Fifth Yale-Great Lakes Conference – Highlights

The Yale-Great Lakes Center for Management Research aims to promote, facilitate and advance India-centric Management related research, which contributes to the development of basic and applied knowledge in the field of management. The fifth conference was conducted by the center on 26th December 2010 at the Great Lakes campus here.

(L to R) : S.K. Shanti, Venkat.R.Krishnan, Shyam Sunder

Dr. Venkat.R.Krishnan, Director of the center, was the first to address the attendees. He traced the history of the conference over the last 4 years. Quoting Swami Vivekananda and drawing inspiration from the Upanishads, he said that sensual pleasures belong to the lower human beings and that higher human beings strive for something different. In saying that the objective of conferences like Yale-Great Lakes is the pursuit of “Intellectual pleasure”, he seemed to emphasize clearly how important research is. The welcome address was delivered by Uncle Bala. He remarked that management education should strike the right balance between research and teaching. In his trademark style, he said that, at Great Lakes, there is a perfect combination of academic elegance and business relevance. Great Lakes also has its own research journal – Herald.

V. "Seenu" Srinivasan presenting on "What if marketers put customers ahead of profits?"

Shyam Sunder, James L. Frank Professor of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Yale School of Management presented a paper on ‘Policy research in Management’. Speaking of social sciences as instruments of social engineering, he said that free will and laws of human behavior do not sit together easily. He lamented on the fact that, researchers labeling correlation as a cause is becoming more of a rule than an exception in research journals. V. “Seenu” Srinivasan presented a work on ‘What if marketers put customers ahead of profits?’ This theoretical research used mathematical game theory and examined multiple scenarios involving firms focused on profit maximization vis-a-vis firms focused on customer surplus maximization.

The conference then proceeded with participants presenting their research papers. The research areas were diverse and covered finance, marketing, Operations and Organizational Behavior apart from others. In the afternoon session, Neharika Vohra, Executive committee member, center for innovation incubation and entrepreneurship, IIM Ahmedabad, presented a work on ‘Alienation among knowledge workers: Concept, Measure and Determinants’. The research tried to bring forth the alienation predictors among employees in knowledge industries.

In all, nearly 30 papers were presented by participants from eminent institutes and industries across the country. The conference concluded with a formal Vote of Thanks.

-Sivaraman Natarajan

Fourth Great Lakes-NASMEI Marketing Conference – Highlights

Conference Brief

The fourth Great Lakes – NASMEI (North American Society for Marketing Education in India) marketing conference got underway today morning at the Great Lakes Campus. It is an annual event conducted by The Kotler-Srinivasan Center for Research in Marketing at the Great Lakes Institute of Management and NASMEI. The conference co-chairs include S. Bharadhwaj, Professor (Marketing), Great Lakes Institute of Management and V. “Seenu” Srinivasan, Adams Distinguished Professor of Management Emeritus, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. It is among the finest International conferences in the Marketing area in India and is widely known for its superb research quality. This year too, the conference lived up to its reputation of drawing participants from distinguished schools across the World.

Uncle Bala and Professor Seenu Srinivasan with Dr Siva K Balasubramanian

Inauguration

The conference was inaugurated by Dr. Bala. V. Balachandran, Dean, Great Lakes. Dr. Bala while delivering the welcome address, traced his institution building record in India and took the opportunity to declare Dr. Tapan Kumar Panda, the director of PGPM program at Great Lakes. Dr Tapan. K. Panda has previously served as the officiating director at IIM Indore and was also professor of Marketing at IIM Indore. A photo of Professor Srinivasan was also unveiled in his presence.

Unveiling of Professor Seenu Srinivasan's Photo

Keynote Address

The keynote address of the conference was delivered by Dr. Siva K. Balasubramanian, Harold L. Stuart Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA. He spoke about Marketing to the Next Economy Consumer and challenges involved. He said that the next economy has powerful forces that accelerate the rate of technological change and rapidly redefine unmet consumer needs. In such a context, there are consumers who are extensively networked. Emphasizing that “Marketing has a very nice, eclectic and welcoming character”, he said, design and sociology would be two disciplines that have the highest potential to enrich marketing think in the next economy. He left the audience with the thought that, going forward, infinite touch points would be the marketing norm. The implication for marketing educators would be to move from received wisdom to a more inter disciplinary thinking.

Presentations

The morning gave way to actual business when presentations went on in parallel tracks in different classrooms. Areas in which eminent faculty members and students presented their work include Modelling, Consumer Behavior, Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Relationship Marketing, General Marketing and Integrated Marketing Communication.  There was also a special PhD session for doctoral students that went on parallel to these tracks.

Day 2 began with a key note address by Dr. Rajan Varadarajan, Ford Chair in Marketing & E-Commerce,Texas A & M University, USA. Presentations in the areas of Entrepreneurial Marketing, Education and Marketing, Hedonic Behaviors etc followed. The conference ended with a valedictory function and presentation of certificates.

 

- Sivaraman Natarajan