Great Lakes Institute of Management Chennai hosts the 13th NASMEI International Conference

Chennai, 19 December 2019: Great Lakes Institute of Management is currently hosting the 13^th Annual NASMEI (North American Society for Marketing Education in India) Conference at its Chennai campus on December 19^th and 20^th 2019. The conference is organized by the Great Lakes - Kotler Srinivasan Centre for Research in Marketing.

The two-day conference began with the inaugural ceremony presided by the keynote speaker Prof. Sundar Bharadwaj, The Coca-Cola Company Chair of Marketing, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia and Dr. Sridhar Samu, Senior Associate Professor, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.

More than a hundred research scholars from leading national and international institutions are attending the conference and will present their research papers. Over fifty highly accomplished presenters will also present their research over the two days. NASMEI is aimed to discuss and prepare the myriad of trends, emerging changes and challenges disrupting the marketing industry.

Delivering the keynote speech, on the possibility of research in emerging markets, Prof. Sundar Bharadwaj said, “I’m extremely honoured and glad to be in my hometown to talk about a subject close to my heart. We have to look for research opportunities, which are relevant and responsible at the same time. In a country like ours, there are many challenges, which can be addressed, and reforms can be made. India is full of gaps - the digital gap between male users and female users, the economic gap, so on and so forth. As researchers, it is our responsibility to take into account all the factors and work towards solutions. In emerging markets, tracking developments from end to end is easy whereas, in developed countries, it happened long ago and end to end tracking is hard.”

Prof. Bharadwaj further spoke about the grand challenges, such as poverty, communicable diseases, world hunger and climate change. He added that these problems were solvable and need multiple lenses to analyse the problem along with the involvements of more businesses and corporates. In his address, he also cited multiple examples of real-life situations where research paved the way for meaningful acumen to form solutions. 

The 13^th NASMEI Conference will host insightful research papers presented on the evolving trends in marketing across various industries and countries. The event also provides delegates with networking opportunities, Q&As with guest speakers and open discussions.

Another key highlight of the conference is the Doctoral Workshop on research methods for doctoral students and lecturers (PhD/FPM/Exec PhD/Exec FPM) which was conducted from the 16^th to the 18^th December at the Great Lakes campus. The workshop sessions were conducted by NASMEI members, based at top American universities including the University of California Davis, University of Texas-Dallas and University of Maryland College Park, all highly respected experts in the field of marketing.