Nicola Bellini is a full Professor of Economics and Management at the Institute of Management of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa, Italy – currently on leave) and Director of the La Rochelle Tourism Management Institute at the Groupe Sup de Co, La Rochelle (France). He is a former Director of IRPET, the Regional Institute for Economic Planning of the Tuscany Region (Florence, Italy) and a former Trustee of the Regional Studies Association. He also works for the European Commission as an expert on smart specialization strategies for European regions. His research interests include local and regional development policies (with a special focus on innovation, internationalization, and tourism), business support services, area marketing, and place branding.Cecilia Pasquinelli is a post-doctoral research fellow at the GSSI Cities, Gran Sasso Science Institute in L’Aquila (Italy). She previously worked in the Department of Social and Economic Geography at Uppsala University, Sweden. She received her PhD in Management, Competitiveness, and Development from the Institute of Management of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in 2012. Her research interests include place branding, place of origin, and the geographical associations of brands and branding, cultural and creative industries, local and regional development, and urban tourism.
