Dear Colleagues,
This time of the year, when I am writing this letter, the EMAC has 957 members. It is exactly 100 persons more than we had last March. Without being too optimistic, I can expect more than 1000 EMAC members in 2008. This is a historic moment, where we should stop a little while. “Cui prodest?” as the Romans would ask. In whose interest is it to have more than 1000 members in EMAC? The answer was highly debated during the last couple of years when the membership started to increase.
First of all, the successful annual conferences could be “blamed” for this increase in membership. Last year we had more than 800 participants in Reykjavik, a number which may hardly be matched in the near future. But this is not an accident. The EMAC as a brand is increasing worldwide. However, we must confess, that the American Marketing Association has over three times more academic members than we have. Even the European Accounting Association, our partner organization, has more than 1500 members. In this perspective we are still small. I think that we are smaller than what the potential market in Europe actually is. There are many under-represented nations and regions. The Executive and Steering Committees are working on new initiatives, and the results will be published soon.
I thank you all, who participated in the EMAC survey last month. After ten years we decided to ask your opinion again about EMAC activities and services . We cannot always achieve your expectations, but your satisfaction level is a promising sign. Based also on your demands, we decided to move towards the publication of a second journal of EMAC. The IJRM is the leading marketing journal in Europe; however, a 2nd EMAC Journal might offer publication potential to our growing members.
We started to work on institutional membership, as an option, and on the evaluation of marketing departments. Ranking the departments based on EMAC membership, within the period between 1986 and 2007, the top five universities are: Erasmus University Rotterdam, Aarhus School of Business, Bocconi University, University of Groningen, BI Norwegian School of Management. We are proud of them, but we are looking for reasons why some other institutions and other countries are under-represented. At the Brighton conference we will organize a special meeting for marketing department chairs.
Keith Perks, the chair of the Brighton conference program, and his team are looking forward to your registration to the conference. I hope that most of you can visit England in the last week of May. We will have another successful conference, meeting many friends, establishing new relationships, and enjoying the inspirational academic atmosphere.
József Berács
EMAC President
|