The use of Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for place branding research: a survey of academic experts

Place branding as a governance and communication tool can play a key role in sustainable development. Former research illustrates how place branding can influence economic growth, social well-being and environmental preservation. Although the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a globally accepted framework and the main initiative to encourage sustainability, mentions to SDGs in place branding research remain limited. To explore this gap, an online survey was conducted among 44 international place branding academic experts to examine the use of this framework in the discipline and in their own work. The results show that most academics are familiar with the SDGs, but rarely use them explicitly as a research framework. Place branding scholars who incorporate the SDGs in their research link this to enhanced relevance and impact, ethical considerations, funding opportunities, and improved publication chances. Conversely, scholars that do not use this framework, highlight the lack of relevance to the research and a limited understanding of how to incorporate the SDGs as the main reasons. The perspective of place branding academic experts reflects an interest in deepening the integration of the SDGs. Yet, some scholars are reluctant to include imposed frameworks in their research and fear that academic discourse could promote greenwashing practices. This investigation provides a first contribution on the use of SDGs as a framework in place branding research and outlines future research directions to enhance place branding SDG-related studies.