ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I shall attempt to analyze the evolution of business degree programmes in China, in the global context, over the period 1999-2008, and the value of the MBA (gongshang guanli shuoshi) in China. The ‘resource-based’ theory has previously been used to analyze the ability of firms to ‘win’ in the market (see Goodall et al., 2004). Accordingly, this chapter argues that a key ‘core-competence’ of market-oriented firms in China, now ‘going global’, is knowledge of international business practice, behaviour and standards. It is partly the firm’s employees that are the bearers of its core-competences. Internationally accredited MBA programmes, we will argue, assure such competence as far as the individual is concerned. However, to date, such programmes remain a fraction of the business degree programmes currently delivered in China.
