IIM Kashipur's MERC 2024 conclave concludes; top 3 research papers receive cash prize

NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Management Kashipur (IIM Kashipur) concluded its three-day-long scholars' conclave, Management Education and Research Colloquium (MERC) on Sunday. The event, aimed at celebrating knowledge, innovation, and collaboration in management education and research, culminated with the announcement of the three best research papers.

Out of 720 submissions for the 4th edition of MERC at IIM Kashipur, 300 papers were shortlisted for the final round. After evaluation, the jury selected the top three papers and were awarded cash prizes.

Shreya Srivastava from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT) Allahabad won the best research paper award for her work on 'Artificial Intelligence (AI): from activation to assimilation: schema equilibration in consumer-AI interaction via voice comprising social and emotional cues" in the marketing category.

Mujahid Khan from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur secured the second-best paper award for his study, 'From abundance to scarcity: an experimental study of financially constrained newsvendors' in operations and decision sciences.

Virender Kumar from Delhi Technological University (DTU) received the third best paper award for his research, "Domestic monetary policy and Non-Resident Indian (NRI) deposits to India: an empirical analysis' in economics.

MERC 2024 also featured research papers from institutions including IITs, National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and several universities, with topics ranging from artificial intelligence in e-commerce to India's COVID-19 vaccine diplomacy and green pilgrimages in Uttarakhand.

Awards and certificates

Somnath Chakrabarti, academic dean and MERC convenor from IIM Kashipur, felicitated the first three winners with certificates and cash prizes of Rs 25,000, Rs 20,000, and Rs 15,000, respectively. He acknowledged the challenging task of selecting the best papers and highlighted the importance of ethical research.

Notable speakers at MERC included IIM Bangalore professor Sankarshan Basu, IIM Ahmedabad professor Neharika Vohra, and professor Jason Bennett Thatcher from University of Colorado Boulder, along with industry experts like the managing director of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, Jai Advani, and University of California professor Anu B Gupta.

Jai Advani highlighted the critical role of research in the evolving digital industry, addressing the necessity for academia-industry collaboration. Anu B Gupta inspired scholars with the three RRR mantras: risk, research, and remuneration, as keys to success.