Development of a city branding model with the aim of creating sustainable development

Sustainable development is one of the most important goals with which city managers tend to be faced. With the increasing need for public services in cities on the one hand and financial constraints on the other hand, the need to realize this goal is felt more and more. Furthermore, today, city tourism is one of the main pillars and economic stimulus of many cities that plays an important role in employment, income, protection of infrastructure, public services and sustainable urban development. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a city branding model with the aim of sustainable development considering the variable of human resources. The research method in the present study is practical in terms of its nature and purpose, and descriptive and cross-sectional in terms type. The statistical population in this study in the stage of systematic review of the literature includes all the research available in domestic and foreign databases, and in the stage of Delphi panel section, it includes university professors and experts in the field of the research topic. The statistical population in the model test stage includes managers of all municipal departments and city council members in three cities: Amol, Babol, and Mahmudabad. The sampling strategy to determine the panel was informed by non-probability judgment and snowball sampling method, and in the model test stage, it was done through random cluster sampling method. The data collection tool is a questionnaire. In order to evaluate the validity of the questionnaire, content validity, factor analysis, convergent and discriminant validity were used. Cronbach's alpha value was more than 0.70. In order to develop the model, in the first step, the method of systematic review of the thematic research literature was used, after which the Delphi method was conducted. In the second step, the method of structural equation modeling was used to determine the appropriateness of the conceptual model. The findings showed that there were positive and significant relationships between the variables of the model and the claimed model had a good fit.