The Transferability Of Western Business Education To The East

The objectives of this Special Issue were to: establish a foundation for the exchange of ideas between East and West; look at similarities and differences between them; clarify how the East may form boundary conditions to the established theories/practices in the West; help lay the foundation for indigenous theory building from the East (where the West can learn from), and determine whether the business models in the East and West will/should converge. In contrast to the other papers in the special issue, this Essay focuses on business education models.This essay specifically focuses on the transference of a business education practice common in the West - the use of the case method - to the East (specifically China). It is based on my 15 years as Executive Director of Ivey Publishing (IP), the world's second largest producer and distributor of business case studies, and my efforts to internationalize IP, as well as my 30 years teaching in the West, 30 years of annual visits to China, and my experience writing over 40 published teaching cases which deal with business in China. Many of these cases were written with Chinese co-authors.It is framed according to Rogers' 'Diffusion of Innovation' model which was published in 1962. This model explains how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology are spread through cultures. Rogers' original model follows a bell shaped idea/technology adoption approach. It begins with the innovators. The early adopters then increase the traction of the innovation. From here early majority adopters lift the innovation into the mainstream, before the late majority and the laggards jump on at the peak and tail-end of the adoption curve. This essay will argue that China is now about halfway through the process of adopting a teaching model with which it had negligible modern day experience.