A Comparative Study of Chinese and WesternMBAPrograms

Abstract

In the last two decades, questions have been raised against the relevance of business education all around the globe including the famous MBA program. Despite few shortcomings of western MBA programs, they are considered to be the global benchmark owing to their reputation, quality, research focus etc., whereas most of their Chinese counterparts are criticized heavily for their different weaknesses ranging from obsolescence and incorporating unique Chinese characteristics to blindly following the US model, without devising the right mix. This study compares the Chinese MBA with the Western MBA programs, highlighting the crucial weaknesses prevailing in Chinese MBA programs and then identifying the necessary improvements to bring them at par with their western counterparts. The study also contributes by bringing-forth ‘must have’ and ‘can have’ courses as a part of the MBA curriculum by going through both Western and Chinese MBA curriculums in depth.