E-Commerce Education in China: Driving Forces, Status, and Strategies

With an explosive growth of e-businesses worldwide, e-commerce in China is booming, leading to the development of e-commerce education. This paper is intended to investigate whether the education system in China well accords with the market demand and the status of e-commerce programs in China, so as to seek for the strategies for China to cope with the challenges from the global e-commerce empowered by fast updated information technologies. First, we construct a four-layer conceptual model to describe the relevant factors influencing e-commerce and e-commerce education. We then present the status of China’s e-commerce education in different educational categories. Although we find that current problems in China’s e-commerce education can be resorted in quantity and quality aspects, it generally is in the right track. Finally, we propose several main strategies for promoting the development of ecommerce education, in which the education system reformation is of the top priority and the government will play a critical role.