Massimo Giovanardi is an expert of ‘place branding’ – an umbrella term for research in place marketing, destination image and place-of-origin effect. More broadly, his research approach takes sociological perspectives to understand the processes whereby places are marketed, communicated and consumed. His contributions have been published on Annals of Tourism Research, Marketing Theory, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, Cities and other renowned academic outlets. He is affiliated to CAST (Centre for Advanced Studies on Tourism - Bologna University) and TAPLAM (Tourism and Place Making Research Unit - Leicester University)