Joint Symposium Seeks to Build Bridges between Russian and Asian Marketing and Management
As part of the XVI April International Academic Conference, HSE hosted a joint symposium of the Global Alliance of Marketing & Management Associations (GAMMA) co-organized with Korean Scholars of Marketing Science. Themed ‘Bridging Asia and Russia in Global Marketing & Management’, the event aimed to promote academic cooperation between scholars working in the fields of marketing and management in Russia and Asia. Professor Olga Tretyak (HSE), Professor Vera Rebiazina (HSE) and Professor Jaihak Chung (Sogang University) co-chaired this joint symposium. The Center for Sustainable Culture & Service of Yonsei University and Korea Economy & Management Development Institute were partners.
Professor Kim, Executive Secretary of Korean Scholars of Marketing Science, and Professor Ko, President of Global Alliance of Marketing & Management Associations were among the organizers of the event. Professor Kim explained that the symposium was conceived during the 2014 Global Marketing Conference in Singapore. A special session called Marketing in Russia was organized, mainly by professors from HSE, and it was thought that it would be a very good idea to hold a joint symposium at HSE in Moscow.
‘For GAMMA, it is the first ever attempt to organize academic activities in Moscow. The theme of our joint symposium is Russian and Asian perspectives in marketing and management,’ said Professor Kim.
The area of Russian marketing is very strong in business-to-business marketing. Korea has a lot of marketing scholars studying not only B2B, but also consumer-to-business and especially business-to-consumer aspects. This means that there is huge potential to create joint research projects and to cooperate with each other
Professor Ko stressed that the symposium has been very successful and a very good first step towards fruitful cooperation. 'We’ll continue collaborating on conferences and publications. We have Global Marketing in Hong Kong in 2016, and we’ve already invited Professor Olga Tretyak and Professor Vera Rebiazina to participate. We would like to have more people from Russia. We publish two official journals with Taylor and Francis based in Oxford (UK), Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science and Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, and we would like to invite more Russian scholars from HSE - there are many capable scholars here - to our editorial review board. We hope to introduce more Russian marketing research to the world. We would be happy to have more submissions from HSE and also Russian marketing scholars in general’.
Professor Ko added that there are plans to sign cooperation agreements between HSE and Yonsei University (South Korea) that would include various exchange programmes and possibly double-degree programmes, particularly in the area of fashion and luxury marketing, which is one of Professor Ko’s areas of specialization.
Professor Ko sees two main challenges facing marketers today. First, there are technology issues. Social media marketing and e-commerce affect our everyday lifestyle and consumer level, which inevitably influences business. Second, there are environmental issues and the problem of sustainability. Several papers on sustainability marketing were presented at the symposium. Recently in Korea, serious air pollution came from China due to its increased industrial activity. Companies should be responsible for these issues but at the same time, it is important to think about business sustainability and the bottom line, he believes.