Some authors have argued that Hong Kong provides a reasonable basis for making inferences about education for Mainland China, but other research has hinted at the inappropriateness of using the '"Westernized" attitudinal characteristics of the Hong Kong Chinese for such purposes. To test if Hong Kong constitutes a sound proxy for understanding Chinese business students, this study compared the rationales of students in the Mainland (n = 71) and Hong Kong (n = 68) for undertaking an MBA. Significant differences were found overall and by sex, age, and educational background. [Copyright of Journal of Education for Business is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832320009599050 ]