Objectives of the Center for Regional Economic and Business Networks (REBN)
At Hokkaido University’s Graduate School of Economics and Business Administration, quite a few researchers have been individually focusing on community-based academic endeavors and disseminate relevant information to the community. The School established the Center for Regional Economic and Business Networks (REBN) as a forum to coordinate their endeavors and reinforce its commitment to supporting the community through information and academic resources. In addition, the center promotes interdisciplinary research collaboration among its researchers.
REBN’s focus on regional economic and business networks is based on an awareness that autonomous decentralized networks are an important research subject in consideration of the future of the economy and business management. In autonomous decentralized networks, individual regions establish global and local networks with other regions to support autonomous activities rather than excessively depending on concentrated systems in Tokyo or on the central government. The applicability of this concept is not exclusive to Japan; it can generally be adopted anywhere. The idea is also important in consideration of advancement in developing nations and institutional change in socialist states. The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011 and the nuclear accident that followed created a need for Japan to review its energy policy as well as its conventional economic and business frameworks for decision-making and policy implementation. In this context too, the concept of autonomous decentralized networks provides pointers for future research both in theory and in application.
A number of other research and educational organizations also tackle similar issues. The Graduate School of Economics and Business Administration is committed to learning from the experience of those organizations, building collaborative relationships with them, and making even greater strides in its research and educational capacity through REBN activities.
