Abstract
The Hong Kong SAR Government has implemented policies for building Hong Kong under the themes of a “green”, creative” and “smart” city, which are important development decisions for retaining citizens from migrating out and attracting newcomers to stay in the city. Valuable city brands built from these development themes may allow local residents to envision the future of Hong Kong. Branding a city based on its unique, strong and valuable attributes should be able to strengthen local identity and capture citizen support. City brand equity refers to the capacity of a city to generate brand value to its target stakeholders. It is characterized by a series of components, namely awareness, perceived quality, associations of attributes, loyalty, and image and uniqueness. This research identifies the components of local brand equity of green, creative and smart cities of Hong Kong through local resident survey of 751 responses of three city theme and interviews with 46 local citizens. The results show that the city themes consist of some of the components of local brand equity only. Interviewees have varied degrees of understanding of how green, creative and smart city attributes across different districts in Hong Kong, but their understanding is narrow and general. The findings also show some areas of opportunities and threats that have eventually affected the interviewees’ perception, confidence and willingness to stay in Hong Kong. While Hong Kong has been well served by its current brand over the years, Hong Kong is facing increasing competition both regionally and globally, including challenges imposed by outflows of talents and capital, and debates on declining citizen participation in policy making.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author. Requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
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Funding
Funding was provided by Public Policy Research Funding Scheme from the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Grant No. 2021.A4.078).
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Appendices
Appendix 1
Key sections of the questionnaire
Dimension | City brand equity |
|---|---|
Brand awareness [AW] | 1. I am aware of (the city) as a green/creative/smart city. [AW1] |
2. When I think of a green/creative/smart city, (the city) is one of the cities that come to mind. [AW2] | |
3. I am familiar with the features of green/creative/smart city in (the city). [AW3] | |
Perceived brand quality [BQ] | 4. (The city) offers excellent overall quality of a green/creative/smart city. [BQ1] |
5. I am more confident that (the city) can be a green/creative/smart city. [BQ2] | |
Brand associations [AS] | 6. (The city) will have better economic development as a green/creative/smart city. [AS1] |
8. A green/creative/smart city brand of (the city) interests me. [AS2] | |
Brand loyalty [LO] | 9. (The city) is more liveable as a green/creative/smart city. [LO1] |
10. I am more willing to live in (the city) if it becomes a green/creative/smart city. [LO2] | |
Positive image and uniqueness [IU] | 11. The image of a green/creative/smart city brand of (the city) is positive. [IU1] |
12. (The city) is unique as a green/creative/smart city. [IU2] | |
13. (The city) is distinctive from other green/creative/smart city brands. [IU3] |
Key interview questions
Do you think Hong Kong is a green / creative / smart city? Why? | |
Do you think whether Hong Kong is a green / creative / smart city will affect your willingness to live? | |
What do you think about the image of green / creative / smart city in Hong Kong? | |
Do you think Hong Kong have any strengths as a green / creative / smart city? | |
Do you think Hong Kong have any weaknesses as a green / creative / smart city? | |
Do you think Hong Kong have any opportunities or potential as a green / creative / smart city? | |
Do you think Hong Kong have any threats as a green / creative / smart city? | |
How do you think Hong Kong can become a valuable green / creative / smart city brand? | |
Which district do you live in? Do you think any features of green / creative / smart city in that district? In urban planning, infrastructure, or other aspects? Any examples? |
Appendix 2
Extracted interviews responses to how city experience specifically connected to long-term residence in Hong Kong
Code | Attitude | Scripts |
|---|---|---|
Green city experience | ||
P01 | Negative | Pollution in Hong Kong persists and would negatively affect people’s health. ‘Green’ is a way for people to unwind and relax. If the city doesn’t become greener in the long run, it will make me question whether I should stay in Hong Kong |
P02 | Negative | If there is severe environmental pollution, it would make you not want to stay and continue living here |
P06 | Negative | Throughout my years here, growing up, Hong Kong can’t really be an environmentally-friendly place. In terms of pollution, I have already got used to it |
P12 | Positive | Easy access to natural areas and greenery in surrounding living environments are important contributing factors to increasing life satisfaction and contentment. So, if Hong Kong continues to have characteristics of a green city and gets better and better, then it would strengthen one’s desire to stay here |
P13 | Positive | Country parks are Hong Kong’s backyard… has always been a great one. If Hong Kong has an ever better environmental policy, it can better protect nature and green places |
P31 | Negative | If you live in places like Mong Kok and Yau Ma Tei, the light pollution and exhaust gas are really serious… affect my daily life and health |
P35 | Negative | If Hong Kong discards its natural environment, like ecology, air, natural resources, and other aspects, then it would not be livable |
Creative city experience | ||
P05 | Positive | It is acceptable as a creative city as we have the M + Museum and Science Park. The government is always talking about development and the amount of resources dedicated to it. It all reflects that Hong Kong has started to gradually invest more into this aspect such as multi-arts and similar concepts have begun to surface |
P06 | Positive | Creativity drives Hong Kong’s economy. Although Hong Kong itself doesn’t have a very strong culture industry, the city is very good at transforming things and bringing in a lot of new elements. For instance, a corner shop may take inspiration from other countries and mix it together with Hong Kong characteristics. This alone could bring in a lot of business opportunities and liveliness |
P40 | Negative | Hong Kong once was [a creative city]. I am a writer and when the creative space gets narrower, it’s tough. How it is currently is still acceptable, but if it gets worse, then I’m not sure anymore |
P46 | Negative | Although our city isn’t that creative, our advantage is that we import a lot of things from other places with a large variety. So, although we are not creative, we have access to other creative products. Even though we are not creative, we can still sit back and enjoy, so it doesn’t have much of an impact even though our city is lagging behind in this aspect |
Smart city experience | ||
P06 | Positive | A smart city has a lot of information technology, which greatly increases the speed and pace of things in the surrounding environment. So, I am quite satisfied with smartness in Hong Kong |
P08 | Positive | Whether or not it is a smart city indicates whether or not we use a lot of technology in our daily lives. If Hong Kong were not a smart city, I would not have much desire to live there. When you are riding a car or taking the MTR, you are already using technology |
P11 | Negative | Sometimes you will wonder why Hong Kong’s still so not smart, when they claim themselves to be smart. Firstly, it’s inconvenient. Sometimes there are a lot of things they can add to make things more convenient and could even lead to development of a green and creative city. For example, if you drive an electric vehicle, you need to have a lot of charging stations. There could also be mechanized waste treatment methods, automatic drainage systems, etc. many examples to follow, and using big data to do it, and it is considered ‘smart’. Maybe our city is working on them but not telling us, and that’s quite problematic to not tell anyone. Why not promote it? |
P38 | Positive | Hong Kong is a smart city. Hong Kong is quite technologically advanced. I think it’s helpful for us; we have quite a lot of technology, but I think we could have even more. It’s sufficient for the benefit of our living like easy access to the internet, Wi-Fi connectivity, or places where we can use computers or charge our devices for free. Hong Kong offers quite a lot of these things |
P46 | Positive | Compared to the two above elements, ‘green’ and ‘creative’, this element is even more influential in Hong Kong, because at the end of the day, ‘smart’ is related to technological development, which brings us a lot of convenience, for example, the FPS system, and it make up an important part of why you would want to live here. It really benefits us in many areas, besides taking transport, money transfers and personal investments, it also directly affects our quality of life, so ‘smart’ is more important than ‘green’ and ‘creative’ |
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Chan, CS. From the perspective of local brand equity, how do citizens perceive green, creative and smart brand potential of future Hong Kong?. Place Brand Public Dipl 19, 500–513 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41254-023-00307-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41254-023-00307-4