Building Organizational Capabilities for City Attractiveness. The Valencia Case Study

This paper aims at understanding the role that strategies and organizational capabilities play in designing city attractiveness whilst integrating both managerial and urban approaches. Discussing the case of Valencia in Spain, hosts of the America’s Cup in 2007, the paper presents and discusses an “urban toolkit” to attain urban attractiveness. Three phases are identified: (1) defining the urban resources & identity and positioning the city, (2) defining the strategy and marketing mix, (3) building organizational capabilities. Specifically, building organizational capabilities signifies designing managerial and political roles, building an Urban Lab, structuring networks around the Urban Lab, communications to align and engage citizens and building a Network Information System.