Internationalization of China’s E-Commerce Higher Education: A Review between 2001 and 2019

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to review the development of China’s higher education in electronic commerce (e-commerce) and explore the requirements of the internationalization of China’s e-commerce higher education. The Benefit-Driving Model (BDM) was adopted to explain the reasons for the internationalization of China’s e-commerce higher education. The literature review spans 20 years from 2001 when the first 13 e-commerce programs were offered from China’s 597 universities. By 2019, 328 e-commerce programs were offered by 831 universities. There is a sustainable growth from 2001 (2.17%, 13 of 597) to 2019 (39.47%, 328 of 831). Currently, six universities offer two e-commerce programs with different majors. Eight universities established specialized e-commerce schools. There are also six jointly founded or cooperative e-commerce programs run in China with overseas universities. This research may be valuable for any international organization interested in collaboration with China’s e-commerce higher education. A limitation is that this research focuses only on bachelors of e-commerce programs. Further research will explore factors for success in jointly founded e-commerce programs with China’s e-commerce educators.