Summary of the 11th Uddevalla Symposium 2008

on "Spatial Dispersed Production and Network Governance"

During the 15 to 17 May, 2008 the eleventh Uddevalla Symposium 2008 took place – an, at his time traditionally, annual scientific international conference in entrepreneurship, regional science and regional economic development. News from this year was that Kyoto University hosted the symposium and that it took place at Kyoto International House in Kyoto, Japan. The theme was “Spatial Dispersed Production and Network Governance”.

The symposium was opened up by Professor Tashuiko Nariu, Dean at the Graduate School of Management, Kyoto University. Nine keynote-speakers gave their presentations during these three days (mornings until lunch-time) and after lunch there were sixteen parallel paper sessions with about 4-5 papers presented in each. The plenary keynote speakers were: Professor Thomas Andersson, Jönköping University, Sweden. Professsor Ulrich Blum,
Institute of Economic Research (IWH) Halle, Germany, Professor Börje Johansson, Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS), Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm & Jönköping International Business School, Sweden, Professor Kiyshi Kobayashi, Kyoto University, Japan, Professor Maureen Kilkenny, University of Nevada, USA, Professor Karen R. Polenske, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, Professor Komei Sasaki, Tohoku University, Japan, Professor Roger R. Stough, George Mason University, USA and Professor Dao-Zhi Zeng, Kagawa University, Japan.

Fifty-seven papers were presented in sixteen paper sessions. They were gathered around different sub-themes e.g. “Social Capital, Knowledge Institutions, Knowledge Spillovers, Spatial Econometrics and Regional Dynamic”, “Entrepreneurship, Citizen Learning and Learning Organizations” and “Knowledge Processes and Production. Special sessions organized by the Dahmén Institute and CIRCLE, Lund University, Sweden and by Jönköping
International Business School, Sweden were also organized. More than thirty percent of the attendees were PhD candidates

Best Paper Awards 
Three Best Paper Awards were announced. The winners of the Best Phd Candidate Paper was written by Sameeksha Desai, George Mason University (now moved to University of Missouri), USA and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Germany & Johan E. Eklund, Jönköping International Business School & the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.

The winners of the Best Paper Award were Roland Andersson and Mats Wilhelmsson, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden & John M. Quigley, University of California, Berkeley, USA.

The Local Organizers Prize was won by Takayuki Ueda and Seiki Ochi, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Tokyo & Muneta Yokomatsu, Disaster Prevention Research
Institute, Kyoto University, Japan. 

There was also an Honourable Mention that went to Olof Ejermo, CIRCLE, Lund University and Urban Gråsjö, University West, Trollhättan, Sweden. The members of the Scientific Committee selected the winners.

Japanese Banquet
The symposium banquet was a fantastic event. The host had arranged a banquet which took place at an old Japanese restaurant with excellent traditionally Japanese food and a Japanese performance, which was fantastic.

The organisers thank all sponsors who in different ways made this symposium be realized: Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovations Studies, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden (CESIS), Jönköping International Business School, Sweden, Kyoto University, Japan, NS-RSA (Nordic Section of Regional Science Association), School of Public Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA. Swedbank, Uddevalla, Sweden. The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.  University West, Trollhättan, Sweden. VINNOVA (Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems), Stockholm, Sweden.