CALL FOR PAPERS

Athens Institute for Education and Research

Mini Conference on Branding for SMEs as part of the

9^th Annual International Conference on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: Management – Marketing – Economic Aspects, 30-31 July & 1-2 August 2012, Athens, Greece

The Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER) is organizing a special mini conference on Branding for SMEs as part of its 9^th Annual International Conference on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: Management – Marketing – Economic Aspects, 30-31 July & 1-2 August 2012, Athens, Greece. The conference website is: http://www.atiner.gr/sme.htm

The registration fee is €300 (euro), covering access to all sessions, two lunches, the official dinner of the conference (Greek Night), coffee breaks and conference material. Special arrangements will be made with a local luxury hotel for a limited number of rooms at a special conference rate. In addition, a number of social events will be organized: A Greek night of entertainment with dinner, a special one-day cruise to the Greek islands, an archaeological tour of Athens and a one-day visit to Delphi. Details of the social program are available at http://www.atiner.gr/soc/2012SOC-SME.htm

The objective of this mini-conference is to bring together scholars from countries across the globe who do research on small and medium sized brands in sectors including tourism, hotel, restaurant, retail, high tech, manufacturing, services, agriculture, arts, internet and any other sector that brands could be launched and natured. We welcome high quality papers (in English only) on (but not limited to) the following brand management themes:

· Brand image, brand reputation

· Brand and Corporate identity

· Brand as a symbol

· Brand as a person (brand personality, brand ethnicity)

· Product characteristics of brands

· Brand strategy

· Brand extensions

· Co-branding

· Brand equity

· Brand relationships

· Brand communities, brand tribalism

· Brand loyalty

· Brand communications

· Brand organisation

· Brand orientation

· Developing small brands

Please submit an abstract of about 300 words (email only: business@atiner.gr), using the abstract submission form available at http://www.atiner.gr/docs/2012FORM-SME.doc by 31 May 2012 addressed to: Dr. Cleopatra Veloutsou, Head of the Marketing Research Unit, ATINER and Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of Glasgow Business School. Announcement of the decision is made within 4 weeks after submission, which includes information on registration deadlines and paper submission requirements. Selected (reviewed) papers will be published in an edited book. If you want to participate without presenting a paper, i.e. chair a session, review papers to be included in the conference proceedings or books, contribute to the editing of a book, or any other contribution, please send an email to Dr. Gregory T. Papanikos, President, ATINER (gtp@atiner.gr).

The Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER) was established in 1995 as an independent academic association with the mission to become a forum, where academics and researchers - from all over the world - could meet in Athens and exchange ideas on their research and discuss the future developments of their discipline. Since 1995, ATINER has organized about 150 international conferences and has published over 100 books. Academically, the Institute consists of four research divisions and twenty research units. Each research unit organizes at least an annual conference and undertakes various small and large research projects.