Our old and new friends enjoy the delicacies while traveling in the ocean of knowledge.

Business leaders from all walks of life meet the world's top scholars, gathering at Victoria Harbour to explore new secrets in the business world and inspire innovative ideas from scholarly business leaders in the new era.

On October 13, 2018, emlyon business school Global DBA Program Asia Track 2019 Hong Kong Information Session and Welcome Dinner was held at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, which gathered emlyon Global DBA participants and emlyon alumni in Hong Kong as well as senior executives and entrepreneurs from world-class universities in Hong Kong who are longing for a DBA journey in the near future.

▲ Prof. William WANG, Associate Dean of emlyon business school & Dean of emlyon business school Asian Campus, making welcome speech

Prof. William WANG, Associate Dean of emlyon business school & Dean of emlyon business school Asian Campus, warmly welcomed the guests and explained that emlyon business school is not only a prestigious French business school with a long history, but also has left her footprints all over the world.

emlyon business school is engaged in the strategic deployment of globalization, digitalization and artificial intelligence with an open mind. The event held tonight fully demonstrates emlyon’s global network and vitality.

Sublimed Practices & Multi-dimensional Empowerment Create Scholarly Business Leaders

▲ Prof. Junsong CHEN, Assistant Dean of emlyon business school Asian Campus & Director of emlyon Global DBA Asia Track

“emlyon Global DBA Program is more than the expansion of business expertise. It is also a new journey for business leaders to detect and solve problems,” said Prof. Junsong CHEN, Assistant Dean of emlyon business school Asian Campus & Director of emlyon Global DBA Asia Track, “This is an opportunity to build on your experience and change your world view. Meanwhile, it will help you convert logical and structured knowledge, valuable experience and industry insights into permanent business expertise and wealth."

Under the guidance of emlyon’s DNA of“early maker”, emlyon Global DBA Program has been continuously optimized and upgraded, which leads to its refined program design of 2019 intake and development of doctoral participants. For example,

• during four years of study, eight workshops on research methodologies and multi-dimensional upgrade plan will seamlessly help participants to complete their dissertations,
• while seven research contributions ensure phased and progressive study. Furthermore,
• all workshops will be taught both in English and Chinese, so that the participants with international background will fully absorb classroom learning and gain in-depth insights on cutting-edge doctoral research.

Focusing on original research that addresses the core issues of the industry or organization, the participants will have the opportunity to create true business impact and value and evolve into scholarly business leaders.

Collision of Inspirations:
Top Scholars Explore New Marketing Strategy

▲ Prof. Namwoon KIM, Director of Master in Marketing Management Program and Supervisor of DBA Program at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, addressing the keynote speech

As a senior marketing professor who has been teaching in DBA Program for 8 years, Prof. KIM highlighted marketing channels when referring to the four research topics on marketing strategy, namely market forecast, market planning, marketing channels and market innovation of new products. “If you carefully explore this topic, you will understand how to make customers happier and B2B contact” At the same time, he also revealed the research methodologies of marketing strategy and the current and future directions and pointed why marketing strategies are so popular in terms of customer, business market and supply chain.

Nowadays, the boundary between market and supply chain became really blurred, and as such, the research on marketing channels is extremely popular in today's B2B domain.

However, in order to thoroughly study the effects of each marketing strategy on the market, the right research methodology is essential. Prof. KIM shared three commonly used methodologies, including behavioral research, quantitative analysis and philosophical research. Convergence has now become a major trend in the commercial market, from real-world market environments to academic research on marketing strategies.

As Prof. KIM mentioned, existing and potential research topics trigger infinite imaginations about marketing strategies, and it is a key that can help more people open the door to in-depth commercial markets.

Insights from Elite Alumni about Academic Research

▲ Dr. Michael ZHANG, Executive Vice President of Star River Group, sharing his journey of DBA research

Dr. Michael ZHANG, Executive Vice President of Star River Group, emlyon Global DBA alumnus and Ambassador of emlyon Global DBA Program, shared valuable experience in his DBA research. From topic selection to data collection, from literature review to hypothesis, and from modeling, empirical research, analysis through to conclusion, Dr. Zhang presented his refined and enriched research experience derived from years of study at emlyon Global DBA Program, which won applauses from current emlyon Global DBA participants.

Everything is difficult at the beginning. For Dr. Zhang, the selection of topic is the top priority. A good start is half the success. A quality topic comes from the selection criteria and methodologies conveyed by instructors in the classroom. Only by handling these techniques, can you prevent the topic from being too broad, narrow or other problems.

What’s more, Dr. Zhang also summed up three principles and two guidelines in topic selection, that is, reviewing the direction, value and feasibility of the topic, while ensuring its subjective value (social and academic aspects) and objective conditions (professional literacy, interests, specialties, time duration and available sources).

A good academic paper shall make a certain contribution to the field of academic research, and the conclusion will be the finishing touch. In the conclusion section, the important points of the whole paper shall be summarized clearly and definitely, while explaining its significance.

▲ Prof. William WANG, Associate Dean of emlyon business school & Dean of emlyon business school Asian Campus, granting the Certificate of Ambassador of emlyon Global DBA Program to Dr. Michael ZHANG

Passionate and Inspiring: New Academic Thinking Inside and Outside the Classroom

▲ emlyon Global DBA participants and faculty taking a group photo at Hong Kong Polytechnic University

For emlyon Global DBA participants and alumni who often travel around the world, it is a delight to take a few days, return to campus and enjoy some quality time. Along with their classmates, listen to the professors and learn from others. This is not only an inspiration of thoughts, but also an emotional blend.

There was happiness and laughter in the dinner, while the classrooms were full of passion. The research methodology workshops of “Advanced Quantitative Research” for emlyonGlobal DBA 2017 and “Literature Search and Research Proposal Progress” for emlyonGlobal DBA 2018 were carried out simultaneously at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Through these systematic workshops on research methodologies, participants gained a clearer understanding about the objectives and theoretical fundamentals in the next stage. Meanwhile, they also captured the necessary analytical techniques and tools for research, including literature search and SPSS.

▲emlyon Global DBA participants attending workshops in Hong Kong

As a future-ready global business school, emlyon business school is committed to exploring the frontiers of management both in the East and West, contributing to the wisdom of Asian business and creating scholarly business leaders.

It will be a challenging journey of intelligent exploration. Are you ready for it?