Analyzing Place Boundaries Using the Service Science Paradigm

This conceptual work uses the place marketing theory, the service science paradigm and the network theory to analyze the “place” boundaries in a place marketing system. Can a marketing-oriented place—one that works on a marketing plan, with an acknowledged place brand that improves its intangible asset and relations with stakeholders—be identified through its administrative boundaries? We think that this stance may indeed be constrictive, and we argue that a marketing-oriented place has variable boundaries over time. Place is something out of administrative boundaries; place could be a system of cities (or a system among "parts" of cities) linked through a value proposition and a new positioning with a marketing strategy. In this way the "place" is the system of territories not only the sum of the cities. To define the concept of "marketing oriented" place we use the place marketing theory and we argue that the boundaries of this place are identifiable by the relations among the system elements and by the value perception of the place actors . We use the service science paradigm to understand the role of relations among the system elements and the network theory to analyze the role of the relation intensity among the actors in the system. Here we argue that, in places with different levels of intensity and natures, there are infinite relations; through the identification of macrocategories of relations (i.e., the relevant clusters of service science), it is possible to give a first-level definition of place boundaries (the macrolevel of the definition), while more defined edges can be identified through the measure of the relation intensity (which are variable in time and barely measurable with the network theories).