The 12th edition of Great Lakes NASMEI (North American Society for Marketing Education in India) International Marketing Conference, organised by the Kotler-Srinivasan Centre for Research in Marketing was held at Great Lakes, Chennai recently. The conference focused on ‘Marketing Strategy’ and the emerging topics in Marketing Management and strategy.
Delivering the welcome address, Dr Bala V Balachandran, Founder, Dean and Chairman, Great Lakes Institute of Management, said: “ On behalf of Great Lakes, it is a unique privilege to organise the 12th NASMEI conference sponsored by Philip Kotler-Seenu Srinivasan and NASMEI that aims to promote marketing science and education research in India. This year, we are taking a step ahead in contributing towards research in marketing, and have announced the Balachandran & Vasantha Balachandran Research Grant Award for three outstanding research proposals in addition to the Sethuraman-NASMEI grant award that we give every year. We are also working towards starting a new doctoral programme, similar to the US model, at Great Lakes to encourage research in B-schools.”
He added: “The next four years will open up new avenues in the domain and I recommend researchers make the best use of resources that combine both people and technology, for newer innovations and impactful insights.” Dr Bala shared that Great Lakes will reward and award the three best faculty in marketing research in India from next year.
Brands and analytics
Chief Guest Dr Kannan Srinivasan, Heinz II Professor of Management, Marketing and Business Technologies, Carnegie Mellon University, delivered the keynote address on ‘Embedding image analytics in structural model’ that emphasised how deep-learning algorithms help a brand’s image representation on social media or any digital medium and impacts the brand’ popularity with consumers. He gave an example from his research project on how brands such as Airbnb implement strategies to help consumers identify verified property by using machine learning techniques that filter out verified and positive reviews.
Prior to the event, a three-day doctoral workshop for 35 doctoral candidates was conducted and anchored by Dr Sundar G. Bharadwaj, The Coca-Cola Company Chair of Marketing, Department of Marketing, University of Georgia, and Prof Rajesh Chandy, Tony and Maureen Wheeler Chair in Entrepreneurship, Academic Director, Wheeler Institute for Business and Development, London Business School.
Research grant awardees
The 12th NASMEI conference attracted over 100 entries from top B-schools, including IIMs and ISBs, and other reputed institutes from Australia, the UK, and the US, among others, and featured presentations on all areas of marketing including consumer behaviour, strategy, and services. Known for its focus on research and encouraging researchers, the conference rewarded six research grant awards with cash prizes under the ‘Research Grant competition’.
The winners of the Bala and Vasantha Balachandran Research Grant Award were awarded ₹1,00,000 each. They were:
* Krishanu Rakshit, Bhupesh Manoharan, Shalini Parthiban and Rishikesan Parthiban, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta - Challenging Institutional Logics and Consumption Practices through a Symbol: A Study of Integrated Institutional Entrepreneurship
* Aruna Divya T, Priya Narayanan & Puneet Bhargava, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad - Will you give when you have lost? How Resource Scarcity Impacts Pro-social Behaviour
* Nitisha Tomar & Akshaya Vijayalakshmi, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad - The Bright Side of Darkness: The Effect of Ambient Darkness on the Preference for Informative Products
The winners of the Raj Sethuraman Research Grant Award were awarded ₹75,000 each. They were:
* Krishnan Jeesha & Keyoor Purani, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode - Web care and brand evaluations: Optimizing web care strategies for services brands
* Shalini Partibhan, Bhupesh Manoharan, Rishikesan Parthiban & Krishanu Rakshit, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta - Consumer Responsibilisation through Gamification: A study of a Real-World Farmville
* Ambika Prasad Nanda, SPJIMR, Mumbai - Understanding Binge watching behaviour and associated gratifications
Marketing models
The conference concluded with vote of thanks by conference co-chairs - Dr Bhardhwaj. S, Director - Research and Dr Bala V Balachandran & Vasantha Balachandran Chair Professor of Marketing, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai and Dr Sridhar Samu, Professor – Marketing, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.
Like every year, the two day conference provided an international platform for researchers, students and faculty to interact and discuss the ever-changing models in marketing.