CHAIR

Chair on Regional Branding

The current socio-economic context is characterized by the increasing interdependency of national and regional economies and by social and economic globalization. Within this context, countries and regions face increasing competition, not only because of the exportation of their goods and services but also because of the attraction of scant resources such as talent/knowledge, public and private external investment. Likewise, the increasing international competition between territories, offers the regions the opportunity to collaborate and cooperate in the efforts to attract such resources.

This increased competition and collaboration between regions in the fundraising requires the implementation of a proactive strategy of international projection carried out by the different actors involved in regional development (primarily public administration, but also enterprises, social groups and other stakeholders). This focus on management of external relations is particularly relevant for small peripheral and / or emerging regions, whose international image is vague or even unknown, and which have fewer resources to position themselves in a global market. In this regard, the concepts of Regional Branding and Place Marketing are particularly important, based on the strategic management of the image which the areas - countries, regions, municipalities or their groups - project abroad.

In this situation, the Chair on Regional Branding of the University of Cantabria is created as a university forum for research, training, dissemination and consultancy with regard to international projection of regions and brand development of territory. The objectives of the Professorship are presented from a dual aspect input/output:

• From a demand perspective (input), the Chair aims at conducting research, training and dissemination related to talent attraction and economic investment to the regions.
• From a supply perspective (output), the Chair focuses on activities aimed at building and developing a territory brand which promotes and facilitates the internationalization of the business framework in the region.