Reconceptualizing city branding to account for talent attraction: Cities as a place to work and live

With thousands of local governments implementing city branding since the late 1990s, the leading question has become how to brand in the competitive 21st century environment. The growth in the global labour pool and increased freedom of movement has led to increased competition for talent. The increased competition for talent, coupled with a global scale of inter-city competition, has pushed local governments to seek initiatives that will sustain and enhance economic development. Globalization has indeed marked a change in employment trends, wherein a competitive employment environment continues to increase due to a shortage of appropriate applicants and high turnover. City branding and employer branding then hold similar purposes: talent attraction. The under-researched area of talent attraction is of increasing importance for the recruitment of the highest calibre candidates. A literature review was conducted with the purpose of examining how city branding can adopt tenets of employer branding to account for talent attraction. The review aimed to summarize and identify the main tenets of city branding and employer branding. As research has yet to identify a connection between the two, the literatures on city branding and employer branding are examined to understand how city branding inclusive of talent attraction can be implemented as strategic policy. The results support the synergistic relationship between the city branding and employer branding literatures, with similar main themes across the literature accounting for talent attraction in the competitive 21st century environment

Brands and Branding: An Analysis of the Evolutionary Development of Baijiu Industry Clusters in China

Research into industry clusters and brands and branding has emerged and developed in the Western world for decades. In China, the Reform and Opening up policy adopted since the late 1970s, has resulted in impressive economic growth around economic clusters, including some manufacturing processing industries, and some industries related to high-technology, and traditional industries (i.e. agricultural and Baijiu products). This thesis aims to contribute to the academic and political understanding of these issues through exploring the emergence, agglomeration and development of Chinese alcoholic beverage/Baijiu industry clusters. Inspired by theories of industry clusters, and brands and branding, this thesis proposes to find out and understand the development of Chinese industry clusters formations and their branding strategies, especially in a traditional industry sector. These ideas are described and analysed through a qualitative-oriented fieldwork investigation in seven industry clusters within three Chinese prefecture-level cities, namely, Luzhou, Yibin and Zunyi.From a theoretical perspective, industry clusters and brands and branding theories/strategies are not separate from, but are associated with, each other. Brands and branding strategies are not only marketing concepts but also have diverse meanings from economic, social, ecological, political and cultural perspectives. With the characteristics of geographical entanglements (Pike, 2009b), dynamic network frames and creative activity, the brands and branding strategies are geographically linked to multi-layer industry clusters. This makes it possible to identify industry clusters from brands and branding insights, especially in this global world. The concepts of brands and branding, and industry clusters, and the relationship between them form one part of the thesis’s contributions. In addition, evolutionary economic geography theory is useful to explore industry clusters, which has been utilised to explain the brands and branding of Chinese Baijiu regional agglomeration and industry clusters.From an empirical perspective, the Chinese Baijiu industry’s clusters, brands and branding strategies can be analysed from four aspects, namely, price and some intangible brand value factors; ecological and environmental elements; the Baijiu organisational structure of the production, circulation, and consumption; and the policies and regulations of regional agglomerations and industry clusters. Price is a tangible brand value factor which differentiates Chinese Baijiu commodity with multi-level prices. Enterprise structures and scales help form the Baijiu industry cluster formations as well; natural-related elements of environment/ecology include water, grains, human activities and cultural and historical backgrounds, which explain the meanings of origins, and influence the regional agglomerations of Chinese Baijiu; societal consumption and investment extend industrial chains of Chinese Baijiu and drive its agglomeration and dispersion; multi-layer governmental policies and regulations force and impede the emergence and development of Chinese Baijiu industry clusters. Regional agglomerations provide spatial backgrounds for Chinese Baijiu industry clusters. Drawing upon this, seven Chinese Baijiu industry clusters are identified and their evolutionary developments are explored: Chinese Baijiu Golden Triangle Baijiu Industry Development Zone, Sichuan Luzhou Baijiu Industry Park, Guojiao 1573 Square, Renhuai Economic Development Zones (including three functional parks: National Baijiu Industrial Park, Renhuai Famous Baijiu Industrial Park, and Tanchang Modern Service Park), Wuliangye Group, Jiudu Yibin · Wuliangye Culture Features Street and Qionglai Basic Baijiu Production Zone. Driven by the branding strategies of both enterprises and government policy guidelines, these seven Chinese Baijiu industry clusters show a development characteristic of enterprises/products branding–industry cluster branding–place/province branding.Furthermore, more detailed brand identification, industry clusters and global value chains, and globalisation and branding strategies all provide future research possibilities for Chinese Baijiu industry. This thesis still has its limitations, which may need more quantitative methods to measure and examine the formation and development of Chinese Baijiu industry. Basically, this thesis also offers potential research connecting to other Chinese agricultural industries, manufacturing industries and tourism industries

State-business relations in contemporary China: the case of the ‘Chinese Football Dream’ reforms

State-business relations play a crucial role in China’s economic development and policy implementation. Characterised by an asymmetric dependency nexus, local government officials court business investments to facilitate policy and boost their political careers, while private firms are increasingly incentivised to support party-state goals to navigate their business through the political economy. The ‘Chinese Football Dream’ reforms launched in 2014 resemble such a party-state goal, exhibiting how private business actors and government officials have been willing to exchange economic and political resources for their personal, economic, or political gain. By taking the national reform policy as a case study, this study aims to explore and understand the dynamics and implications of football-related Corporate Political Strategy within the context of China’s political economy under Xi Jinping. As its theoretical framework the study is drawing on an integrated combination of Resource Dependence Theory and Corporate Political Strategy, including a specially adapted local typology of the latter. By using insights from 61 semi-structured interviews with practitioners, supported by publicly available micro and macro-economic industry data, the study provides a rare inside-view investigating the extent, types, determinants, and outcomes of football-related Corporate Political Strategies and their exchanges within the ‘Chinese Football Dream.’ The study argues that the expansion of China’s football industry from 2014-2020 was predominantly driven by private investors employing Corporate Political Strategies. The strategies’ investments primarily follow political calculi, and only secondary, if at all, any economic logics. Variations in strategy determinants lead to diverse strategies and outcomes, in part explaining the high volatility experienced among professional clubs, but generally argue for a case and context-specific examination. Clubs’ sporting success here shows a positive correlation with the probability and magnitude of obtaining benefits, a trend observed among both investors and governments, with stronger correlation in areas with less football development. Conversely, for clubs emblematic of the local city, the experience of sporting failure can have adverse effects on involved investors and governments. In addition to contributing novel perspectives into all three sub-domains of Corporate Political Strategy research (typologies, determinants, and outcomes), the study adds to the understanding of the modus operandi of private business and local government within the shifting political economy under Xi Jinping, as well as the broader fields of sports and football in Asia and state-regulated countries

State-business relations in contemporary China: the case of the ‘Chinese Football Dream’ reforms

State-business relations play a crucial role in China’s economic development and policy implementation. Characterised by an asymmetric dependency nexus, local government officials court business investments to facilitate policy and boost their political careers, while private firms are increasingly incentivised to support party-state goals to navigate their business through the political economy. The ‘Chinese Football Dream’ reforms launched in 2014 resemble such a party-state goal, exhibiting how private business actors and government officials have been willing to exchange economic and political resources for their personal, economic, or political gain. By taking the national reform policy as a case study, this study aims to explore and understand the dynamics and implications of football-related Corporate Political Strategy within the context of China’s political economy under Xi Jinping. As its theoretical framework the study is drawing on an integrated combination of Resource Dependence Theory and Corporate Political Strategy, including a specially adapted local typology of the latter. By using insights from 61 semi-structured interviews with practitioners, supported by publicly available micro and macro-economic industry data, the study provides a rare inside-view investigating the extent, types, determinants, and outcomes of football-related Corporate Political Strategies and their exchanges within the ‘Chinese Football Dream.’ The study argues that the expansion of China’s football industry from 2014-2020 was predominantly driven by private investors employing Corporate Political Strategies. The strategies’ investments primarily follow political calculi, and only secondary, if at all, any economic logics. Variations in strategy determinants lead to diverse strategies and outcomes, in part explaining the high volatility experienced among professional clubs, but generally argue for a case and context-specific examination. Clubs’ sporting success here shows a positive correlation with the probability and magnitude of obtaining benefits, a trend observed among both investors and governments, with stronger correlation in areas with less football development. Conversely, for clubs emblematic of the local city, the experience of sporting failure can have adverse effects on involved investors and governments. In addition to contributing novel perspectives into all three sub-domains of Corporate Political Strategy research (typologies, determinants, and outcomes), the study adds to the understanding of the modus operandi of private business and local government within the shifting political economy under Xi Jinping, as well as the broader fields of sports and football in Asia and state-regulated countries