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In December 2008 University of Otago School of Business will host Otago Forum 2. This event is planned as a follow-up to the highly successful Otago Forum held in 2005, which has contributed to the evolution of a service-dominant logic for marketing. (See for background information on the first Forum.)

The Otago Forum 2 will bring together academics, business executives and managers to discuss innovative ways of improving business activity through a service orientation. It is not a conference. It is a practical knowledge generating forum with invited academics of world standing and business leaders, especially those involved in B2B marketing, service management, design, operations and information and communication technology. The underlying purpose of this forum is to stimulate convergence between marketing theory and business practice, especially with respect to the service-dominant logic proposed by Vargo and Lusch (2004).

We also wish to foster the development of service research by students. To further this end we are offering a place in the Forum to one doctoral student, or a recently graduated doctoral student. The student will be selected on the basis of submission of a paper for review by the convenors. The offer consists of full participation in the Forum, with accommodation and sustenance for the four-day duration of the Forum.

Fully developed papers will be required (5,000 – 8,000 words); however consideration will first be given to extended abstracts, conditional on the understanding that a fully developed paper will be presented at the Forum. The selected student paper will also be considered for publication in a special issue of Industrial Marketing Management.

Interested students should in the first instance send a 1-2 page extended abstract by July 14 to either or both of the forum organisers:

Associate Professor David Ballantyne (dballantyne@business.otago.ac.nz)
Dr. John Williams (jwilliams@business.otago.ac.nz)