Spatial relationship of city branding strategy adoption in megacity regions: Patterns and influencing factors

With the rapid economic growth of regions, cities have adopted various city branding strategies in competitive and occasionally cooperative relationships with other cities. Intercity connections or regional context influence city branding strategy adoption, a topic that has been neglected by previous research on city branding. The spatial relationships of city branding strategy adoption is a worthy topic due to preliminary signs of the relevance of such connections or relationships. This paper explores the spatial relationship of city branding strategy adoption in megacity regions from two perspectives: patterns and its influencing factors. Regarding patterns, megacities regions have shown spatial relationships in different city branding strategy adoption in both within and cross-regional comparisons. Considering influencing factors, this study finds that city branding strategy adoption in the three megacity regions has spatial correlations by using the spatial analysis method, while city branding strategy adoption in the same region tend to be influenced by economic or urban factors in similar ways. Thus, policymakers need to consider these spatial relationships in city branding designs and pay attention to the factors influencing city branding strategy adoption in their own regions.