On 16^th-17^th October 2017, the 1^st BNU-UniSA Joint Symposium jointly organized by Beijing Normal University Business School and University of South Australia Business School was successfully held at Beijing Normal University. Over fifty experts, scholars, teachers and students from both schools attended the conference. They carried out extensive exchanges and discussions on the issues of economic management, culture, ecological environment, education, innovation, etc.

In the morning of October 16th, the opening ceremony is held in NO.6 meeting room, Jingshi Building at BNU. Mr. Lai Desheng, Dean of BNUBS, delivered the opening speech. He welcomed scholars and teachers from home and abroad, reviewed on the achievements of BNUBS in international exchanges and cooperation in recent years, and introduced the latest construction and development of BNU double “first-class”. After that, Mr. Andrew Beer, Dean of Research of Uni-SA, introduced the basic knowledge of Uni-SA Business School, and pointed out that the joint researches carried out under the support of Seed Funding in the fields of business, law, marketing strategy, environment, and other aspects are good examples of exchanges between our two schools and communications between China and Australia.

In the keynote speech session, Prof. Ruth Rentschler from Uni-SA Business School presented the first speech on “Evaluating China-Australia Arts and Cultural Exchange for Future Development”, which is a study is of great significance to cultural exchange and the expansion of bilateral relations between both sides. Prof. Li Shi from BNUBS introduced his research results on Chinese wealth distribution. He found that the total wealth witnessed rapid growth, while real estate and financial assets increased the most rapidly, and urban and rural wealth inequality is deepening. Prof. Lin Crase from Uni-SA elaborated the Australian National Water Initiative in his speech naming “Water Management and the Role of Economics Lessens”. Prof. Cui Xuegang from BNUBS delivered a speech on neural accounting research. He introduced to the audience the background, process, paradigm and method of this cross disciplinary research.

Two parallel sessions in the afternoon are divided respectively into the first half and the second half, with themes on economy, strategy, environmentl and management, and were jointly presided over by experts from both China and Australia.

The economic session is hosted by Prof. Yang Juan from BNUBS and Prof. Zhu Ying from Uni-SA, commented by Dr. Xu Hui from BNUBS and Prof. Crase Lin from Uni-SA. Prof. Qu Ruxiao, Dr. Deng Xin, Associate Professor Wan Haiyuan, Dr. Zhu Min Ping, Dr. Xiong and others carried out discussions on the cultural industry, labor participation rate, retirement age, education and gender differences, the board of directors in listed companies and other issues.

The strategic session is hosted by Professor Cui Xuegang from BNUBS and Prof. Stephen Boyle from Uni-SA, commented by Prof. Magdalena Nenycz-Thiel from Uni-SA and Prof. Yang Dan from BNUBS. Prof. Susan Freeman, associate professor Jia Hao, Prof. Zheng Feihu, Dr. Ian O'Boyle held a heat discussion on issues relating to SMEs, export enterprises, knowledge innovation in culture and sports industry, M&A, etc.

The environmental session is hosted by Prof. Roman Tomasic from Uni-SA and Dr. Liu Zhideng from the Department of Geography Science BNU, commented by Prof. Stephen Boyle and Prof. Wang Yafei from Institute of statistics BNU. Professor Nenycz-Thiel Magdalena, Professor Liu Lancui and Dr. Liu Zhifeng Bethany, Dr. Cooper discussed topics on cross-cultural measurement, carbon dioxide emission reduction in North China, ecological compensation, the scarcity of land and water ecological compensation and other issues.

 

The management session is hosted by Prof. Ruth Rentschler from Uni-SA and Prof. Su Song from BNUBS, commented by Dr. Xu Zhixing from BNUBS and Dr. Ian O'Boyle from Uni-SA. Prof. Marianna Sigala, associate professor Qian Jing, associate professor Zhou Jianghua, Dr. Tong Luqiong, associate professor Bruce Gurd shared views on shared economy in tourism industry, enterprise innovation, family enterprise and complex choices influenced by environmental temperature.

In the morning of October 17th, Mr. Lai Desheng, Dean of BNUBS met with Prof. Andrew Beer and Professor Stephen Boyle from Uni-SA. Vice president Cui Xuegang, Assistant Dean Mr. Cai Hongbo, and Ms. Tian Hongjun from BNUBS Office of International Exchange and Cooperation attended the meeting. Both sides agreed on a close cooperative relationship, discussed the initiuiative of ONE MBA Project, Wine-MBA Project, and agreed to support each other in international certification, international summer school, continue to run the international conference once a year.

 

At the same time, six seed funding projects were going on simultaneously, on which occasions, views were exchanged to promote the progress in research design and implementation. Problems encountered in the process were also discussed.

 

The success of the First BNU-UniSA Joint Symposium has injected new impetus to international exchange and cooperation between both universities. The conference actively enhanced the level of international development and expanded the international influence of BNUBS.