teaching methods and materials from their home countries to the
classrooms in China. The bestselling management books and maga-
zines in China are about Western management theories and practices,
such asIn search of excellence, theBiography of Jack Welch, andBuilt
to last. The willingness of a large number of Chinese executives to
pay high fees to attend Jack Welch’s talk in China in June 2004 is
an indication that Chinese executives embrace Western management
theories and practice.
However, many of the interviewed executives in this study said
that they have obtained only very limited insights from many Western
management theories and business cases. They said that there is a
gap between what foreign professors teach and the reality of manage-
ment practices in Chinese companies. In business administration
education, many senior executives prefer professors who are able to
understand both Chinese companies and culture and Western manage-
ment theories. These findings suggest that MBA programs in China
should integrate Chinese practices and the Western theories.
Note
1 In 2002, the central government of China reorganized the two large
telecommunications service companies: China Telecom Group Corpo-
ration and China Network Communications Corporation. In the ten
northern provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), all the affili-
ated companies of the China Telecom Group Corporation were merged
with the China Network Communications Corporation.
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