Place Marketing and the Antecedents of Sustainable Competitive Places

Abstract

The effect of globalization is recognized as the impetus which is forcing places to compete globally. Place marketing approach is an alternative for places to attract their target markets. Review on past literature indicates sustainable competitive concept is a possible solution to handling problem of place competition. The gap in knowledge indicated by rare studies on sustainable competitiveness implies the need to identify factors that describe sustainable competitive places. The sustainable competitive concept is explained through the assessment of the roles and the relationships among factors of place sustainability, place competitiveness, place attachment, place satisfaction, and place loyalty. Conceptual model of sustainable competitive factors demonstrates the relationships of these factors. Quantitative technique based on samples of two medium-sized Malaysian cities provides usable data on residents’ perception of the sustainable competitive factors. Variance based Structural Equation Modeling reveals the conceptual model’s explanatory power and predictive capability to explain sustainable competitiveness of places. The findings mark the importance of place attachment in explaining sustainable competitive places. Economic and social factors are the main components of place sustainability, and quality of life is the main component of place competitiveness. The findings reveal place loyalty as the main factor that influences sustainable competitive place. Inconsistencies in the conclusions of previous studies suggest that they fail to notice the aspect of attachment as an important predictor in investigating place - human relationships. Implications of the thesis findings are given to policymakers.