Harmony of Ideas: 12th Annual BEST Alliance Symposium at Hitotsubashi ICS

On November 10, 2023, Hitotsubashi ICS proudly hosted the 12th Annual Symposium for the BEST (Beijing-Seoul-Tokyo) Alliance. This year's Symposium saw a welcome return to an in-person format, following several years of virtual meetings due to restrictions imposed to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.

Esteemed colleagues from Peking University's Guanghua School of Management (PKU), led by the Dean Qiao Liu, and luminaries from Seoul National University Business School (SNU) headed by Associate Dean of Student Affairs Woojin Kim, joined hands with Hitotsubashi ICS's delegation, led by Dean Emi Osono. The event saw in-depth discussion on key alliance topics, joint research progress, and other collaboration opportunities among BEST partner schools.

Left to right: Woojin Kim (Associate Dean of Student Affairs, SNU), Emi Osono (Dean, ICS), and Qiao Liu (Dean, PKU)

Key Highlights

The Symposium kicked off with the Deans and Directors Meeting, at which attendees discussed Exchange and Double Degree programs, collaborative research projects and shared vision for the future of the BEST Alliance.

Part I of the Symposium, featured updates from the three Deans on recent developments at each institution, followed by joint research project presentations. Joint research is a central pillar of the BEST Alliance's activities and has facilitated the emergence of several significant projects. This year's symposium included reports from two joint research award-winning projects:

•  Rhetorical Strategies of disclosing China related risks: Evidence from US listed Chinese firms (Sun Hyun Park, SNU / Yanlong Zhang, PKU);
• It's All about We: Leader Collective Narcissism and Intra- and Inter- Team Behaviour (Jack Ting-Ju Chiang, PKU / Satoshi Akutsu, ICS).
  
                         

A Shared Vision for the Future

The BEST Alliance has exemplified the power of cross-border collaboration in business education and research over the past 13 years. The three schools remain committed to nurturing globally minded leaders, expanding program offerings, and addressing critical issues facing the East Asian region. With a shared commitment to innovation and partnership, the alliance is poised to contribute further to the development of the region and beyond.

Part II of the Symposium, held in hybrid format, featured a Keynote Session with James Kondo, Chairman of the International House of Japan and Japan Representative at Open AI, followed by a panel discussion among representatives from BEST Alliance partner school delegations. Panelists discussed the topic of the BEST Alliance's potential to contribute to a thriving, sustainable society in the age of Generative AI, a theme that prompted much interest, comment and questions from the session's audience.

The BEST Alliance Symposium's success, as indicated by the high level of participation and contribution, underscores the resonance of the symposium's themes within the academic and student communities. Characterized by an openness to innovation and recognizing the challenges and rapidly evolving realities of the modern age, the BEST Alliance maintains its crucial position in shaping the future landscape of business education in East Asia.