IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/anresc/v54y2015i1p179-196.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Culture-led city brands as economic engines: theory and empirics

Author

Listed:
  • Beatriz Plaza
  • Pilar González-Casimiro
  • Paz Moral-Zuazo
  • Courtney Waldron

Abstract

Cultural re-imaging through iconic art museums aims to create symbolic capital for a place in the form of creative images, reputation and associations with innovation. While literature has long identified architectural uniqueness as a potential driver of brand competitiveness, we argue diffusion of that image is equally important. This work draws upon economic concepts from other cultural industries (such as film, music and art) to develop a framework for understanding how cultural brands are built: How reproducible images of singular architecture accumulate in the media to strengthen a brand. We then test an art brand’s impact on visitors. This work aims to offer evidence that the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao brand generates tourism to the city of Bilbao. By understanding how iconic cultural infrastructures create symbolic capital, policy makers may better tailor similar culture-led branding strategies to other places. Copyright The Author(s) 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Beatriz Plaza & Pilar González-Casimiro & Paz Moral-Zuazo & Courtney Waldron, 2015. "Culture-led city brands as economic engines: theory and empirics," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 54(1), pages 179-196, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:anresc:v:54:y:2015:i:1:p:179-196
    DOI: 10.1007/s00168-014-0650-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s00168-014-0650-0
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00168-014-0650-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Allen John Scott, 2014. "Beyond the Creative City: Cognitive--Cultural Capitalism and the New Urbanism," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(4), pages 565-578, April.
    2. Maria Llop & Josep-Maria Arauzo-Carod, 2012. "Identifying the economic impact behind a cultural asset: an input–output subsystems analysis," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 49(3), pages 861-877, December.
    3. Mihalis Kavaratzis & G. J. Ashworth, 2005. "City Branding: An Effective Assertion Of Identity Or A Transitory Marketing Trick?," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 96(5), pages 506-514, December.
    4. Beatriz Plaza, 2006. "The Return on Investment of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 452-467, June.
    5. Dominic Power & Daniel Hallencreutz, 2007. "Competitiveness, Local Production Systems and Global Commodity Chains in the Music Industry: Entering the US Market," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(3), pages 377-389.
    6. Alberto Abadie & Javier Gardeazabal, 2003. "The Economic Costs of Conflict: A Case Study of the Basque Country," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 113-132, March.
    7. María V. Gómez, 1998. "Reflective images: the case of urban regeneration in Glasgow and Bilbao," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 106-121, March.
    8. Athanasopoulos, George & Hyndman, Rob J. & Song, Haiyan & Wu, Doris C., 2011. "The tourism forecasting competition," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 822-844, July.
    9. Allen J. Scott, 1997. "The Cultural Economy of Cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(2), pages 323-339, June.
    10. Ateca-Amestoy, Victoria & Prieto-Rodriguez, Juan, 2013. "Forecasting accuracy of behavioural models for participation in the arts," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 229(1), pages 124-131.
    11. Jannika Mattes, 2012. "Dimensions of Proximity and Knowledge Bases: Innovation between Spatial and Non-spatial Factors," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(8), pages 1085-1099, December.
    12. Bruno Frey, 1998. "Superstar Museums: An Economic Analysis," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 22(2), pages 113-125, June.
    13. Ron Boschma, 2005. "Proximity and Innovation: A Critical Assessment," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 61-74.
    14. Anne Ter Wal & Ron Boschma, 2009. "Applying social network analysis in economic geography: framing some key analytic issues," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 43(3), pages 739-756, September.
    15. Beatriz Plaza, 2008. "On Some Challenges and Conditions for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to be an Effective Economic Re‐activator," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 506-517, June.
    16. Jan Vang, 2008. "Editorial: Geography and the Cultural Economy," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(5), pages 589-592, September.
    17. Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "The Economics of Superstars," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(5), pages 845-858, December.
    18. Dominic Power & Johan Jansson, 2011. "Constructing Brands from the Outside? Brand Channels, Cyclical Clusters and Global Circuits," Chapters, in: Andy Pike (ed.), Brands and Branding Geographies, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Stigler, George J & Becker, Gary S, 1977. "De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(2), pages 76-90, March.
    20. Aksoy, Asu & Robins, Kevin, 1992. "Hollywood for the 21st Century: Global Competition for Critical Mass in Image Markets," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 16(1), pages 1-22, March.
    21. Gonzalez, Pilar & Moral, Paz, 1995. "An analysis of the international tourism demand in Spain," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 233-251, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alvaro Fierro & Ibon Aranburu, 2018. "Airbnb Branding: Heritage as a Branding Element in the Sharing Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Matthias Firgo & Oliver Fritz, 2017. "Does having the right visitor mix do the job? Applying an econometric shift-share model to regional tourism developments," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 58(3), pages 469-490, May.
    3. Beatriz Plaza & Catalina Gálvez-Galvez & Ana González-Flores & Jokin Jaca, 2016. "Repositioning through Culture: Testing Change in Connectivity Patterns," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, December.
    4. Ibon Aranburu & Beatriz Plaza & Marisol Esteban, 2016. "Sustainable Cultural Tourism in Urban Destinations: Does Space Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-14, July.
    5. Martin Thomas Falk & Eva Hagsten & Xiang Lin, 2022. "Domestic tourism demand in the North and the South of Europe in the Covid-19 summer of 2020," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(2), pages 537-553, October.
    6. Hanna Nyborg Storm, 2022. "From Bilbao to Bodø: how cultural flagships are transforming local cultural life," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 46(4), pages 723-746, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Beatriz Plaza & Pilar Gonzalez-Casimiro & Paz Moral-Zuazo & Courtney Waldron, 2013. "Culture-led City Brands as Economic Engines: Theory and Empirics," ACEI Working Paper Series AWP-05-2013, Association for Cultural Economics International, revised Oct 2013.
    2. Gaenssle Sophia & Budzinski Oliver & Astakhova Daria, 2018. "Conquering the Box Office: Factors Influencing Success of International Movies in Russia," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 17(4), pages 245-266, December.
    3. Stefano Usai & Emanuela Marrocu & Raffaele Paci, 2017. "Networks, Proximities, and Interfirm Knowledge Exchanges," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 40(4), pages 377-404, July.
    4. Marco Guerzoni & Massimiliano Nuccio, 2014. "Music consumption at the dawn of the music industry: the rise of a cultural fad," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(2), pages 145-171, May.
    5. Lei Ye & Gang Zeng & Xianzhong Cao, 2020. "Open innovation and innovative performance of universities: Evidence from China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 1142-1157, September.
    6. Ron Boschma & Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Mathijs de Vaan, 2014. "The formation of economic networks: a proximity approach," Chapters, in: André Torre & Frédéric Wallet (ed.), Regional Development and Proximity Relations, chapter 7, pages 243-266, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Matt Patterson, 2012. "The Role of the Public Institution in Iconic Architectural Development," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(15), pages 3289-3305, November.
    8. Frey, Bruno S. & Meier, Stephan, 2006. "The Economics of Museums," Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, in: V.A. Ginsburgh & D. Throsby (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 29, pages 1017-1047, Elsevier.
    9. Thomas Ehrmann & Brinja Meiseberg & Christian Ritz, 2009. "Superstar Effects in Deluxe Gastronomy – An Empirical Analysis of Value Creation in German Quality Restaurants," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 526-541, November.
    10. Teemu Makkonen & Adi Weidenfeld & Allan M. Williams, 2017. "Cross-Border Regional Innovation System Integration: An Analytical Framework," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 108(6), pages 805-820, December.
    11. Küttim Merle & Kiis Aino & Sousa Cristina, 2020. "Brokers in Biotechnology and Software Networks in EU Research Projects," TalTech Journal of European Studies, Sciendo, vol. 10(1), pages 195-236, June.
    12. Beatriz Plaza & Catalina Gálvez-Galvez & Ana González-Flores & Jokin Jaca, 2016. "Repositioning through Culture: Testing Change in Connectivity Patterns," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, December.
    13. Xavier Molina-Morales, F. & Belso-Martínez, José A. & Más-Verdú, Francisco & Martínez-Cháfer, Luis, 2015. "Formation and dissolution of inter-firm linkages in lengthy and stable networks in clusters," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1557-1562.
    14. Wang, Liang & Tan, Justin & Li, Wan, 2018. "The impacts of spatial positioning on regional new venture creation and firm mortality over the industry life cycle," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 41-52.
    15. Nela Filimon & Jordi López-Sintas & Carlos Padrós-Reig, 2011. "A test of Rosen’s and Adler’s theories of superstars," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 35(2), pages 137-161, May.
    16. Rosina Moreno & Ernest Miguélez, 2012. "A Relational Approach To The Geography Of Innovation: A Typology Of Regions," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 492-516, July.
    17. Tom Broekel & Wladimir Mueller, 2018. "Critical links in knowledge networks – What about proximities and gatekeeper organisations?," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(10), pages 919-939, November.
    18. Budzinski, Oliver & Kohlschreiber, Marie & Kuchinke, Björn & Pannicke, Julia, 2019. "Does music quality matter for audience voters in a music contest?," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 122, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    19. Karol Borowiecki & Juan Prieto-Rodriguez, 2015. "Video games playing: A substitute for cultural consumptions?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 39(3), pages 239-258, August.
    20. Victor Ginsburgh, 2013. "Mark Blaug and the economics of the arts," Chapters, in: Marcel Boumans & Matthias Klaes (ed.), Mark Blaug: Rebel with Many Causes, chapter 15, pages 208-224, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Z1 Cultural Economics; R1 Urban Economics;

    JEL classification:

    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics
    • R1 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:anresc:v:54:y:2015:i:1:p:179-196. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.