On the opening day of the XXXII EMOK International Conference, 24 August 2026, in Mád, the spotlight once again turned to early-career researchers. This year, the EMOK PhD Forum aimed not only to provide doctoral students with an opportunity to present their research, but also to facilitate professional feedback, methodological development, and networking.
During the morning PhD Junior session, students at the early stages of their doctoral studies had the opportunity to present their research topics. This was followed by a workshop led by PhD student Zsolt Szitás, entitled “From Netnography to AI Analysis: How to Research Public Online Forums – and What to Do with the Data?” The session offered practical methodological insights into researching online communities. The structure of the programme reflected the Forum’s underlying philosophy: young researchers should not only present their work, but also learn from one another and become active members of Hungary’s marketing PhD community.
In the afternoon, doctoral students further advanced in their research presented their work in two parallel PhD Senior sessions. The submitted papers and presentations were reviewed by Erika Hlédik (ELTE), Zsófia Kenesei (Corvinus University of Budapest), Zoltán Veres (University of Pannonia), and Szabolcs Prónay (University of Szeged), who provided detailed professional feedback to support the further development of the research. The “EMOK Young Researcher of the Year” award, recognising the most outstanding performance in the Senior programme, went to Alexa Rudolf (Corvinus University of Budapest) for her paper entitled “Understanding Cue-Based Negative Bias: Rejection in Ugly Produce and Country of Origin Bias.”
The professional day concluded with a workshop entitled “Research in Workwear – The Strategic Role of the Researcher in a Media Agency”, organised with the professional contribution of the Association of Hungarian Communication Agencies (MAKSZ) and the participation of WPP, the global marketing and communications group. The session demonstrated the role of research and data interpretation in media agency work, showing how data can be transformed into consumer insights and how these insights, in turn, inform communication and media strategy decisions. Using a fictional brand as an example, participants had the opportunity to experience this process themselves through a business simulation, followed by a joint discussion of the solutions developed.
This year’s PhD Forum thus connected different stages of the research career, from formulating initial research questions and discussing scientific findings with fellow professionals to applying research knowledge in practice. In doing so, the event also reflected the theme of the conference in Mád: “Marketing Science Shaped Together.”