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A recurring theme in the place marketing literature relates to the inadequacies of traditional theory in accommodating the context specificity of places. Such special characteristics of place marketing relate to the complexity of place 'products', the complexity of the organizational mechanisms for their marketing, and the ways in which branding theory can be applied. This paper explores these three aspects through the 'mindset' of the service-dominant logic of marketing and its foundational premises. The paper concludes that, viewed through the lens of S-D logic, issues which have in the past been argued to create a degree of distinctiveness in place marketing theory and practice could actually have much resonance with more mainstream marketing. Thus, place marketing could be seen as being more similar to more 'mainstream' marketing practice than previous place marketing literature implies, and in some areas the specific place context may shed some light on issues relating to the service-dominant logic more generally.

This article considers the concept of 'place' in the context of place marketing. Following a discussion of the disciplinary antecedents of place marketing/branding, the article evaluates the concept of the 'place product', with specific reference to the construction of place narratives. In particular, contrasts are drawn between notions of materiality and realm of meaning as devices for conceptualising places as products to be commodified and marketed. This is illustrated using as a case study, a place marketing initiative in the city of Manchester in the north west of England. The implications of this are analysed in terms of three questions, relating to (1) what is being marketed, (2) who is implementing the place marketing activity and (3) how places are represented as a consequence. The article concludes by arguing that the place product should be regarded as a dynamic concept, composed as much from changing and competing narratives in and over time, as it is from its tangible and material elements.

This paper examines how live music performed outdoors contributes to an overall urban servicescape capable of transforming perceptions of urban environments. A broad spectrum of outdoor musical performance is discussed ranging from major festivals to busking. The benefits of live music in urban space are highlighted in terms of benefits to the local economy and widening arts engagement. Key issues are discussed within the context of the wider place marketing literature, and it is proposed that the role of music in the marketing of specifically urban places may be conceptualized in terms of three distinct continua – managed/spontaneous, spectacular/mundane, and exclusive/inclusive. As jazz has been consistently identified as an urban genre, each continuum is discussed with reference to jazz performances within the context of a specific urban space – St. Ann's Square in Manchester

This case considers entrepreneurial activity in the UK bookselling sector from the 1980s to the present. The early 1980s saw individual entrepreneurs within the UK bookselling sector having the entrepreneurial vision to develop new retail formats which have significantly altered the competitive landscape. The late 1980s/early 1990s saw the consolidation of these innovative retail formats and highlights the ways in which the 'rules of the game' have been significantly altered. The mid/late 1990s introduces the spatial element more overtly , outlining the development of book 'e-tailing' by a new breed of entrepreneurs. This has served to blur the traditional market boundaries, thereby facilitating the process of internationalisation. This process has taken two main forms: physical market entry, with particularly, US retailers grounding themselves in the UK through organic growth and/or acquisition; and the more intangible Internet presence, which has the potential to render traditional conceptualisation of this sector obsolete.

PurposeFashion retailers have increasingly adopted consumer-facing in-store technology (CFIT) to enhance the customer experience/service provision. This paper aims to explore managerial experiences and sociotechnical implications of introducing these technologies into organizational working processes.Design/methodology/approachThis study draws on interpretive analysis of semi-structured interviews with 74 senior fashion retail industry practitioners, technology providers and consultants to understand managerial perspectives on technological innovation issues.FindingsEndogenous and exogenous factors act as drivers or barriers to CFIT adoption and are influenced by strategic and tactical motives. Key issues that retail managers encounter include challenges in aligning technology implementation with retailer brand image to manage risk and reputation, with additional complexity arising from different internal and/or external actors involved, as well as required levels of change in organizational structure.Originality/valueThis study contributes an empirically derived framework identifying reasons for – and the drivers/barriers influencing – fashion retailers' CFIT adoption, classifying three broad approaches to CFIT adoption: embedded, transformative and opportunistic.

The radical changes to the UK town centre retail landscape over the past 60 years are well documented. What are less well documented are accounts of how the internal processes of town centre governance impact on the retail landscape. From the 1990s UK government dictums, aimed at arresting decline, have advised local authorities to engage with local stakeholders and invite otherwise excluded stakeholders into the previously established rituals and routines of local governance. The aim of this paper is to analyse the influence of the 'organisational culture(s)' of town centre custodians (which we conceptualise as the 'town centre paradigm') on their actions to improve the retail vitality and viability of their locale. Through a comparative case study of four UK town centres manifesting contrasting governance 'stereotypes', we explore how different town centre 'custodians' interpret government policies and, perhaps more importantly, how their behaviour impacts on the retail development landscapes of their town centres.

This article interrogates the performative effects of mutualist ideas in the context of market-making. Mutualism is a variety of anarchism associated with the work of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who argued for the centrality of market exchanges and mutual credit as a means for emancipating workers from capitalist exploitation. The discussion is informed by an ethnographic inquiry within a Local Exchange Trading System in Spain – the Moneda Social Puma – which illustrates how actors put mutualist ideas to work. This research makes three contributions: first, it frames a view of market multiplicity and plasticity that broadens the current scope of market studies beyond a managerialist focus. Second, it reveals how actors mobilise anarchist theories to shape – rather than escape – markets. Third, this work elucidates how actors negotiate and stabilise conflicting forms of valuation as mutualist ideas are implemented. In particular, we draw attention to a set of infrastructural practices and mutual credit arrangements whereby the market is cooperatively managed as a common. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of our work for extant debates concerning post-capitalist politics, markets and anarchism.

As Place Branding has become a widely established but contested practice, there is a dire need to rethink its theoretical foundations and its contribution to development and to re-assert its future. This important new book advances understanding of place branding through its holistic, critical and evidence-based approach. Contributions by world-leading specialists explore a series of crucially significant issues and demonstrate how place branding will contribute more to cultural, economic and social development in the future. The theoretical analysis and illustrative practical examples in combination with the accessible style make the book an indispensable reading for anyone involved in the field.

In the context of debates about organizational space, this paper undertakes a multidimensional spatial analysis of everyday organizing. Drawing on an extensive ethnographic study of a housing estate, we use Jessop, Brenner, and Jones' (2008) territory, place, scale, network framework to reveal processes of everyday spatial production that occur through territorial, place-based, scalar, and networked organizing. Foregrounding the interplay of these dimensions, we identify four resulting tensions at work in everyday organizing: conflict and resistance, boundaries and (un)boundedness, stasis and movement, and alterity and diversity. We propose that centering attention on these dynamics manifest what might be termed 'organizational geographies.' Thus, we contribute an empirical demonstration of the ways in which organizing as a sociospatial process occurs during everyday life in a more 'informal' site, thereby extending the contextual repertoire of organization studies. We also contribute a methodological approach for organization scholars to analyze everyday spatial production as a multidimensional process, pointing to the potential for greater cross-disciplinary fertilization with human geography in future organization research.

Drawing on Brighenti's (2010, 2014) theoretical exposition of territorology, we extend current conceptualizations of place within the marketing literature by demonstrating that place is relationally constructed through territorializing consumption practices which continuously produce and sustain multifarious versions of place. In our fieldwork, we embrace a non-representational sensitivity and employ a multi-sensory ethnography, thus helping to illuminate the performative aspects of everyday life relating to people who use urban green spaces. Our analysis articulates three key facets relating to the process of territorializing consumption practices: (1) tangible and intangible elements of boundary making, (2) synchronicity of activities, and (3) sensual experiences. Taken together, these facets advance a kaleidoscopic perspective in which spatial, temporal and affective dimensions of the micro-practices of consumption territories-in-the-making are brought into view. Moreover, our empirical research adds an affective dimension to Brighenti's theoretical elucidation of the formation and dissolution of territories, thereby incorporating sensual imaginations and bodily experiences into the assemblages of heterogeneous materials that sustain territories.