Dear Colleagues,

Southern Danish University has just announced the
sixth edition of the renowned Doctoral Seminar on
the Cultural Embeddedness of Marketing, Consumer
and Organizational Research

This program is always exciting, and it has been a
highly rewarding event for participants in previous
editions.

There is room for 25 doctoral candidates. There is
also room for up to five faculty observers.

If you are interested, please contact A. Fuat Firat
for a complete prospectus in .pdf form with all
details and a copy of the seminar schedule.

For more information, write to Prof. Firat at

[log in to unmask]

Best regards,

Ken Friedman




THE CULTURAL DIMENSION OF BUSINESS RESEARCH VI

The Sixth Doctoral Seminar on the Cultural 
Embeddedness of Marketing, Consumer and 
Organizational Research

Arranged by University of Southern Denmark - Odense Main Campus
From June 20, 2005 morning to June 25, 2005 evening.

Prepared by A. Fuat Fžrat & Dominique Bouchet

Faculty: Søren Askegaard Dominique Bouchet Lars 
Thøger Christensen A. Fuat Fžrat Romain Laufer 
Linda Scott Alladi Venkatesh

The seminar facilitator is:

A. Fuat Fžrat
Department of Marketing
SDU-Odense University
Campusvej 55
DK-5230 Odense M
Denmark

Phone: (45) 6550 3646
Fax: (45) 6615 5129

e.mail: [log in to unmask]

OBJECTIVE OF THE SEMINAR

This doctoral seminar deals with the cultural 
dimension of business research. The purpose of 
the seminar is to draw the attention of 
researchers to cultural factors in business 
research in order to broaden, deepen and update 
their understanding of the phenomena they wish to 
examine in fields of business.

The questions asked, the issues addressed and the 
methods used in all research projects are 
embedded in a culture. A critical self-awareness 
of this embeddedness not only raises the 
scientific level of the research, but also 
enlightens the researcher as it provides a new 
perspective not only in cross-cultural but in all 
research.

For example, to renovate advertising, it is 
necessary to be aware that contemporary consumers 
perceive themselves and advertising in a 
different way than their parents did. Postmodern 
consumers have a tacit understanding of 
semiotics. They play different roles, sample 
different statuses, pursue different ideals. 
Analyzing organizations requires an understanding 
of the presentation of self, rituals and symbols, 
and the cultural dimensions of communication. An 
appreciation of cultural differences is mandatory 
to international marketing but also to human 
resource management.

The purpose of this doctoral seminar is 1) to 
provide PhD students and other researchers 
participating in the seminar with insights about 
the cultural context of their research project - 
a context of which they are not always aware, and 
have not always been properly trained to take 
into consideration - and 2) to help seminar 
participants in working on a cross cultural 
project to improve their approach.

Some basic concepts and advanced methods of the 
cultural approach to business research will be 
introduced by the faculty who are working at the 
interface of cultural analysis and business. 
Examples of how those concepts are fruitful to 
contemporary business research will be given. 
Participants will be helped by the faculty to 
perceive the cultural dimension of their own 
research projects.

Furthermore, many a contemporary research project 
cannot fully be captured by a single conventional 
discipline or method. A cross-cultural and 
interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological 
perspective is, therefore, at the core of this 
seminar.

Among other approaches, emphasis is placed - 
depending on faculty participation - on the 
relevance that theories encountered in 
anthropology, cultural analysis, 
ethnomethodology, ethnology, epistemology, 
hermeneutics, history of ideas, literary 
criticism, phenomenology, psychology, semiotics, 
social psychology, sociology, and systems theory 
have for business research.

Keywords are: complexity, content analysis, 
creativity, culture, exoticism, globalism, 
legitimacy, localization, meaning myths, norms, 
relativism, rituals, roles, the sacred, status, 
symbols, values, and Weltanschauung.

There will be an emphasis on each participant's 
own research project, since the main purpose of 
this course is to enable the researchers to 
reconsider their research project from 
perspectives different from conventional business 
research in order to generate more meaningful 
questions and alternative hypotheses, as well as 
theoretical insights into their own research, 
resulting in a more up-to-date, 
interdisciplinary, reflexive research.

The seminar will achieve these objectives not 
only through the exposure to the cultural context 
of business research as a whole, but also through 
relying on the diversity of cultural backgrounds 
and research traditions that the doctoral 
students will bring with them. Therefore, the 
students will be requested to present their 
research problems and research perspectives at 
the beginning of the seminar.

Active participation during the seminar is a 
must. Readings before and after the seminar will 
be required.

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