmus experience and on improving destination image perception, as these factors help develop destination brand love. Marketers should also be aware that this relationship has long-lasting effects.

This study adds to the sparse literature on brand love in relation to a destination. This gives the first results for the importance of Erasmus students to the promotion of a host country. It also contributes to the question of how long the brand love relationship can last.

The present study has been carried out to study whether and how different aspects of brand management (brand identity, brand image and brand meaning) are instrumental in maintaining and enhancing attachment strength of students with higher education institutes (HEIs). Further, to understand what brand management aspect channels the impact of what branding driver on attachment strength in most effective manner.

The study analysed combined mediating effects as well as specific mediating effects to test the mediating role of brand management aspects.

The study reveals that brand image plays highest mediating role among all aspects of brand management. HEIs need to enhance service quality because brand image carries the highest influence of service quality on attachment strength. Similarly, brand identity carries the highest influence of heritage on attachment strength. Brand meaning carries the highest influence of competence and reputation on attachment strength.

The present study, based on empirical research, has built the framework and mechanism for creating attachment strength utilising the intangible resources of HEIs through brand management. The present study examines how specific intangible resources exhibit varying influences on attachment strength via distinct brand management mediation effects.

The present study provides framework for designing branding strategies to build and channelise necessary intangible resources of branding for nourishing and nurturing attachment strength.

The present study contributes to scarce branding literature in context of HEIs. The study proposes role of HEI branding in developing students' attachment strength with their HEIs.

Drawing on the literature on brand–consumer relations in an attempt to apply the concept of brand love to a city tourism destination, this paper aims to explore the antecedents and consequences of city brand love.

Based on quantitative research and cluster sampling, study data was collected from 330 international tourists who visited six Iran cities. The research model is tested using partial least square structural equation modeling.

According to the results, city brand attractiveness, city brand identification and memorable city brand experience are the antecedents of city brand love. Moreover, the city brand attractiveness, both directly and indirectly through memorable experiences and identification with the city brand, is one of the antecedents of city brand love. Finally, the results suggest that word of mouth and revisit intention are major behavioral outcomes of city brand love.

By providing a validated conceptual model that traces the antecedents and consequences of city brand love, this study attempts to answer prior calls for examination from the viewpoint of city tourism scholars.

本研究基于定量研究和整群抽样, 研究数据来自访问伊朗六个城市的330名国际游客。研究采用偏最小二乘结构方程模型对研究模型进行了检验。

借鉴品牌-消费者关系的相关文献, 本研究试图将品牌爱的概念应用于一个城市旅游目的地, 探讨城市品牌喜爱的前因和后果。

结果表明, 城市品牌吸引力、城市品牌辨识度和令人难忘的城市品牌体验是城市品牌喜爱的前因。城市品牌吸引力通过城市品牌直接或间接通过难忘体验和认同产生, 是城市喜爱的前因。最后, 研究结果表明, 口碑和重访意愿是城市品牌喜爱的主要行为结果。

通过提供一个经过验证的概念模型, 追溯城市品牌喜爱的前因后果, 本研究试图从城市旅游学者的角度回答先前检验的呼吁。

A partir de una investigación cuantitativa y muestreo por conglomerados, los datos del estudio se recogieron de 330 turistas internacionales que visitaron seis ciudades iraníes. El modelo conceptual se analizó mediante un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales de mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS).

Basándose en la literatura sobre las relaciones entre marca y consumidor para aplicar el concepto de amor de marca a una ciudad como destino turístico, la presente investigación analiza los antecedentes y las consecuencias del amor de marca de ciudad.

Conforme a los resultados, el atractivo de la marca ciudad, la identificación con la marca ciudad y la experiencia memorable con la marca ciudad son los antecedentes del amor a la marca ciudad. Adicionalmente, el atractivo de la marca ciudad, tanto directa como indirectamente a través de las experiencias memorables y la identificación con la marca ciudad, es uno de los antecedentes del amor por la marca ciudad. Finalmente, los resultados sugieren que la comunicación boca-oído y la intención de volver a visitar la ciudad son los principales resultados comportamentales del amor de marca de ciudad.

Al proporcionar un modelo conceptual validado que analiza los antecedentes y las consecuencias del amor de marca de ciudad, este estudio trata de responder a las llamadas para su estudio desde la óptica del turismo urbano.