On 9th November 2024, the 5th Academic Innovation Forum on Intelligent Economy and Management for Jiangsu Postgraduates was held in the Academic Lecture Hall of Finance and Economics Hall, Tiancizhuang Campus of Soochow University. Sponsored by Jiangsu Provincial Management Graduate Education Steering Committee and hosted by Soochow University Business School, the forum attracted teachers and students from dozens of colleges and universities across the country to discuss cutting-edge issues in the field of ‘Intelligent Economy and Management’. The opening ceremony was hosted by Prof Feng Bo, a member of the Jiangsu Provincial Management Graduate Education Steering Committee and Dean of the School of Business of Soochow University.

At the beginning of the opening ceremony, Prof Wu Jiawei, Vice President of Soochow University, and Jin Ke, Director of Postgraduate Education Department of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education, delivered speeches in turn. On behalf of the university, President Wu warmly congratulated the successful convening of the forum and expressed her welcome and gratitude to the experts, professors and students for coming to our university to participate in the meeting. She pointed out that Soochow University is a century-old institution that has inherited a thousand years of culture, where tradition and emerging are closely combined, and digital intelligence and traditional disciplines are fused and developed. She hoped that all the representatives of postgraduate students could collide academic thoughts and enhance innovation ability in the forum's discussion, promote academic exchange and cooperation among young scholars of multi-disciplines, and wished this forum to be held successfully.

Afterwards, Director Jin briefly talked about the development and achievements of postgraduate work in Jiangsu Province, and fully affirmed the preparation of ‘Intelligent Economy and Management’ Academic Innovation Forum held by Soochow University Business School for the fifth time, and hoped that this Academic Innovation Forum could inspire the research of students, and encouraged postgraduates to combine theory and practice, and lead the academic research from tracking and imitating to the development of the new technology, as well as the development of the new technology. He encouraged the postgraduates to combine theory and practice, to lead the academic research from tracking and imitation to innovation and creation, and to strive to be the pillars of the country, and wished the forum a complete success.

On behalf of Jiangsu Provincial Management Graduate Teaching Committee, Zhong Weijun, Director of Jiangsu Provincial Management Graduate Teaching Committee, briefly introduced the focuses and achievements of Jiangsu Provincial Management Graduate Teaching Committee, and at the same time clarified the purpose and significance of this forum. On behalf of the Management Graduate Teaching Committee of Jiangsu Province, Prof Zhong declared the opening of this academic innovation forum.

At last, Prof Wu Jianhua, deputy director of Jiangsu Province Management Graduate Teaching Committee, read out the list of winners of the excellent papers, and the guests presented the award certificates and expressed their congratulations to the award-winning students.

After the opening ceremony of the forum, the invited thesis authors and the attending guests took a group photo in front of the college.

After the opening ceremony, the forum also invited three expert professors to give keynote reports. The reports were hosted by Professor Huang Weidong, Dean of the School of Management of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Firstly, Prof Jin Beibei from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences gave a report titled ‘Market Mechanisms, Rules and Games in the 21st Century and the Evolution of Economics Paradigm’. Professor Jin emphasised the importance of academic innovation in the forum, pointing out that the world is undergoing a great change, and economic globalisation is an irreversible direction of the times. He discussed the reconstruction of the rules of the market economy and proposed that the market economy is not only spontaneous but also constructive, emphasising the role of human beings in the construction of the system. Professor Jin introduced two types of thinking, historicism and a priori, in looking at the evolution of institutions, and reviewed his personal academic history, encouraging the audience to promote innovation and development in academia.

Professor Deng Tianhu from Tsinghua University gave the second keynote speech. The topic of his presentation was ‘Non-convex Optimisation and Optimal Strategies in Supply Chain and Operation Management’. Professor Deng introduced the diversified perspectives from two-dimensional systems to three-dimensional constructs, and emphasised their significance and contribution to economics. Focusing on non-convex optimisation in supply chain and operations management, Professor Deng Tianhu discussed the research direction of smart supply chain and shared his research results, highlighting the methods to deal with non-convex optimisation problems. The complexity and challenges of real-world problems were illustrated through examples of teep corporation, assembly systems and charging at charging piles. Professor Deng proposed the concept of conditional convexity, which provides an innovative solution to non-convex optimisation problems, highlighting the importance of this concept in inventory management and operational decision making. The presentation highlighted the solution strategies from simple to complex problems and the importance of innovative approaches in dealing with non-convex optimisation problems.

The third keynote speech was delivered by Professor Huang Lihua from Fudan University, whose topic was ‘Preliminary analysis of the current status and problems of data market development’. Professor Huang discussed the importance of data as a factor of production and its circulation, emphasised the status of data production factors at the national strategic level, and pointed out China's contribution in this field. Subsequently, he analysed the definition, characteristics and necessity of circulation of data production factors. Professor Huang also discussed the current situation of data circulation, including the open sharing of government data and data trading among enterprises, and pointed out the challenges and future development direction of data circulation, providing valuable insights for understanding and developing the data factor market.

In the afternoon, the reporting activities of the sub-sessions of this forum started on time. There were six sessions in this forum, and the topics of the papers reported by the participants included six directions, namely, enterprise transformation and innovation, ESG and sustainable development management, platform economic development and management, accounting and financial management, finance and financial technology, and regional and industrial economy. The experts expressed corresponding insights and gave reference opinions on the selected topics, research methodology, research conclusions, shortcomings, and innovations of the reporters. Students benefited greatly from the collision of ideas and thinking during the exchange process.

The success of this Graduate Student Academic Innovation Forum provided a good opportunity for the national master and doctoral students in the field of economics and management to exchange ideas, and promoted the graduate students in this field to pay more attention to and think about the key issues of intelligent economy and management. It also deepened the understanding of politics, academia and industry on related issues, broadened the academic horizons of postgraduates, and improved their academic ability and training quality.