Improving the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China(1)

Improving the Quality of MBA Education in Korea, Japan and China(1) - Integrating East & West

It is little doubt that MBA (Master of Business Administration) education is important to business people. It is because MBA education can help students develop career, expand network, go through global experience, start new business and broaden horizon.

However, there is some criticism of MBAs from the corporate side, especially during economic downturns. Critics point out that most MBA education is not worthy of investing huge amount of money and time. They argue that MBA education fails to bring whatever value companies eagerly want to get although snowballing number of students fly to American or European MBA schools to study year by year.

Negative point of view is also found out even inside the academic field. For example, Ikujiro Nonaka, a professor at JAIMS and one of the most influential scholars in the management academy, claims that professors do not know the real business world. He went on saying that professors tend to focus on abstract theories and models without enough hands-on experiences.

However, we insist that an Eastern-Western value integrated MBA education would be a competitive advantage to companies, particularly in Asian context. And the integrated MBA education could raise their value within companies consequently.