ABSTRACT
Introduction Cities, regions and countries are increasingly engaged with the management of their image and, in many cases, this coincides with an attempt to build their reputation as innovation hubs. In place branding the reference to innovation is, indeed, crucial: places are branded as ‘the’ location where innovative activities can flourish, either because of previous performance or because of emerging favourable conditions. Nonetheless, we know very little about the actual linkage between branding initiatives and innovative developments. It seems quite safe to say that there is no straightforward connection of such a kind that we may dare (or hope to dare in the future) some econometric regression.
