President Koichi Tadenuma attended the SIGMA meeting at Copenhagen Business School, December 12–13, 2017
President Koichi Tadenuma and Vice President Satoshi Nakano (in charge of international affairs) of Hitotsubashi University visited Copenhagen Business School to attend the SIGMA meeting.
SIGMA (Societal Impact and Global Management Alliance) was established in December 2016 by the 7 universities constituting its predecessor organization, the Alliance of Like-Minded Universities, and 2 more universities, Renmin University of China and Hitotsubashi University, which were invited to join the new alliance. This group aims to strengthen exchange and collaboration among like-minded universities that have strong faculties in business management and offer highly competitive MBA courses, given that they are institutions with a focus on social sciences and are highly appreciated for their excellence in a wide range of research and education. The organization’s name SIGMA represents the allied universities’ shared interests and attaches importance to societal impact and management in a broad sense, not only in the core field of business management but also the management of various aspects of society and the economy.
This year’s meeting was attended by 29 representatives from the 9 allied universities, including presidents and vice presidents of international affairs. The meeting started with the plenary session entitled “Ageing Economics and Health Economics” where the development of each university’s research projects in the fields of ageing economics and health economics was shared. The sessions included interdisciplinary research projects from the Paris Dauphine University, the Pension Research Centre of Copenhagen Business School (on the Danish pension system), the Centre for Research on the Economics of Ageing at Singapore Management University, and the Research Center for Health Policy and Economics at Hitotsubashi University. Other sessions included an ongoing project by the task force commissioned to explore a joint course/program by 4 Alliance members: Vienna University of Economics and Business, Copenhagen Business School, University of St. Gallen, and Paris Dauphine University. The allied universities reached a strong consensus on strengthening collaboration in research and education through multilateral international exchange and association. On the initiative of ageing and health economics, SIGMA schools agreed to hold a meeting of SIGMA researchers to gain momentum and explore possible next steps. Singapore Management University and Hitotsubashi University agreed to coordinate the meeting.
The following are the member universities of SIGMA (as of December 2017): Copenhagen Business School (Denmark)*, ESADE Business School (Spain)*, Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil), Hitotsubashi University, Paris Dauphine University (France), Renmin University of China*, Singapore Management University*, University of St. Gallen (Switzerland)*, and Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria)*.
(* signifies universities with student exchange agreements with Hitotsubashi University.)
