Kazuo OIKE
Good morning, everybody. On behalf of the entire Kyoto University community I welcome you all to this international conference on business groups. I personally respect the academic commitment that many international scholars express in coming all the way to Kyoto from Latin America, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
For this conference, then, it is really fortunate to have the broad cooperation of the Institute of Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness of Doshisha University. The conference is also supported by the endowment established at our Graduate School of Management by the Mizuho Securities. By acknowledging these two institutions we express our sincere appreciation for their support and generosity.
Since its foundation in 1897, Kyoto University has long entrusted international cooperative research its top priority in many academic fields. Thanks to this heritage of global reach of intellectual scope Kyoto University has been recognized by several Nobel Prizes among its faculty members across the disciplines. It is thus my distinctive pleasure to have the newest school of the university, the Graduate School of Management, to join other schools and departments to further advance this long tradition of international collaboration.
The particular subject of emerging nations that this conference focuses on also builds on the proud heritage of interdisciplinary research at Kyoto University. The university has extensively invested its research efforts to the developmental issues of different parts of the world. We are dedicated to utilize the fruits of our intellectual labor in various schools and departments for the advancement of society and the welfare of people.
Needless to say, the topic of economic organization such as business groups is so critically important for the development of emerging nations. As an essential element of the whole society economic dynamics should be one of the most significant issues that scientists should examine and discuss. Business structure and behavior play a vital role in those dynamics, and as such the academic products that this international conference produces will surely have practical as well as intellectual implications for the betterment of peoples’ lives.
I thus congratulate the Graduate School of Management for having this historic opportunity to undertake the new venture of inter-organizational and international research. I personally wish you all the best in having thorough discussions and constructive criticisms among participants of the conference. I then look forward to seeing the ultimate outcome of the conference in the concrete form of a collaborative volume that will be published by Oxford University Press.
I felt really honored to be given the opportunity to open this international conference. I thus thank you all for sharing this important occasion with me.