City branding: stakeholder engagement on social media through religion and brand coolness in the Middle Eastern context
Creators: name: Alahmari, Abdullah
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 470101
subject: Communication studies

description: This Ph.D. thesis aims to advance the understanding of city branding from the perspectives of the government and residents in Saudi Arabia by raising the overall research question (ORQ) of “how does the engagement of stakeholders on social media shape city branding in Saudi Arabia, specific to the stakeholder groups of the government and the resident?” This overall research question leads to the following research questions (RQ) that organize the current study, including RQ1: What are practice and existing scholarship about stakeholders’ engagement on social media of city branding in Saudi Arabia?  RQ2: What is the role of religion in influencing the stakeholder engagement on social media in city branding? RQ3: What are the ways to motivate residents’ engagement in city branding through looking at the component of city brand coolness on social media? RQ4: What are the implications for engaging stakeholders in city branding within the middle eastern context? To address these research questions, this project follows a Ph.D. with publications style, which includes 3 main stages. 

Stage 1: Stage one aims to combine three aspects of place branding on social media into a unified framework about the sharing economy based on extensive scholarly literature. Stage 1 describes the literature connection between city branding and social media. Moreover, this Stage explains how stakeholders (government and residents) use social media to foster city branding. Furthermore, Stage 1 discusses how the sharing economy helps cities brand themselves. In addition, it presents an insight into the context of Saudi Arabia on city branding practices in Saudi and what city branding research has been done in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the Stage 1 analyses the approaches of Saudi Arabia's city branding by justifying the role of Islam religion in city branding designed to achieve a comprehensive transformation of Saudi Arabia society. This background will enable readers to understand the context and cultural factors influencing residents' perceptions and behaviour on social media. Furthermore, it explains Saudi's social and political ecosystem to understand the context of the subsequent two empirical studies in Stage 2 and Stage 3. 

Stage 2: This Stage explores the role of religion in engaging stakeholders on social media in branding a place and unmasks what implications this has for (re)constructing the three-dimensional meanings of a place brand. Using the content analysis method to examine the case of Saudi Arabia, it probes how the key stakeholder groups of the government, and the residents interact with the narratives of the cities - Jeddah and Riyadh - on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The results show that the Islamic religion serves as a strategic instrument to motivate the residents to engage in government-led city branding initiatives at the individual level. However, the potential of dwelling on religion to mobilise resident engagement at the individual towards the social level with the aim of growing resources to facilitate social development should be reassessed within a dynamic social system. Theoretically, the proposed framework of religion city branding through stakeholder engagement expands the scope of stakeholder engagement in place branding research by drawing upon religion's values. Stage 2 contributes to the practical sense of how religious factors might be expressed and structured by the key stakeholder group of the government to engage residents in city branding exercises. This Saudi-focused study possesses significance for place branding practices in Middle Eastern countries and beyond.

Stage 3: This stage concentrates on social media engagement in the context of city branding by the mediating role of city brand coolness. By drawing on the concept of city branding aspects, being defined as the physical attributes, functional attributes, and personality traits, and focusing on engagement on social media, the current study examines how perceptions of city brand coolness mediate the relationship between city branding aspects and social media engagement in terms of emotion, cognition, and behaviour. Findings reveal that city branding aspects directly influence social media engagement. In contrast, city brand coolness mediates the relationship between city branding aspects, including physical attributes, functional attributes, and personality traits and engagement on social media. Stage 3 provides conceptual and theoretical clarity on how city branding aspects influence residents' engagement on social media in their city. Stage 3 proves that coolness is crucial in city branding and residents' decision-making and attachment to the city. It contributes to the practical sense of how the government, as a brand manager, can contribute to developing city aspects that meet the needs and expectations of residents to engage in city branding strategies.  

Based upon the three stages, this Ph.D. dissertation provides valuable insights into the role of stakeholder engagement and co-creation of brand meanings in city branding. Through revealing residents' preferences, motivations, and engagement patterns in city branding, this study provides a reference for nurturing practical digital strategies that can utilise the strengths of residents' engagement in constructing inclusive city branding. These outcomes could inform city branding research and practice in the Middle East.