Branding Knowledge-intensive Regions: A Comparative Study of Pisa and Oulu High-Tech Brands

Abstract

Place marketing and branding have drawn much attention both in the literature and in practice especially in the 1990s and 2000s. However, the research literature of place branding related to the dynamic evolution of knowledge-intensive regions is limited. This article aims at providing an analysis of place branding processes in knowledge-intensive regions in relation to the evolution of their high-tech clusters, in an attempt to identify the relation between brand development and cluster performance from a longitudinal perspective. The article discusses the results of a multiple case study, including Pisa, Italy and Oulu, Finland. The findings suggest that, in these two cases, branding consisted more in labelling an existing economic phenomenon rather than in fostering or having a bet on it in a visionary way. This is related to the political nature of branding which may provoke a mismatch between the timing of the high-tech cluster dynamics and the timing of branding initiatives, a mismatch which is likely to affect branding effectiveness and which should be considered when evaluating branding impacts.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Professor Nicola Bellini and Professor Andy Pike for their help and valuable suggestions. The authors also thank the Istituto di Management, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa (Italy) where part of this research was carried out.

Notes

1. The text refers to informants using codes (e.g. “P” for Pisa and “O” for Oulu) based on the chronological order of the interviews. Particularly, concerning Pisa, P1–P9 refer to interviews that were carried out in 2008, while P10–P20 refer to interviews that were carried out in 2010. Concerning Oulu, O1–O11 refer to interviews that were carried out in 2008, while O12–O20 in 2010–2011.

2. http://forum.teamplay.it/lofiversion/index.php/t7168.html; accessed June 2008.