Dr. Filip Kalaš (Faculty of Applied Languages) and Ing. Pavol Lipták (Faculty of Commerce) went on a business trip abroad in July 2025 to develop research cooperation in the areas of language, marketing, and digital consumer behavior.
RESEARCH MEETINGS IN DUBAI
During the first phase of the trip, while visiting Dubai (United Arab Emirates), expert meetings were held at Curtin University Dubai, where young researchers established cooperation with lecturer Ajita Nayar, who has long been involved in analyzing paradoxes in consumer behavior. Her research focuses on situations in which consumers declare ecological and sustainable values, but in practice their everyday decisions often go in the opposite direction – for example, through the excessive use of delivery services, to which they are simultaneously subjected thanks to sophisticated linguistic and visual manipulation by digital platforms.
This research framework directly corresponds to the professional profiles of both researchers, who, as part of the grant project "Artificial Intelligence: Challenges for Linguistics and Marketing," are investigating language as a sales tool, its digital forms, personalization, and behavioral strategies of influence. The result of joint consultations is a plan for long-term interdisciplinary cooperation that connects applied linguistics, marketing, and artificial intelligence technologies.
EXCELLENCE FROM OUR RANKS SHONE IN BANGKOK
The second phase of the trip was marked by active participation in the prestigious international conference LCS2025 – 12th International Conference on Language, Communication, and Society, which took place in Bangkok (Thailand) and was organized by the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). The research paper "From 'Cheap' to 'Affordable': Corpus-Assisted Exploration of Near-Synonymy in English, Slovak, and German Marketing Discourse" was well received and sparked several professional discussions with participants from Asia and Europe.
A particularly valuable contribution was the establishment of contact with Dr. Ching-Ying Lin from National Pingtung University (Taiwan), who was the keynote speaker at the conference. During a personal conversation, several research intersections were identified in the field of cultural and linguistic aspects of marketing communication, and Dr. Lin also has previous professional ties to Slovakia and expressed interest in redeveloping them.
This foreign business trip is proof that inter-faculty cooperation between the Faculty of Commerce and the Faculty of Applied Languages brings concrete results.
At the same time, it is another step in deepening relations with Curtin University Dubai, which, like the University of Economics in Bratislava, has prestigious AACSB accreditation. The repeat visit to this institution contributed to the development of systematic research cooperation and opened up opportunities for further joint projects, publications, and professional exchanges of views.
Researchers are currently working on a series of professional outputs within their thematic framework "Language as a Sales Tool," which also reflects the knowledge gained during this working trip. The first output from the February ICISAS 2025 conference will be published soon, while other professional studies are in the final stages of preparation and will be submitted for review in the near future.
