City Coolness and Willingness to Relocate: A Quantitative Study of City Coolness and its Implications on Willingness to Relocate Utilizing Self-congruity and Self-brand Connection as Mediators

Abstract

Cool brands, products, and attitudes — in many circumstances, coolness has become a favorable attribute. Lately, coolness has been discussed in relation to city branding in tourism literature, and it has been found to positively influence essential tourism behavior.
City coolness is a relatively new concept. Hence, research gaps are still to be found in the literature. Among others, if city coolness could relate to young adults’ willingness to relocate. This study contributes to closing this gap. Three hypotheses within this area have been established and tested in a research context where young adults with place attachment to Sønderborg, the city under investigation, constitute the study’s population. The first hypothesis expects city coolness to influence these young adults’ willingness to relocate to Sønderborg. The relationship is further studied through the lenses of self-congruity and self-brand connection as mediating factors in two partial least square structural equation models. The hypotheses are tested using a quantitative method. A self-assessed online questionnaire counts 215 valid responses, and the data is statistically analyzed.
The discoveries from this study show that city coolness does not directly influence willingness to relocate, nor does self-congruity mediate such a relationship. On the contrary, self-brand connection significantly mediates a relationship between the two. Furthermore, sequentially linking self-congruity to self-brand connection as mediators in the second PLS-SEM showed an intensified significant correlation between the constructs, although still indirect.
The findings of this study contribute to the literature within the field by revealing a complex relationship between city coolness and willingness to relocate. Additionally, the fact that self-congruity linked with self-brand connection fully mediates a relationship between city coolness and willingness to relocate provides city brand managers with valuable insights. It highlights the importance of creating a city brand that aligns and resonates meaningfully with young adults’ self-concept if they intend to attract these young adults.
Further research utilizing qualitative research methods is advocated to add insights into why and how city coolness relates to the population’s selves and, as a consequence, forms bonds with the city brand, as it can explain young adults’ willingness to relocate.