The Chair for Marketing and Retailing works together with partners from academic and practical fields, at both national and international levels, on theory-supported, empirical research, as well as ambitious academic and practice-oriented topics. At the same time, Professor Swoboda is responsible for the international exchange program at Trier University (Department IV), which comprises a cooperation between at least over 45 European universities. Professor Swoboda is also a part of practitioner organizations, especially in many supranational associations in the fields of Retailing, Marketing and International Management. The PhD students present their dissertation projects at the corresponding annual conferences.

The following overview is focused on three intimate circles of research networks – beyond partnerships with companies – in three categories:

• Memberships in national and international associations and the already mentioned conferences, Professor Swoboda and his PhD students continue to visit with their own presentations.
• MA’s, MBA’s, and Universities, that are scholarly and/or allow for visiting lectures (by Professor Swoboda and his PhD students).
• Sustainable research cooperations with selected institutions, particularly universities in the German-speaking scope.

Overview of memberships in International Associations and the associated conferences that Professor Swoboda and his PhD students attend:

• Offline, Online and Omni Retail Management (e.g., with talks on one-to-one marketing and consumer journeys, trends in retailing, the future of city retail, touchpoints in retailing, integration of channels, including in IT or supply chain in omnichannel retail companies)
• Branding (e.g., with international projects with leading German companies on country-specific and cross-national reputation, building strong global brands, international endorser branding or corporate social responsibility)
• Consumer Goods Marketing (e.g., with management talks on distribution in a digital age, supplier-retail cooperation and contracts, or with research on key account management and vertical integration or horizontal diversification)
• International E-Commerce (e.g., with research on entry strategies into international markets, market development, i.e., shaping the online marketing mix, or on paths and timing of the internationalization of leading international e-commerce companies)
• International Business (e.g., with management talks on diverse questions of international business development, or with research on innovation of multinational companies or the importance of country-specific institutional context factors for their expansion)