A study of City Branding in the Yangtze River Delta in perspective of Ecological Modernization Master Thesis Qihui Yang (4326660) Engineering and Policy Analysis Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management Delft University of Technology April 10th, 2017 Title Page Title A study of City Branding in the Yangtze River Delta in perspective of Ecological modernization Author Qihui Yang Graduation date April 10th, 2017 Email [email protected] University Delft University of Technology Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management Program Engineering and Policy Analysis Graduation Committee Chairman: Bert Enserink First Supervisor: Martin de Jong Second Supervisor: Haitao Zheng Acknowledgement This paper is my master thesis of Engineering and Policy Analysis at Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management, Delft University of Technology. First and foremost, I would like to give my sincerest gratitude to the graduation committee. I appreciate all the time and efforts you have put into helping me throughout this project. I'd like to thank Dr. Martin de Jong who helped me find this interesting topic and guided me through the whole writing process. It is hard to mentor a student to write a thesis over such a long distance, but you always give me efficient and quick feedbacks with great patience, which I really appreciate. Dr. Bert Enserink, thank you so much for providing me with all the valuable advice. I am very thankful that you read and revise my paper so carefully. Thanks to your comments, I improved the thesis a lot. Dr. Haitao Zheng, thank you so much for supporting me all the time. Without your advice and encouragement, it is impossible for me to finish this project in the end. Also, thanks Dr. Yawei Chen for reviewing my thesis and offering valuable feedbacks on the draft writing. Thanks to the School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology who provides me with this great opportunity to study abroad and experience this amazing journey. Finally, I would like to thank my family and all my best friends. You are always on my side and encourage me to keep on going when I feel discouraged. It is not an easy job for me to finish this paper because I am busy doing research as a PhD student. Special thank goes to Bo, who helped me check the grammars and even the spelling errors. In the end, I want to sincerely thank all of you again. Graduating from Delft would become one of the most special and important times in my life. I feel so honored to have your company to witness my new beginning of life. Thanks a lot! Qihui Yang March 2017, Manhattan I Executive Summary Instead of merely ecological preservation, cities are now going through a road of “ecological modernization” which aims at generating more economic values with higher efficiency, thus benefiting both economy and ecology. Cleaner, greener manufacturing and high-tech service industries become favored among city competitors. Primary and secondary sectors will continually shift towards tertiary sector, which generates less emissions per GDP-growth via high quality services, coincides with higher GDP per capita and higher investment, and attracts more highly educated workforces. As industrial development and transformation inevitably involves fierce competition for limited resources, branding strategies are utilized by cities to promote and distinguish themselves among competitors to face the challenges of ecological modernization. City brand is a multi-facet concept. Brand identity is what city brand decision makers want their cities to be remembered and recognized by the other cities via distinguished characteristics. Brand position indicates cities’ strength from specific aspects. From both city brand identity and position perspectives, this research is implemented by three main parts: theoretical modeling, data overview, and data analysis. In the theoretical part, a conceptual framework of ecological mode pathways was proposed. We argue that the city branding practices can be explained by its economic development stage and position within the region. Based on these two factors which can impact a city’s choice of city branding strategies, prediction of city branding options can be made about different pathways of ecological modernization mode of each YRD city. In the data overview part, profiles of the YRD and its constituent cities are mapped including their historical evolution, geographic and industrial features. Statistics such as land area, population, GDP per capita, location and dominant industries are also collected. Realization of city branding strategies is checked and summarized in both qualitative and quantitative ways from urban master plan, land use plan and five-year plan. In the data analysis part, cities were classified into three groups based on economic development stage namely primary sector dominated city, secondary sector dominated city and tertiary sector dominated city. Regarding position within the region, three categories are identified as international, national and regional city. Based on the five-pathway method proposed in theoretical framework, predictions on city branding choices are made. These predictions illustrate the proper city branding sets the cities choose according to their economic stage and position. In the end, whether the city branding practices in reality are consistent with the prediction is checked for both city brand identities and positions, and explanations for outliers are given. Conclusion points out that even though the pathway model method could lead to predictions of the city branding options, the branding strategies chosen in reality still depend on the credibility of the city brands. Reasons why there exists gap between city brand practices in reality and prediction still need further research. II Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................................................ I EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................... II CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY .......................................... 5 2.1 City branding ......................................................................................................................... 5 2.1.1 Concept and evolution of city branding ......................................................................... 5 2.1.2 Implementation of city branding .................................................................................... 6 2.1.3 EM city brand ................................................................................................................. 6 2.2 Ecological modernization ...................................................................................................... 7 2.2.1 Historical background of EM ......................................................................................... 7 2.2.2 Content of EM theory ..................................................................................................... 8 2.2.3 Development of Chinese environment reform ............................................................... 9 2.3 Research questions .............................................................................................................. 10 2.4 Research methodology ........................................................................................................ 11 2.4.1 Selection of cases studies ............................................................................................. 11 2.4.2 Research methods ......................................................................................................... 11 2.4.3 Methodological framework .......................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 3 YRD AND ITS CONSTITUENT CITIES..........................................................................17 3.1 Overview of YRD ............................................................................................................... 17 3.2 Various cities ....................................................................................................................... 18 3.2.1 Shanghai ....................................................................................................................... 18 3.2.2 Nanjing (JS) .................................................................................................................. 20 3.2.3 Hangzhou (ZJ) .............................................................................................................. 21 3.2.4 Ningbo (ZJ) .................................................................................................................. 22 3.2.5 Zhenjiang (JS) .............................................................................................................. 24 3.2.6 Yangzhou (JS) .............................................................................................................. 24 3.2.7 Wuxi (JS) ...................................................................................................................... 25 3.2.8 Taizhou (JS).................................................................................................................. 26 3.2.9 Changzhou (JS) ...........................................................................................................