A Pre Test Exploratory Analysis

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Abstract

Keywords: Place Marketing, Place Regeneration, Holistic Marketing, Place Management, Exploratory Paper, Quantitative Analysis, SPSS,

Introduction

Place marketing has been attracting increasing interest as a topic for over 20 years, and significant contributions have been made in describing the field and providing useful frameworks for practitioners and managers (Gertner, 2011). Moving forward from the initial "place selling" approach, which is "as old as commodification itself" (Brown, 2006; pg.12), place marketing now incorporates a variety of integrated marketing and branding techniques. These techniques focus in the delivery of a place’s amenities to various target markets for future economic growth and image improvement, amongst other benefits (Ashworth & Voogd, 1990, 1994; Kotler et. al, 1993, 1999; van den Berg & Braun, 1999; Rainisto, 2003, Gertner, 2011). In practice, place marketing is associated with measures for renewing places and their image with the aim of strengthening their competitiveness and attractiveness (Berglund and Olsson, 2010).

However, it is not clear if the practice of place marketing and its involvement on place regeneration has significant outcomes on a place’s transformation. Research in the field has struggled so far to establish a theory regarding the effectiveness of place marketing, due to the field’s multidisciplinary nature, lack of evidence-based research, and the dominance of qualitative descriptive case studies (Niedomysl & Jonasson, 2012). Therefore, this study attempts to shed light into the variety of marketing and branding approaches that practitioners incorporate in the holistic place marketing plan process, as evidenced from the existing place marketing literature and place marketing practice. This study will serve as a pre-test, quantitative analysis, in order to identify which place marketing practices are considered more significant for place regeneration. By conducting a quantitative research, the study aims to offer a new insight on place marketing research as well, by valuing opinions regarding place marketing in general.

Literature Review

For the purpose of this study, a brief literature of the business literature of place marketing will be conducted, as the aim is to examine the role of the practices that stemming from the business studies field and how important are perceived to be for the regeneration of a place.

Place Marketing in the context of the business sciences field

The interdisciplinary character of place marketing has led to the development of a number of definitions throughout the years, although only a few of them are focusing on the business side of the concept. Usually place marketing is defined as a management process (Kotler et al., 1999; Rainisto 2003) which encompasses the attempts of place differentiation for competitive advantage over other places for multiple target markets. In contrast, branding and marketing communications seem to help better to the understanding of what place marketing is, as they are focusing on the image exposure of a place's economic, social, political, and cultural aspects to certain target groups (see e.g. Kaplan et al., 2010).

In the business field, places are seen as a mixture of tangible and intangible products and services (Kotler et al., 1993, 1999); however, the distinctiveness of each place has led to the assumption that a unique place marketing process must be applied for each place, rather than a standard commercial product one (Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2008). The notions of constant competition between places and inward and outward investment are also flourishing in the business context studies of place marketing, which led various authors in the field to argue that the overarching aim of a place must be the improvement of its competitive image, in order to attract capital from elsewhere (Niedomysl & Jonasson, 2012).

The holistic place marketing process

It is evident from the notions above that the business-related practices can be seen as a holistic place marketing process, which encompasses various management and strategic marketing practices, as well as promotion practices, with the aim to improve a place's structure, image and identity. Also, place marketing can add value to a place and improve relationships between various place stakeholders (Rainisto, 2003).

Management Practices

Cooperation of all place stakeholders and creation of strategic networks that will nurture conditions for the sustainable development of a place are essential requirements, prior and throughout the holistic place marketing process (van den Berg and Braun, 1999). These processes can be seen as a form of relationship marketing, as they must be highly interactive and orchestrated to create long term win-win relationships with all stakeholders, such as community networks, Public-Private Partnerships (PPP's) , and citizens (Gummesson, 1999). Stability in these processes can be guaranteed with the presence of a leader, who can influence each stakeholder group in such a way that will generate action and fertile ground for positive relationships (Rainisto, 2003; Nyseth & Viken, 2009).

Strategic Marketing Practices

These practices are stemming from the classic commercial marketing theory, and are concerned with the formulation of a marketing plan, with clear goals and objectives that need to be achieved. This standardised planning process includes identification of the strengths and weaknesses of a place based on strategic analysis, action planning, formulating a new vision for the place, and design of the activities that will aid to the regeneration of a place and the formation of a unique identity (Ashworth & Voogd, 1990; Kotler et al., 1993,1999; Rainisto, 2003; Kavaratzis, 2007).

Services Marketing Practices

Places are a mixture of tangible goods and intangible services, which form the holistic place product (Warnaby, 2009). The "service" dimension of a place includes all the service encounters, also known as "moments of truth", between the target consumers and the place actors, which can change the impression of a consumer about the place (Carlzon, 1987; Bitner, 1990). A place's services can be divided in:

Public services (electricity, water, gas, waste management, etc.)

Tourism services (hotels, resorts, transportation, amusement parks, etc.)

Retailing services (shopping centres, retail agglomerations, etc.)

Cultural and Event services (e.g. museums, music festivals, theatres, etc.)

The value and quality of these services are of high significance in the formation of positive attitudes about a place, a tourism destination, a retail agglomeration, or a music festival (Caldwell and Freire, 2004; Hankinson, 2005; Warnaby et al, 2005, Teller, 2008). Therefore, successful service encounters can deliver value and quality to target consumers and assist to place regeneration.

Place Promotion Practices

Branding, integrated marketing communications (IMC) and public relations practices can all be considered as tools for place promotion, with the purpose to deliver a consistent place identity, which can form a sum of beliefs, ideas, and impressions in the minds of potential consumers of a place (Kotler & Gertner, 2002). Place branding, as part of the holistic place marketing process, can evoke favourable place images, which transfer emotional and self-expression values, as well as utilitarian attributes to individuals (Caldwell & Freire, 2004). Various tools, such as slogans, logos, advertisements, and PR campaigns, form the place's communication attempts (Kavaratzis, 2004), and assist in place regeneration and development. Successful implementation of place promotion practices can lead to positive word-of-mouth and reinforce the identity transformation of a place with a negative image (Hanna & Rowley, 2011; Skinner, 2011).

Place Regeneration

It can be argued that the holistic marketing process will improve certain place-related factors, which will be of relevance to its target markets and stakeholders. A place towards the regeneration phase can improve its competitive positioning, its brand personality, its identity, and the overall place reality, which subsequently can improve the quality of living of the place's citizens (Powell, 2001; Hankinson, 2004; Diamond & Liddle, 2005).

Model development and research hypotheses

In an attempt to conceptualise the process, a framework was developed, in order to identify which of these practices are considered as important for the regeneration of a place. The conceptual framework can be seen in figure 1.

Figure 1: The Holistic Place Marketing Process

Source: Author

Since the study's aim is to examine if the holistic place marketing process can help to explain a place's regeneration, the interrelations between the four components of the process and place regeneration form hypotheses H1-H4, which are listed in table 1. These hypotheses will try to give answers to the following research question and objective:

Research Question: Does the holistic marketing process affect the regeneration of a place based on participants' opinions?

Research Objective: To examine the relationship between the holistic marketing process and place regeneration

Table 1: Research hypotheses

H1. Management practices are significantly related to place regeneration.

H2. Strategic marketing practices are significantly related to place regeneration.

H3. Service marketing practices are significantly related to place regeneration.

H4. Place Promotion Practices are significantly related to place regeneration.

Furthermore, it is essential for this study to gain an understanding in how practitioners and how people in academia understand these holistic place marketing practices. There is an on-going debate regarding practitioners’ actions and how they incorporate the advancements in place marketing and place branding research in the places that they manage. As the field of place marketing is predominantly practitioner-focused, it is of great interest to see if the gap between theory and practice still exists in place marketing implementation and in the understanding of the concepts that are suggested from the literature (Kalandides & Kavaratzis, 2009). Therefore hypothesis H5 is formulated:

H5: There is a significant difference of opinions regarding place marketing processes between practitioners and people in academia (students/researchers/academics).

Research Methods

Research philosophy & design

Positivism as a research paradigm reflects the position of a natural scientist and is concerned with delivering law-like generalisations as the end product for the phenomena that are observed (Bryman & Bell, 2003). According to the positivism principle, these phenomena will lead to the production of valid data. Also, the use of existing theory leads to hypotheses development, which after rigorous testing will possibly lead to further theoretical advancements or need for modifications in the field of study (deductive process) (Saunders et al., 2009).

Positivist research is based on the belief that people exist as precise entities that everyone can share a common understanding with (Tapp, 2005). Therefore, accurate and value-free knowledge can be the outcome of an objective study, where the researcher is independent from the subject that observes (Remenyi et al., 1998).

For the design of this research, the survey strategy was used, as it allows the collection of quantitative data by the form of a questionnaire; these data are standardised and can be compared with ease. The use of a single, quantitative research technique (questionnaire) makes this study a mono method one (Saunders et al., 2009).

Measurements & Scales

As the study tries to gain insights on the newly conceptualised holistic place marketing process, new measurements and scales needed to be created. The dimensions and items for the "holistic place marketing process" were created based on the existing place marketing literature, particularly from a selection of untested conceptual models, which are normally used by practitioners as a "rule of thumb" for place marketing implementation (Kalandides & Kavaratzis, 2009). Also, the "place regeneration" concept was created from the literature. For all dimensions for both concepts, items are presented in the form of statements and are measured by a 7-point Likert scale ranging from "Strongly Agree" (7) to "Strongly Disagree" (1). The dimensions of the study's model, and the items used for each one, are presented in table 2.

Table 2: Dimensions and items created for this study

CONCEPT

DIMENSION - ITEMS

AUTHORS/YEAR

Holistic Place Marketing

Management Practices (5 Items)

Community Networks, Public-Private Partnerships, Citizen's Involvement, Leadership, Public Discussions

Ashworth & Voogd (1990), Kotler et al. (1993,1999), Rainisto (2003)

Strategic Marketing Practices (4 Items)

Vision, Strategic Analysis, Goals & objectives, Action Planning

Ashworth & Voogd (1990), Kotler et al. (1993,1999), Rainisto (2003)

Service Marketing Practices (5 Items)

Public Services, Cultural Events, Tourism Services, Retail Agglomerations, Infrastructure development

Caldwell & Freire (2004), Hankinson (2005), Warnaby et al. (2005), Warnaby (2009)

Place Promotion Practices (5 items)

Logo/slogan, Advertisements, PR strategies, Publicity, Branding strategies

Kavaratzis (2004), Hankinson (2005), Kavaratzis & Ashworth (2008), Hanna & Rowley (2011)

Place Regeneration

Place Regeneration (5 items)

Place Identity, Place Reality, Competitive Positioning, Brand Personality, Quality of Living

Kotler et al. (1993,1999), Rainisto (2003), Hankinson (2005), Kavaratzis & Ashworth (2008), Hanna & Rowley (2011)

Source: Self-produced table

Sampling & data collection

The non-probability purposive, typical case sampling technique was used for this study. The reasoning behind that was to select people that are knowledgeable with the subjects of place marketing, place management, or place regeneration. Neuman (2005) argues that a purposive sampling is used when the researcher wishes to select cases that are particularly informative.

Students and delegates who participated in the Place Management and Place Branding conference at Manchester Metropolitan University consisted the sample of this study; data were collected in the form of a questionnaire, which was included in the conference material. The questionnaire comprised of 3 sections, consisted of the holistic place marketing processes statements, the place regeneration statements, and demographic information.

Reliability & Validity threats

No previous scales were used for this pre-test study; therefore, it was not possible to guarantee the internal consistency of the model's scales prior to data analysis. Threats to reliability, such as subject to participant errors, observer bias, and participant bias were reduced by the inclusion of the questionnaire in the conference material. Therefore, no one was forced to complete the highly structured questionnaire, and the study was conducted in an objective manner (Robson, 2002).

In terms of validity, the study can only guarantee content and face validity; the former can be reassured, as all the scale items included in the questionnaire were created entirely from the existing literature. The latter is reassured as well, as all the items that are intended to measure a concept look as they measure it (Sekaran & Bougie, 2010).

Data analysis & Results

The most important findings of this study will be presented in this part. The results will give a clear understanding of what participants’ opinions of the holistic place marketing process and place regeneration are, and how the relationships between the concepts are formed.

Response rate & sample profile

A total of 53 questionnaires were returned out of 101 conference participants. From these, only one questionnaire was not filled, and was excluded from the analysis. Overall 52 questionnaires were used out of the possible 101, leading to a response rate of 51.48%.

The sample had an almost equal representation of both genders (53.8% male and 46.2% female). The grouped data of age and income provided averages for those measures. Average age of respondents was 36.64, whereas the average household income was approximately £32,000. In terms of occupation, the sample consisted of 22 students (42.3%), 18 researchers or academics (34.6%), and 12 professionals (23.1%). The sample, as expected, was highly educated. All of the participants had at least a bachelor’s degree, while the majority had either a Master’s degree (46.2%) or a doctoral degree (34.6%). Table 3 is summarising the sample profile.

Table 3: sample profile, sample size (n=52)

GENDER

Male

53.80%

Female

46.20%

AGE

18-24

23.10%

25-34

23.10%

35-44

38.50%

45-54

7.70%

55-64

7.70%

OCCUPATION

Student

42.30%

Place Marketing/Management Professional

11.50%

Professional (other)

11.50%

Researcher/Academic

34.60%

LEVEL OF EDUCATION

Bachelor’s Degree

19.20%

Master’s Degree

46.20%

Doctoral Degree

34.60%

INCOME

Less than £10,000

30.80%

£10,000-£19,999

19.20%

£20,000-£29,999

3.80%

£30,000-£39,999

7.70%

£40,000-£49,999

11.50%

£50,000-£59,999

7.70%

Above £60,000

19.20%

Descriptive Analysis

All the items that were examined in this questionnaire were analysed descriptively in terms of their means, in order to identify the participants’ opinions regarding the practices that are used in place marketing and their level of agreement with the statements of the questionnaire. The statements regarding place regeneration were also analysed in terms of their means.

The items’ means provide useful indications about the level of agreement of participants regarding the significance and importance of the practices in place regeneration. The majority of the sample had positive opinions, which means that place regeneration could indeed benefit from all these place marketing practices. The biggest differences in opinions, as shown by the standard deviations of the items, occurred in the "brand personality", "brand strategies", "logo/slogan", and "retail agglomerations" items. Mean scores varied from 5.15 ("logo/slogan") to 6.46 ("goals & objectives" and "strategic analysis"). All results can be seen in table 4.

Table 4: Descriptive analysis of the holistic place marketing process and place regeneration items

Factor Analysis

In order to examine the interrelationships between the sets of variables of the conceptual model, an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted (Pallant, 2010). This can allow the constructs that are suggested by EFA to be used as variables for subsequent analyses, as "representatives" of the observed variables that are included in it (Thompson & Daniel, 1996). A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Varimax Rotation was used in order to summarise the data empirically. Although the minimum sample size requirement (n=150) was not achieved, it is useful to know if the theorised dimensions are indeed tapped by the items in the measure (Sekaran & Boogie, 2010).

Assumptions about the factorability of the data can be made by using two statistical measures: 1) Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy (Kaiser, 1970; 1974) and 2) Bartlett’s test of sphericity (Bartlett, 1954). From the dimensions that were explored, "Management Practices" and "Strategic Marketing Practices" failed to exceed the minimum (above 0.6) KMO value for a good factor analysis (0.419 and 0.499 respectively). Whereas the Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (p < .05) for "Management Practices", the dimension was considered inappropriate for further analysis. Also, the Bartlett’s test of sphericity for "Strategic Marketing Practices" was not significant (p = 0.089). All other dimensions were appropriate for factor analysis.

Services Marketing Practices

Results for this dimension suggested a single component, with an Eigenvalue of 2.746, which explains 54.926% of the variance. Factor loadings are considered strong when they exceed the 0.6 limit. For this dimension, all items except "infrastructure" (0.439) exceeded this limit. Therefore, "infrastructure" was removed from the scale. The results can be seen in table 5.

Table 5: PCA for "Strategic Marketing Practices"

Items

Factor Loadings (a)

CULTURAL EVENTS

.606

INFRASTRUCTURE

.439

RETAIL AGGLOMERATIONS

.895

TOURISM SERVICES

.877

PUBLIC SERVICES

.784

Place Promotion Practices

A single component was suggested as well for this dimension, with an Eigenvalue of 2.634, which explains 52.677% of the variance. All items managed to exceed the 0.6 limit for factor loadings. The results are summarised in table 6.

Table 6: PCA for "Place Promotion Practices"

Items

Factor Loadings (a)

BRAND STRATEGIES

.731

PR STRATEGIES

.727

PUBLICITY

.679

ADVERTISEMENTS

.810

LOGO SLOGAN

.674

Place Regeneration

Results for "Place regeneration" suggested a two-dimensional construct. The two factors explain 73.915% of the variance with an Eigenvalue unity of more than one (1.148). Varimax rotation revealed a rather confused set of constructs, as most variables, and especially "quality of living", can be part of either construct. Nevertheless, for the purpose of this study, a 3-item scale, which consists of "brand personality", "place reality", and "quality of living", was formed. The remaining items were excluded as a 2-item scale is most of the times weak and unstable (Costello & Osborne, 2005). The results can be seen in table 7.

Table 7: PCA with Varimax rotation for "Place Regeneration"

Rotated Component Matrixa

Items

Factor Loadings (a)

1

2

BRAND PERSONALITY

.864

PLACE REALITY

.792

.327

PLACE IDENTITY

.337

.655

COMPETITIVE POSITIONING

.931

QUALITY OF LIVING

.664

.588

Reliability of Scales

A reliability test is crucial in order to check if the scales are measuring the same underlying construct (Pallant, 2010). The remaining scales managed to score above the acceptable 0.70 range. Table 8 summarises the results of the tests concerning the scales’ internal consistency.

Table 8: Cronbach’s Alpha results for each scale

Scale

Items

Cronbach's Alpha (a)

Services Marketing Practices

Public Services, Cultural Events, Tourism Services, Retail Agglomerations (4)

0.820

Place Promotion Practices

Logo/Slogan, Advertisements, PR Strategies, Branding Strategies, Publicity (5)

0.756

Place Regeneration

Brand Personality, Place Reality, Quality of Living (3)

0.750

Hypotheses Testing

Since no further analysis could be conducted for the theorised dimensions of "Management practices" and "Strategic Marketing Practices", hypotheses H1 and H2 were rejected. For the remaining scales, new variables were computed in order to be suitable for Pearson correlation analysis. The strength and the direction of each relationship is also described (Pallant, 2010). Table 9 presents the results from the bivariate correlations.

Table 9: Bivariate correlations of selected scales

Relationship

Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

Services Marketing Practices - Place Regeneration

0.092

0.518 (not significant at the 0.05 level )

Place Promotion Practices - Place Regeneration

0.124

0.382 (not significant at the 0.05 level)

Services Marketing Practices - Place Promotion Practices

0.736

Less than 0.01 (significant at the 0.01 level)

The tests showed that there are no strong and significant relationships between the remaining components of the holistic place marketing process and place regeneration. Only one strong, positive relationship (0.736) was identified between the two components of the holistic place marketing process. Therefore, hypotheses H3 and H4 were not supported either. Overall, all hypotheses were not supported by the data analysis.

Alternate tests excluding factor and reliability analyses

In this part, alternate tests were conducted, with all the theorised items of the model computed into the theorised scales, without taking the results of factor analysis and reliability analysis into consideration. Since the sample size was too small for factorial validity for two of the scales, it is important to repeat bivariate correlations and do a multiple regression analysis, in order to identify if any other relationships occur.

Pearson correlation suggests that there is a significant, positive relationship between the "Management Practices" component and "Place Regeneration" (0.547, significant at the 0.01 level). Also, positive relationships were identified between "Place Promotion Practices" and "Strategic Marketing Practices" (0.576, significant at the 0.01 level) and between "Strategic Marketing Practices" and "Services Marketing Practices" (0.408, significant at the 0.01 level). The positive relationship between "Place Promotion Practices" and "Services Marketing Practices" has the strongest one again (0.740, significant at the 0.01 level). These results however, cannot be used for supporting the hypothesis H1, as the "Management Practices" component was not appropriate for factor and reliability analyses. The results of these alternate tests can be seen in table 10.

Table 10: Bivariate correlations of selected scales (alternate test not taking Factor and Reliability analyses into consideration)

Then, a multiple regression analysis was conducted, with "Place Regeneration" as a dependent variable and all components of the holistic place marketing process as independent variables. The amount of adjusted shared variances was rather unsatisfactory, as the components of the model help to explain 26.7% of the variance in respondents' scores on "Place Regeneration". As expected, only the "Management Practices" component made a unique and statistically significant contribution (beta = 0.546, sig. = less than 0.01).

Checking differences between sample groups

Since the study's sample was consisted of highly knowledgeable people in the field of place marketing, it is interesting to see if any differences occur in the scores of "Services Marketing Practices", "Place Promotion Practices", and "Place Regeneration" between the three groups (students, professionals, researchers/academics) that participated in the study. The results will give answer to hypothesis H5:

H5: There is a significant difference of opinions regarding place marketing processes between practitioners and people in academia (students/researchers/academics).

ANOVA tests were conducted for this purpose; the "occupation" variable was regrouped into 3 groups (students, professionals, researchers/academics) and was set as the factor. Homogeneity of variance was violated for "Place Regeneration" (Sig. 0.023<0.05). ANOVA scores confirmed that there is a significant difference between groups on "Services Marketing Practices" and "Place Promotion Practices" (sig. less than 0.01 and sig. = 0.037 respectively).

Mean scores of "Services Marketing Practices" were higher for students (6.1591), lower for researchers/academics (5.6944), and considerably lower for professionals (4.7917). The differences were significant at the 0.05 level (sig. less than 0.01 between students and professionals, sig. = 0.017 between professionals and researchers/academics).

Also, mean scores of "Place Promotion Practices" were higher for researchers/academics (6.0444), and even lower for professionals (5.2000). This difference was significant at the 0.05 level (sig. = 0.029). These results lead to the acceptance of hypothesis H5.

The effect sizes of the differences in means were calculated by eta squared. The "Services Marketing Practices" eta squared was 0.293, whereas the "Place Promotion Practices" eta squared was considerably lower (0.127). Both eta squares though highlight large effect sizes.

Discussion

Perhaps the most useful lesson from the unsatisfactory results of the analysis is the difficulty to treat and conceptualise place marketing practices as a holistic business process. The objective of this study to incorporate various practices that stem from the business, management, marketing, and branding disciplines, which form a substantial amount of the place marketing literature, and compare them with regard to place regeneration was unsuccessful, which led to the rejection of hypotheses H1-H4.

When looking back to the identity of place marketing, it can be seen that the discipline is by itself confused and multidisciplinary; a variety of disciplines (public policy making, political economy, urban geography to name a few) are concerned with providing answers to the question of how can places be marketed (Skinner, 2008).

For example, the multiple characteristics of places simply defy the notion of their conceptualisation as separate objects that can be marketed easily like commercial products. On the contrary, places are social constructions, with unique identities, and are made up of a selection of spatial elements by humans (Boisen et al., 2011). Perhaps these spatial elements of a place (e.g. parks, squares, landmarks, lakes, rivers, etc.) can be part of a reconceptualised model, which will include a place’s spatial entities and identities inside the place regeneration component.

In addition, the role of policy makers who form public agendas for place regeneration practices was rather unclear throughout the conceptualisation of the model. Even though some of the requirements were stressed in the "Management Practices" and "Strategic Marketing practices" components (e.g. PPP’s, community networks, leadership, action planning, goals and objectives, etc.), a revaluation of these components is needed. This will stress the impact of managerial and strategic marketing approaches for the regeneration of places from a public policy perspective and can determine the differences between governance and public interest. In addition, the reconceptualization can show more clearly how collaborations and partnership between stakeholders can aid place regeneration and development (Hall, 1999). It is however important to stress, that without proof of validity and reliability, the "Management Practices" component was the only one which had a significant relationship with the "Place Regeneration" component. Refinements and a bigger sample size will aid to clarify the relevance of this finding.

The pre-test study confirmed that some relationships could occur when linking place marketing practices into a holistic place marketing process. The significant relationship between the "Services Marketing Practices" and "Place Promotion Practices" components shows that the various tools that are used to promote commercial products (e.g. advertising and branding) are appropriate for promoting a place’s amenities and services. For tourism and cultural services, as well as retail agglomerations, this assumption is well documented and supported by the destination marketing and retailing literature (see e.g. Caldwell & Freire, 2004; Hankinson, 2004; Warnaby et al., 2005). It may be of interest though to see if the assumption that public services of places can also be promoted to other stakeholders as well, rather than only the citizens of a place.

Another contribution of this study was the confirmation of the gap in opinions between practitioners and academics in the field. Although practitioners had a generally positive opinion about the role of the holistic place marketing process in place regeneration, their scores indicate that they still do not align 100% with the views of academics regarding place marketing practice (Kalandides, 2011), which resulted in the acceptance of the hypothesis H5. However, the positive opinions regarding practices that stemmed from the place marketing literature could mean that the gap is closing, at least in terms of the business side of place marketing.

Conclusion, Limitations, and Future Research