In this week’s Conversations with Goodman podcast, host Susan LeBlanc talks to Goodman School of Business marketing Professor Narongsak (Tek) Thongpapanl about the upcoming Academy of Marketing Science conference he is co-chairing May 24-26 in Coronado Island, Calif.

Thongpapanl is playing a lead role in the marketing research conference, which attracts top scholars from around the world.

“It’s an honour to represent Goodman through this avenue,” he says.

Thongpapanl says the focus of the conference is to go back to the basics of marketing to remind researchers of the fundamental value of their field.

“We have seen a lot of advancement in technology and methodologies in recent years that helps us enhance our marketing knowledge and wisdom,” he says.

“The issue is that sometimes we can be overly focused on technology and methodology and we lose sight of what is the core of marketing. The core always goes back to providing customer value.”

Brock’s Goodman School of Business will be well represented at the conference. Goodman marketing professors Todd Green and Abdul Ashraf, who have completed research on green marketing and electronic marketing, respectively, will join Thongpapanl.

Ali Anwar and Luciano Lapa, both students from Goodman’s Master of Science in Management, will also be attending this week’s conference where they will each have an opportunity to present research they have completed as part of their coursework.

The chance to present research at a research conference is an important step in every student’s academic career, Thongpapanl notes.

“I really think this is a great opportunity for them to be able to have a chance to go out and make the research presentation that they have been working on for the past eight to 12 months. It’s a good learning opportunity because that’s what we are trying to do — we want to make sure they have first-hand experience,” he says.