What happens when nearly 40 Ph.D. students in Marketing from all over the world get together with 50 internationally renowned professors in the middle of the Arabian desert? They build bridges; they network; they connect. They also try to jointly push the knowledge boundaries of a great discipline–Marketing. The venue for this innovative exercise was the Dubai campus of the Institute of Management Technology-Ghaziabad, which hosted the 3rd AIM-AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium from January 18-20, 2015.
Originally conceptualized in 1966 in the United States, the Doctoral Consortium has provided an excellent platform for robust interactions among doctoral students and established faculty of international repute. This is the third time the American Marketing Association and the Sheth Foundation organized the consortium outside of North America with the support of the Academy of Indian Marketing. The theme for the 3rd AIM-AMA Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium was “Marketing in the Digital Age in Emerging Economies.”
“IMT-Ghaziabad, as a leading research-focused institution, is strongly invested in a culture of scholarly excellence and the Doctoral Consortium is a significant step in that direction,” said Dr. Bibek Banerjee, Director, IMT Ghaziabad and Academic Mentor of IMT Group. “My team and I worked hard to make it an interactive and enriching experience for everyone.”
The consortium offered an opportunity for the doctoral students to participate in both formal and informal interactions with top scholars and editors of reputed journals, who mentored them on how to publish in peer-reviewed international journals.
Gurus’ Thumb-rules: The 6-Steps to Publication Success
- Pick a topic that is interesting, relevant and implementable. Topics on which much has already been done is usually harder to publish in top journals
- Avoid being too broad and descriptive; and focus on specifically articulating the originality and contribution of your work
- Position your work in the context of the gap(s) in the existing literature such that the relevance and implication of your contribution will be of appeal to your intended audience (read academia and practice).
- Use methods and models that address your research questions adequately and parsimoniously
- Pay attention to data quality and adequacy: even the best of ideas may not be publishable if the calibration and validation data are not of integral quality
- Use language that is clear, incisive and to-the-point. Avoid long-winded expositions that put the reviewers under stress
- Know the positioning of the journals where you are sending your work to. A good fit between the area of your research and the vision of your targeted journal is a pre-requisite for acceptance of papers.
Global Representation
The doctoral students attending the consortium hailed from several countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal, Germany, Pakistan, Turkey, Austria, South Africa, China, Ghana, Vietnam, France and India. Biswajita Parida, who is a doctoral student at IIM-Ahmedabad and belongs to the small town of Puri in Orissa, was delighted to get an opportunity to attend the doctoral consortium in Dubai. “I had meaningful conversations with stalwarts like Barbara E. Kahn, Russell Belk, David Stewart, Jagdip Singh, and many others,” she said proudly. “I even gave print outs of my papers to Barbara Kahn, a well-known professor at the Wharton School, at the start of the consortium. She actually read all my papers and gave me feedback before I left. How many forums provide that kind of mentoring with established international faculty?”
The consortium was chaired by Dr. Bibek Banerjee (IMT-Ghaziabad and IMT Group, India) Dr. Jagdish Sheth (Emory University, USA), V. Kumar (Georgia State University, USA), and Dr. Janakiraman Moorthy (IMT-Dubai).
While the central theme of the event was focused on the need for, and relevance of, rigorous and scholarly research, the event was not all work and no play. “As a part of the event, we went away from the city of Dubai to an informal setting of dining together in Arabian style in the middle of the desert,” said Dr. Jagdip Singh, A&T Chair Professor at Case Western Reserve University, United States, and distinguished visiting professor at IMT. “All this helped to loosen hierarchies and bring people together. I saw many students and faculty who barely knew each other until a few days ago forging new connections,” he added.
If inspiration from role models is a proven catalyst for creativity and innovation, some hand-picked young scholars of the country probably had an occasion to cherish for the rest of their careers.
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