Place branding practices are increasingly taking place within public sector organisations, yet destination marketing organisation managers are insufficiently researched through a lens of managerial theory. Extending previous empirical research on DMO management obstacles, this study contributes to the literature by reporting results of interviews with DMO managers throughout a Southern state, and finds that managers face four major challenges: personnel, technological, political, and educational. The educational challenge manifests in how DMO managers respond to the other three obstacles, extending knowledge regarding how DMO managers justify their organisation’s existence and mission to potentially sceptical audiences.
AndréR (2010) Assessing the accountability of government-sponsored enterprises and quangos. Journal of Business Ethics97(2): 271–289.
2.
AnholtS (2007) Competitive Identity: The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities, and Regions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
3.
AshworthGJKavaratzisM (2009) Beyond the logo: Brand management for cities. Journal of Brand Management16(8): 520–531.
4.
ChristensenC (2013) @Sweden: Curating a nation on Twitter. Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture11(1): 30–46.
5.
DavisRS (2011) Blue-collar public servants: How union membership influences public service motivation. The American Review of Public Administration41(6): 705–723.
6.
DenzinNK (1971) The logic of naturalistic inquiry. Social Forces50(2): 166–182.
7.
EshuisJEdwardsA (2013) Branding the city: The democratic legitimacy of a new mode of governance. Urban Studies50(5): 1066–1082.
8.
EshuisJBraunEKlijnE (2013) Place marketing as governance strategy: An assessment of obstacles in place marketing and their effects on attracting target groups. Public Administration Review73(3): 507–516.
9.
FeiockRCMoonMJParkHJ (2008) Is the world ‘flat’ or ‘spiky’? Rethinking the governance implications of globalization for economic development. Public Administration Review68(1): 24–35.
10.
FloridaR (2005) The world is spiky: Globalization has changed the economic playing field, but hasn’t leveled it. Atlantic Monthly296(3): 48–51.
11.
FordRCPeeperWC (2009) Skills, training, and experiences associated with success in the role of a convention and visitors bureau executive: An exploratory study. Journal of Convention & Event Tourism10(1): 1–26.
12.
FordRCPeeperWCGresockA (2009) Friends to grow and foes to know: Using a stakeholder identity matrix to identify management strategies for convention and visitors bureaus. Journal of Convention & Event Tourism10(3): 166–184.
13.
FriedmanTL (2005) The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
14.
GarrodBFyallALeaskA. (2012) Engaging residents as stakeholders of the visitor attraction. Tourism Management33(5): 1157–1173.
15.
GetzDAndersonDSheehanL (1998) Roles, issues, and strategies for convention and visitors’ bureaux in destination planning and product development: A survey of Canadian bureaux. Tourism Management19(4): 331–340.
16.
GoversR (2013) Why place branding is not about logos and slogans. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy9(2): 71–75.
17.
GoversRGoF (2009) Place Branding: Glocal, Virtual and Physical Identities, Constructed, Imagined and Experienced. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
18.
GuestGBunceAJohnsonL (2006) How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability. Field Methods18(1): 59–82.
19.
HallLMKennedySS (2008) Public and nonprofit management and the ‘new governance’. The American Review of Public Administration38(3): 307–321.
20.
HankinsonG (2001) Location branding: A study of the branding practices of 12 English cities. Brand Management9(2): 127–142.
21.
HankinsonG (2007) The management of destination brands: Five guiding principles based on recent developments in corporate branding theory. Journal of Brand Management14(3): 240–254.
22.
HankinsonG (2009) Managing destination brands: Establishing a theoretical foundation. Journal of Marketing Management25(1/2): 97–115.
23.
HannaSRowleyJ (2011) Towards a strategic place brand-management model. Journal of Marketing Management27(5–6): 458–476.
24.
HannaSRowleyJ (2013) Place brand practitioners’ perspectives on the management and evaluation of the brand experience. Town Planning Review84(4): 474–493.
25.
HeideJBWathneKHRokkanAI (2007) Interfirm monitoring, social contracts, and relationship outcomes. Journal of Marketing Research44(3) 425–433.
26.
HoustonDJHardingLH (2013) Public trust in government administrators. Public Integrity16(1): 53–75.
27.
IbsenCABallwegJA (1974) Telephone interviews in social research: Some methodological considerations. Quality and Quantity8(2): 181–192.
28.
IrvineADrewPSainsburyR (2013) ‘Am I not answering your questions properly?’ Clarification, adequacy, and responsiveness in semi-structured telephone and face-to-face interviews. Qualitative Research13(1): 87–106.
29.
KavaratzisM (2004) From city marketing to city branding: Towards a theoretical framework for developing city brands. Journal of Place Branding1(1): 58–73.
30.
KavaratzisM (2009) Cities and their brands: Lessons from corporate branding. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy5(1): 26–37.
31.
KavaratzisMHatchM (2013) The dynamics of place brands: An identity-based approach to place branding theory. Marketing Theory13(1): 69–86.
32.
KeelerRL (2010) Democratic accountability for outsourced government services. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Florida Atlantic University, FL.
33.
KlijnEEshuisJBraunE (2012) The influence of stakeholder involvement on the effectiveness of place branding. Public Management Review14(4): 499–519.
34.
KotlerPLevySJ (1969) Broadening the concept of marketing. The Journal of Marketing33(1): 10–15.
35.
KoutoulasD (2005) Operational and financial characteristics of Convention and Visitors Bureaux. Journal of Convention & Event Tourism7(3/4): 139–156.
36.
KrippendorffK (2013) Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology. London: SAGE Publications.
37.
LeeSCloseAGLoveC (2010) How information quality and market turbulence impact convention and visitors bureaus’ use of marketing information: Insights for destination and event marketing. Journal of Convention & Event Tourism11(4): 266–292.
38.
LincolnYSGubaEG (1985) Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications.
39.
LucarelliABergPO (2011) City branding: A state-of-the-art review of the research domain. Journal of Place Management and Development4(1): 9–27.
40.
LutonL (2010) Qualitative Research Approaches for Public Administration. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, Inc.
41.
Maynard-MoodySMushenoM (2003) Cops, Teachers and Counselors: Stories from the Front Lines of Public Service. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
42.
MilesMBHubermanAM (1996) Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
43.
MilwardBProvanKG (2000) Governing the hollow state. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory10(2): 359–380.
44.
MoeRC (2001) The emerging federal quasi government: Issues of management and accountability. Public Administration Review61(3): 290–312.
45.
NiskanenW (1971) Bureaucracy and Representative Government. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
46.
NunkooRRamkissoonHGursoyD (2012) Public trust in tourism institutions. Annals of Tourism Research39(3): 1538–1564.
OspinaSMDodgeJ (2005) Narrative inquiry and the search for connectedness: Practitioners and academics developing public administration scholarship. Public Administration Review65(4): 409–423.
49.
PasquinelliC (2014) Branding as urban collective strategy-making: The formation of NewcastleGatehead’s organisational identity. Urban Studies51(4): 727–743.
50.
PikeSPageSJ (2014) Destination marketing organizations and destination marketing: A narrative analysis of the literature. Tourism Management41: 202–227.
51.
SafferAJSommerfeldtEJTaylorM (2013) The effects of organizational Twitter interactivity on organization–public relationships. Public Relations Review39(3): 213–215.
52.
SartoriAMottironiCCoriglianoMA (2012) Tourist destination brand equity and internal stakeholders: An empirical research. Journal of Vacation Marketing18(4): 327–340.
53.
StoutM (2013) Logics of Legitimacy. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
54.
StylidisDBiranASitJ. (2014) Residents’ support for tourism development: The roles of residents’ place image and perceived tourism impacts. Tourism Management45: 260–274.
55.
TateWLEllramLMBalsL. (2010) An agency theory perspective on the purchase of marketing services. Industrial Marketing Management39(5): 806–819.
56.
ThackerayRBurtonSHGiraud-CarrierC. (2013) Using Twitter for breast cancer prevention: An analysis of breast cancer awareness month. BMC Cancer13: 508.
57.
van SlykeDM (2007) Agents or stewards: Using theory to understand the government-nonprofit social service contracting relationship. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory17(2): 157–187.
58.
van WaterschootWVan den BulteC (1992) The 4P classification of the marketing mix revisited. Journal of Marketing56(4): 83–93.
59.
VolggerMPechlarH (2014) Requirements for destination management organizations in destination governance: Understanding DMO success. Tourism Management41: 64–75.
60.
WangY (2008) Collaborative destination marketing: Roles and strategies of convention and visitors bureaus. Journal of Vacation Marketing14(3): 191–209.
61.
ZhangMJansenBJChowhurdyA (2011) Business engagement on Twitter: A path analysis. Electronic Markets21(3): 161–175.
