Nation branding, in what context? Spatial competitiveness and attractiveness

This chapter examines the conceptual evolution of national identity and specificity creation and promotion (nation branding), combining it with theoretical background and developments in the concept of competitiveness and attractiveness and suggesting a new interpretive framework for understanding nation branding policy and strategy. The chapter is divided into specific elliptical steps, with the first one concerning the critical overview of nation branding recent literature, developed towards understanding the main research directions related to competitiveness. Competitiveness and attractiveness are then presented as a dynamic and undivided diptych, which cannot be exhausted in fragmented nation-centric approaches but arises through dynamic processes at the co-evolving levels of spaces, industries, and firms. In conclusion, a systemic contour for understanding space is composed and suggested as a multi-layered continuum, called the “cone of entrepreneurial and innovational dynamics,” which can be the substantial basis for articulating an integrated nation branding policy.