Value creation in a dying city center

: A study of important attributes visitor use to create value in a local city center

Abstract

In recent years, online retail, shopping malls and the Covid-19 pandemic have contributed to dying city centers. To counteract the decrease, several Swedish cities have begun to improve their city centers with the help of Svenska Stadskärnor’s development processes. One of these city centers is Hässleholm which serves as the case for this study. The purpose of this thesis was to explore important attributes of a local city center that visitors use to create value and to understand what type of value that is created. Based on previous research a conceptual model was constructed to describe the roles of the providers and visitors and their interactions in a local city center. Furthermore, the value outcomes were explored. Empirical data was gathered through four focus groups with a total of 21 participants that regularly visit Hässleholm’s city center. Based on the empirical findings, this study confirmed that eight out of nine previous established city center attributes are important for the visitors. Additionally, the local aspect was found to be an equally important city center attribute consisting of five perspectives. These perspectives are seen as important driving forces to visit and shop in the local city center. The city center attributes are used in the city centers for visitors to create utilitarian, hedonic and altruistic value. This thesis contributes with new insights for the city center of Hässleholm in its development process, as well as contributing to new theoretical implications since the study found that the local aspect was an important attribute.

Date of Award	2022-Jun
Original language	English
Supervisor	Lisa Källström (Supervisor), Oskar Christensson (Assessor) & Heléne Tjärnemo (Examiner)