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- 139 paper presentations
- Several keynote addresses and workshops conducted
- 200+ participants attended the three-day conference
The thirteenth edition of the most awaited Conference on Excellence in Research and Education – CERE 2023 was held at IIM Indore on June 09-11, 2023. The conference this year focused on the theme ‘Organizations in Action: Digitalization and Sustainability in Management Practices.’ The event witnessed participation from more than 200 participants. A total of 139 paper presentations, 6 keynote addresses, and 3 workshops were conducted during three days. The conference gathered many academicians, researchers, and experts to share their views on the theme, which was fruitful for everyone.
In his online address, IIM Indore’s Director, Prof. Himanshu Rai, congratulated the entire CERE 2023 team for organizing the event. Prof. Rai defined CERE in a new way – C for the Convergence of diverse perspectives, E for Empowerment through knowledge and skills, R for Reflection for critical examination and growth, and E for Engagement for meaningful connections and collaborations. ‘May these values guide us in our pursuit of excellence and drive us to make a meaningful impact in our respective fields’, he said. Speaking about the conference theme he said, ‘In the pursuit of sustainable growth, organizations need to generate unique opportunities and strategically address the challenges that lie ahead. This can be achieved by leveraging smart technologies and embracing digitalization’. He mentioned that just as teachers shape their pupils and leaders shape the destiny of their people, similarly, organizations shape the society they operate in. ‘Therefore, it becomes imperative for organizations and schools like us, to take conscious steps towards digitalization and sustainability to ensure holistic progress’, he said.
The three-day event witnessed various keynote addresses by academicians and industry experts. Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director of IIM Bangalore, talked about digitalization, sustainability, and innovation. He appreciated the role of digital technology and sustainability within an organization and highlighted the fact that the link between the two of them may not always be complementary to each other. ‘The use of technology often comes with unsustainable practices and thus, the role of innovation through which digital technologies can be made more sustainable for an organization to become effective, efficient and agile at the same time and vital’, he said.
Prof. Vivek Suneja, Head & Dean of FMS, University of Delhi talked about artificial intelligence and what impact it might have on the research community. While appreciating the role of artificial intelligence in making things faster and more efficient, he highlighted the distinction between the two. He encouraged all the research participants to think deeper and question all the assumptions, to use AI as a tool in their research but not become AI.
Prof. Prashant Mishra, Dean – SBM, NMIMS, Mumbai, talked about the link between sustainable strategies and marketing interface. He highlighted the fact that although there is an increased focus on sustainable products, consumer perception of sustainability is a challenge. He also talked about competition vs collaboration and highlighted collaboration as key for organizations to win in today’s dynamic environment.
Dr. Kamal Gulati, Senior Scientist, All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) talked about the growing importance of management education in medical sciences. Further, he shared his views on the importance of medical–management collaboration to strengthen the evidence for leadership development – design medical leadership models and competence frameworks specific to the Indian health system context. ‘By enabling medical professionals to become effective leader effective leaders, we can drive innovation and entrepreneurship, improve health care management practices for the betterment of the health care industry’, he said.
Prof. Sushanta Mishra, Faculty, IIM Bangalore shared his views on research and publication in the age of disruption. He said that research is more about relevance, but nowadays researchers focus on publication, and a few publications contribute to relevance to practicality. Then, he discussed the disruptions in the research and publication mentioning the pros and cons of ChatGPT.
A session on re-imagining management research and teaching in the generative AI era was also held by Prof. Neeraj Dwivedi, Faculty, IIM Lucknow. He talked about the application of AI, especially understanding AI tools to improve research effectiveness and the role of AI in teaching. Among others, he highlighted AI tools can be used for language refining. Changing tenses etc.
Prof. Nirmala Menon, Faculty, IIT Indore spoke about hybrid pedagogies and the future of Ed-tech in India. She talked about Hybrid Pedagogies and Educational technology, She appreciated the Importance of the SWAYAM campaign under which multiple high-quality online courses are offered to students but also highlighted the need for going beyond them and using AI as a tool to deliver more effective education across the country.
Dr. Lalit Singh, Senior Scientist, NPCIL-BARC also delivered a keynote address sharing his views on industrial applications of artificial intelligence. Prof. Prashant Salwan, Dean Programmes, IIM Indore, talked about the 10 ways in which participants should make maximum use of a platform like CERE 2023. Among other things, he encouraged scholars to discuss insights of their work with their peers, try to link insights across domains, form a research network, and be aware of the publication trends within different domains. Prof. Abhishek Mishra, Conference Chair, and Prof. Manish Popli, Chair – FPM, IIM Indore also congratulated the CERE team for their commendable efforts in organizing the event.
Workshops
Prof. Kunal Kamal Kumar, Faculty, IIM Udaipur conducted a workshop on Social Network Analysis. Starting with a brief about social network analysis as a method used in research and its growing importance, he emphasized on how social positions determine power beliefs and behaviors.
Prof. Falguni Vasavada-Oza, Faculty, Mudra Institute of Communications (MICA), talked about Holistic Marketing Management, Waves of Branding. She also discussed the ways in which Digitalization has impacted marketing through the technology revolution, the massive impact of social media, the shift from consumer to community and from advertising to storytelling.
Dr. V.K. Jain, Retired Executive, BHEL conducted a brainstorming workshop on Leadership Communication, wherein he talked about leadership communication. He mentioned that leaders are the change agent, who make things happen, who have something beneficial to offer, whose thoughts, words, and deeds are assimilating, who appreciate the team, who give credit to their success, and who accept responsibility for failure. He spoke about various qualities a leader should have and the importance of impactful leadership communication. Another workshop on Mediation and Moderation Analysis saw enthusiastic participation. Prof. Murugan P. conducted this.
Best Paper Awards
The Best Paper Awards were also declared during the valedictory. The winners received prize money of Rs. 25,000, Rs. 20,000, and Rs. 15,000 respectively.
First Prize (Rs. 25,000/-):
Title: “Humor as a Hiring Hook: The Playful Games Organizations Play to Attract Talents”
Authors: Kedar Thakur, Aarushi Singh, Prof Jatinder Kumar Jha, and Dr. Shilpa Jain
Affiliation: XLRI
About Paper: Results shows that the use of humor in job post significantly influences job applicants’ perception about organizational warmth which subsequently drives the intention to spread word-of-mouth. Similarly, the informativeness of job attributes enhances organizational attractiveness positively which in turn influences the job pursuit intention of potential job applicants.
Second Prize (Rs. 20,000/-):
Title: “Insta-Success: How Instagram can sky-rocket small business marketing efforts?”
Authors: Aditi Rajput, Surya Thapa, Komal Suryavanshi, Prasun Gahlot and Aradhana Gandhi
Affiliation: SIBM, Pune
About Paper: Exploring Instagram as a marketing channel for small businesses, this study utilizes qualitative interviews to assess the efficacy of various tools and methods. Findings highlight effective resources like Instagram Ads Manager and hashtags, alongside interventions such as influencer marketing and sponsored posts to enhance brand visibility.
Third Prize (Rs. 15,000/-):
Title: “Examining Drivers of B2B Subscription Commerce in Digital Ecosystem using Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping”
Author: Mayukh Mukhopadhyay
Affiliation: IIM Indore
About Paper: This study explores Subscription Commerce (SC) in the B2B marketplace and its drivers for legacy incumbents in the digital era. It introduces the concept of SC, reviews the digital ecosystem, and proposes a Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping framework to analyze the drivers and value creation for incumbents in their digital transformation journey.
A Three-Minute Thesis Competition was also held during the conference.
A three-minute thesis competition was also organized during the conference. In the competition, the researchers got an opportunity to discuss their research in a short span of three minutes. Eleven research scholars participated in the competition, judged by Prof. Sushant Mishra (IIM Bangalore), Prof. Vivek Suneja (Dean, FMS Delhi), Prof. Pritam Ranjan, and Prof. Rajhans Mishra (IIM Indore). The results are as follows:
- First Prize ( 12,000): Ms. Bharti Singh from IIM Ahmedabad (Essays on regulatory aspects of the Indian Financial Market)
- About Paper: Financial market regulators enforce laws to ensure financial market integrity. Of late, an increase in the participation of retail investors particularly has been seen. The threat of herd behaviour and market failure looms large in the absence of sound regulatory financial systems. Thus, the importance of ensuring fair, orderly, and transparent market conditions has increased more than ever before. The thesis thus aims at making significant policy contributions and to the academic literature falling at the intersection of law and finance.
- Second Prize (Rs. 10,000): Priyam Kukreja from IIM Indore (Ethical Leadership: A re-examination)
- About Paper: The thesis talks about how ethical leaders in organizations may face a disadvantage in hiring situations. People have biases by associating ethicality with less competence. This is why it is important to have organizational practices to control these biases.
- People’s Choice Award (Rs. 8,000): Ms. Priyam Kukreja from IIM Indore