History of MBA Education in China

MBA education in China has evolved from the tradition management education under the planning economy to the Western approach under the strong influence in the later 1980s. From 1949 to 1979, China was a central command economy model. Under the centrally planned economic system, all production activities were planned by central or provincial governments. In this period, the management education was to train Chinese managers for the planning economy.

In 1977, when Deng Xiaoping took the leadership in Mainland China, he started to reform the planning economy to market economy. In 1980, the first SEZ was set up in the Province of Guangdong – Shenzhen Special Economy Zone. Shenzhen is the first SEZ, also known as the “testing SEZ’ under Deng’s economic policy. The establishment and successful development of Shenzhen, lead to the later SEZs’ development such as in Shanghai. As a result, state owned enterprises were gradually transformed from government production units to independent economic entities with increased autonomy to decide what to produce and how to market their goods or services. Chinese managers have been challenged to improve their managerial competence and administrative skills to match with the changing business environment.

MBA in China is the result of increasing demand for professional managers in the nation’s booming economy, the Chinese government decided to import Western MBA education to China. The international cooperative MBA program introduced the idea of the Western style MBA into China. In the later 1980s, the Chinese government decided to embark on its own domestic MBA education program.