Investigating the Impact of Urban Management Measures on the Realization of the Creative City Brand (Case Study: Rasht Food Creative City)

The topic of creative city is one of the theories proposed in the postmodern and late paradigm, which has caused huge transformations and developments in cities and has provided the growth and sustainable development of cities. However, the most important element and requirement for realizing this issue depends on urban branding and creating a favorable mental image; for this purpose, cities can be successful in the global arena and competition with each other for globalization and raising their name at the international level. Cities are the main places where creativity and innovation emerge, and this creativity is considered vital for their economic success. In recent years, counter-development has received much attention in the theoretical literature and urban planning practice. The creative development of cities requires different fields, the most important of which are urban branding and the development of citizen participation. 

Considering the nature and method of answering the research questions, this research is descriptive-quantitative and applied in terms of the type of goal. In this research, information has been collected through surveys and documents. The information obtained from these questionnaires was quantitatively entered into the SPSS software first to check the Cronbach's alpha value in order to confirm the accuracy of the questionnaire. This coefficient, with a value of 0.97, indicates good and reliable internal validity of the questionnaire questions. Then, in the next step, using Smart PLS3 software, the findings were modeled and analyzed. Also, in order to evaluate the collected data, methods of reliability (composite reliability, Cronbach's alpha and average variance) and validity (confirmatory factor analysis and divergent and convergent validity) were used. In the current research, the views and opinions of citizens have been used to investigate the impact of indicators on the realization of a creative city. Therefore, the statistical population in this research includes all citizens living in Rasht. Cochran's formula was used to calculate the sample size, which is 382. In this research, 410 questionnaires were distributed online among citizens and residents of Rasht. Based on this, this research aims to investigate the impact of Rasht's urban management measures in different areas on the realization of the creative food city brand of this city. Finally, for this purpose, appropriate solutions have been provided to achieve this goal. Also, this research aims to answer these questions:-Which index is the most important index in the realization of the creative city brand of Rasht?-In which areas has the performance of urban management been weak? 

From the analysis of the research data, several key categories are obtained. In this section, we will only mention these items. The “Economic Development” index, with the highest average (3.21) and the “Financial Support and Facilitation” index, with an average of 2.56, has the lowest average among the research indicators. Also, the lowest average among the subjects of this research is related to the two indicators of “setting up an electronic system to manage requests” and “a suitable platform for two-way interaction between officials and people.” On the other hand, according to the results of the significance test of the indicators, only the influence of the indicators “use of cultural and historical capacities,” “economic transformation,” and “networking and participation” are confirmed and significant. Finally, the two indicators of “economic transformation” and “networking and participation” have had the greatest impact on the realization of the branding of Rasht in the current conditions. 

According to the results obtained from the model, the index of economic development has had the most significant impact on Rasht's urban branding. After that, the indicators of networking, participation, and the use of historical and cultural capacities have had the greatest impact, respectively. Based on this, economic development in the city, especially in the field of food and feed, and as a result, the improvement of the economic situation is one of the most important factors in improving and realizing the branding of this city. But one of the most important factors for the realization of urban branding is proper networking and infrastructure improvement to increase the level of citizens' participation. In this regard, according to the feedback received from the citizens, setting up an electronic system in order to create a suitable platform for interaction between citizens and city management to take advantage of people's ideas and the creative class can be a fundamental step in improving this index and ultimately improving the image and brand of this city in the national and international arena. On the other hand, the indicator of the use of cultural and historical capacities is another influential factor that requires additional attention from the urban management of this city. Based on this, urban management can play an impressive role in branding this city by improving educational and cultural infrastructures to promote creativity and transfer the cultural and historical assets of Gilan province to the young generation, along with the revival and recreation of historical buildings. However, among the noteworthy results of this research is the low impact and lack of meaning of policy indicators in the field of the creative city, the creation of creative and eventful urban spaces, and especially the indicator of financial support and promotion of the activities of the creative class. This indicator even has a negative impact on branding. Considering the low average of these indicators in Rasht, which is based on the views and evaluation of the citizens, it is not far from the expectation that these indicators have the least or even a negative impact. In this regard, Rasht's urban management policies require special attention regarding financial support for the creative class and providing facilities and facilities to encourage and facilitate the activities of this class so that an effective step can be taken to realize the creative city brand of Rasht. 

There is no funding support. Authors’ ContributionAuthors contributed equally to the conceptualization and writing of the article. All of the authors approved thecontent of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work declaration of competing interest none. Conflict of InterestAuthors declared no conflict of interest. Acknowledgments We are grateful to all the scientific consultants of this paper.