The Aspen Institute’s Chinese Business School Initiatives

China Business School group

 

All business schools engaged in MBA education need to cooperate with each other to push forward the cause of fulfilling their social responsibility and helping the students fulfill theirs. The schools will strengthen their communication and cooperation, and establish strategic resource-sharing and partnership mechanisms to realize their commitment to society.

 

- "West Lake Declaration" by 96 Chinese Business Schools December 19, 2006

 

Growing Need

China's rapid transition to a market economy has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, but is also driving widespread social upheaval and worsening environmental conditions. These challenges create market opportunities, for the business people who know how to recognize them. However, business is a newcomer among the leading institutions of China. Shifting mindsets about the roles and responsibilities business should take in society will require concerted, innovative and flexible education efforts.

Timely Opportunity

Business education in China is in the formative stages, providing a window of opportunity for Aspen BSP to help create a new curriculum and research framework that infuses social and environmental concerns. Therefore, with the support of the Chinese business schools and their governing body, voiced in the "West Lake Declaration", Aspen BSP has launched the Chinese Business Education Initiative.

Multiple Strategies

The three-year Initiative deploys multiple strategies to catalyze action:
    Our Teaching Innovation Program will team Chinese schools with foreign business-school innovators to prepare business leaders for
       societal leadership;
   Student attitudes surveys will explore how MBAs think about the role of business in society, exposing curriculum needs and
      opportunities for influencing attitudes;
   The Business and Society Research Consortium will accelerate business-school research by establishing an international network to
       help Chinese scholars identify critical issues, formulate research strategies, analyze findings and get published in leading journals;
    The Executive Speaker Series will bring international business leaders to China to discuss how they find opportunity in addressing social
       and environmental needs;
    The Deans Forum will enshrine learnings in national curriculum and accreditation requirements and funding priorities.

Broad Engagement

The Chinese Business Education Initiative engages business schools, students, business people, NGOs and government agencies in China and abroad. The program provides numerous opportunities to sponsor and participate in events, research, policy dialogues, curriculum development and more. Aspen BSP is seeking both individual and organizational sponsors to catalyze action across this broad spectrum of activities.

 

Download a copy of 'Where Will They Lead- 2007; Engaging the Values and Vision of China's Next-Generation Business Leaders' here.

You can visit The Aspen Institute's China Program's Caseplace web site here: http://caseplace.cn/




 
The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education is part of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program.
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