Suela Bylykbashi, lecturer/researcher at ESC Bretagne Brest, bagged first prize for best paper at the international conference "Market, Marketing & Entrepreneurship: Creating & Capturing Value in the 21st Century" organised by the Universities of Warwick, Bucks and Ankara from 6 to 9 April 2009.

Suela Bylykbashi was born in the city of Fier, in the south-west of Albania. She obtained a PhD in Management Science from the University of Grenoble II (September 2007). In 2008, she became a lecturer/researcher at ESC Bretagne Brest. Her research mainly focuses on new product launch, competitive situations, launch strategies, competitive intensity, strategic similarity and multi-market competition.

Suela Bylykbashi's paper was selected by the jury out of a total of 161 scientific articles. Three prizes were awarded: one for gender and entrepreneurship, a second for social enterprise and the final for best paper of the conference, won by Suela Bylykbashi.

We asked three questions to Suela Bylykbashi.

1. What is your role at ESC Bretagne Brest?

I have been at ESC Brest since September 2008. My job involves, on the one hand, teaching within the marketing department and, on the other hand, conducting research.

2. Can you tell me about the conference you participated in?

The international conference "Market, Marketing & Entrepreneurship: Creating & Capturing Value in the 21st Century", was organised by the UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK - Warwick Business School, BUCKS NEW UNIVERSITY - School of Business & Management and ANKARA UNIVERSITY, Faculty of Political Sciences - and funded by the European Union. It took place from 6 to 9 April 2009 and 161 scientific papers were presented (from a total of 234 proposals). To close the conference, a ceremony was organised to select the best papers on female entrepreneurship, social enterprise and finally the best paper of the conference. My paper was selected for this last award.

3. What was the subject of your award-winning paper?

"The aim of this research was to study the impact of the competitive situation on new product launch strategies. Any error in the assessment of the competitive situation results in a waste of resources. Either the manager underestimates the competitive pressure and will therefore proportionally underestimate the intensity of the launch strategy, or he overestimates the competitive pressure and will therefore proportionally overestimate the resources needed for product launch. The analysis of the existing relationship between the competitive situation and the launch strategy, based on the study of 140 French companies, could help managers to be more accurate in the development of their launch strategy and in the definition of a specific budget."

More info:

Publications:
"L'intensité concurrentielle : Nature, Antécédents et Conséquences", Third International Congress about Marketing Trends -ESCP -EAP, Venise 2003
"Simulation du marché et de la concurrence par les automates cellulaires", 5th International Congress about Marketing Trends -ESCP -EAP, Venise 2006 (with G. Roehrich)
"L'impact de la situation concurrentielle sur la stratégie de lancement", AIMS, 2008. (with G. Roehrich)
"Competition situation and Launch strategy: The role of competition intensity", AUMEC, 2009.
"L'intensité concurrentielle : proposition d'une échelle bidimensionnelle de mesure", AIMS, 2009