The 14th annual scientific conference for Ph.D. students FMSCICOM 2023 brought a number of interesting topics

For the fourteenth time in a row, the Faculty of Management hosted a Scientific Conference for Ph.D. Students and Young Researchers in Management under the name FMSCICOM 2023. This year’s edition, which took place on Friday, October 27, 2023, was attended by 50 guests, of which 11 were actively presenting doctoral students. Ph.D. students from the Faculty of Management, Prague University of Economics and Business, the Faculty of Informatics and Management of the University of Hradec Králové and the Faculty of Economics of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen presented their progress on the research they are working on as part of their dissertation thesis.

We were pleased to welcome a lot of abroad researchers and academic workers, who in the discussion provided the presenting Ph.D. students with valuable feedback and recommendations for improving their research. This year’s conference also hosted 2 keynotes, namely Analyzing the human-machine interface – Theories and research methods for understanding successful development and implementation of technology by Caroline Dotter from the Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg and How to increase consumer satisfaction by using the design thinking method? by Agnieszka Piekar from Wroclaw University of Economics and Business. Other guests of honor included Amitabh Anand from Excelia Business School, Dóra Horváth from Corvinus University of Budapest and Marek Kosny from Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, who together with Tomas Kincl, Lenka Komárkova and Mojmir Sabolovic from the Faculty of Management, Prague University of Economics and Business were members of the programme committee, which evaluated individual performances.

The committee evaluated the individual contributions and chose the three best presenters. Their evaluation reflected a comprehensive concept of research, presentation skills and also the level of their scientific posters. The three awards this year (alphabetically) are:

• Zdena Hruskova: Navigating Informal Learning in Czech SMEs: A Critical Discursive Psychology Approach.
• Petr Simacek: Does informal relationship with colleagues influence post-meeting task performance and meeting effectiveness? Affective events theory perspective.
• Laura Völkl: Higher Education Institutions as Communication Channels for Sustainability

The FMSCICOM conference is held regularly in the autumn and serves as a platform for doctoral students to so-called “try the conference firsthand”. A mandatory part for its active participants is the submission of a conference paper, whereby the so-called junior doctoral students (i.e. those who are in the 1st or 2nd year of their doctoral studies) submit their research proposal, senior doctoral students (i.e. those who have been studying for 3 years or more) submit an extended abstract with its usual sections. This year brought an innovation in the form of scientific posters, i.e. large-format posters, on which participants briefly summarize their research in a graphically clear form.

The conference is completely free for all participants and is financed from the funds of the Internal Grant Competition of the Prague University of Economics and Business.