Reconceptualizing city branding to account for talent attraction: Cities as a place to work and live
Keywords
City branding, employer branding, talent attraction, place branding
Abstract
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.
Primary Advisor
J. Sutcliffe
Program Reader
E. Richez
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Political Science
Document Type
Internship Paper
Convocation Year
2019