On July 12, 2017, the preliminary discussion of the thesis ‘Role of Brands in construction of National Identity’ produced by Sana Imran, a PhD student from Pakistan to obtain a PhD degree in Business Organisation and Management, was held at the Department of Economics and Management, Khazar University.  The research was conducted under the supervision of Dr. Elman Ibishov, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor, Senior Scientist of the Department of World Economy and Geo-economic Relations at the Scientific Economic Research Institute, Azerbaijan State Economic University.

Ceyhun Mammadov, PhD in Economics, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management, opened the discussion and gave brief information about Sana Imran's research work which was followed by a study presentation made by the PhD candidate. Dr. Elman Ibishov, the research supervisor, spoke about the theoretical and practical significance of the research, emphasized the importance of researching the topic related to Azerbaijan by a foreign researcher, and positively evaluated the candidate’s work.

During the discussions, Eldar Shahgaldiyev, Head of the Division for Graduate Studies and Research, Bahadir Baysal, Vusal Mammadrzayev and Fuat Rasulov,  the instructors of the department gave a positive feedback on the research work overall,  however, pointed out that there were some shortcomings as well.

At the end of the discussion, it was unanimously decided that the presented thesis can be submitted for a defence after all the mentioned shortcomings have been corrected.