Leading scholars of marketing attend prestigious conference at Wits Business School.
Wits University’s business school is hosting a prestigious gathering of international emerging markets experts and students from Wednesday, April 4, to Saturday, April 7.
The Emerging Markets Conference Board (EMCB), an annual event, is taking place at the Wits Business School (WBS). Each year the EMCB is hosted in a different country and this year was South Africa’s turn.
Academic coordinator for EMCB 2018, Emmanuel Quaye, said that it’s an excellent opportunity for WBS to be hosting the EMCB. “We have all these people coming from all over the place. Most of them are leading scholars in their field. For most of them it’s their first time coming to Africa,” he said.
The EMCB offers a platform for discussion amongst global thought leaders which will promote understanding of marketing in emerging markets and encourage collaboration on emerging markets research.
Quaye, responding to a question about the significance of the conference for WBS said, “It enhances and deepens our standing as a global school”.
Research Director and Professor of Marketing at WBS, Steve Burgess, said that WBS has a good standing globally. “Wits itself is held in very high esteem internationally. That said, it has very little influence as [it is] a relatively small business school.”
According to Burgess, a board member of EMCB, the business at Wits has the largest doctoral programme on the continent and the research output of the school is of a very high quality. “In marketing [WBS] has the best standing of any school in the country,” says Burgess.
A marketing PhD scholar from Ghana, Juliana Akushika Andoh, said that it was her first time attending the conference. “I’m delighted. I didn’t expect it to be this great.”
Kuhle Zwakala, a doctoral student from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), who is also attending the conference, said that “the conference has been thought-provoking so far.”
The gathering attracts doctoral students and leading scholars from marketing faculties from around the world. Approximately 90 people are attending the conference from various countries including Denmark, Ghana, Mexico, Uganda and the United States.
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