Cities in Competition: Is There a Link between Entrepreneurship and Development?

Abstract

Cities operate in a competitive social environment requiring local authorities to adopt marketing strategies with significant economic ratings. City marketing that is related to the meaning of a city’s name encourages activities in the city or region. The present study adopted a quantitative survey on a sample of 152 employees in companies to explore how important marketing is perceived for a city’s development. The research was done in Trikala, a city in Greece. The key conclusion was that the more critical the participants consider the interventions in the city’s natural environment, the more they believe that the city can benefit from corporate sponsorships. Subsequently, it appeared that the more they support the interventions in the structured environment of the city, the less they consider that corporate sponsorships can benefit it. It was explained that structured interventions usually involve very high investments that require funding from the central government, as sponsorships are not enough. The most substantial positive relationship was found between the importance of interventions in employment, entrepreneurship and tourism, and the importance of business sponsorships.