The Scope and Scale of MNE Strategies: In Commemoration of Alan Rugman's Contribution to International Business Research

• Published date: 01 September 2016
• Author: The Editors
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12188
• Date: 01 September 2016

The Scope and Scale of MNE Strategies: In

Commemoration of Alan Rugman’s Contribution

to International Business Research

The Editors

Keywords: international business, MNEs, strategy

The sudden passing of Alan Rugman has abruptly cut short the academic career of one

of the most prominent, contemporary international business (IB) scholars. Alan was one

of the 10 most cited researchers in IB and an influential advisor on international busi-

ness strategy issues to both businesses and governments. During his distinguished aca-

demic career Alan has published numerous journal articles, book chapters and books

that represent a tremendous reading list for aspiring IB researchers. To acknowledge

Rugman’s scholarly contribution, we have invited two teams of leading IB scholars to

engage in a Point – Counterpoint (PCP) discussion, providing a constructive dialogue

associated with Rugman’s work and its implications for the IB and management

research fields. In this introduction to the PCP, we first highlight Rugman’s core contri-

butions to IB studies. Subsequently, we summarize the core arguments of the Point and

Counterpoint articles. Finally, we reflect on the implications of this PCP for future

research in the areas of international business strategy and its connection with other

research streams.

CORE CONTRIBUTIONS OF RUGMAN’S WORK IN INTERNATIONAL

BUSINESS RESEARCH

One of Alan’s main contributions to research on multinational enterprises (MNEs) has

been his exploration of their strategies in terms of geographic scope, in addition to tech-

nological scale. More specifically, he studied the spatial dispersion of MNE supply chains,

as reflected in the distribution of these firms’ assets and sales across borders. Beginning

with the work of Levitt (1983), considerable research in international management and

strategy has been based on the implicit assumption that the largest MNEs compete for

global dominance and do so by operating on a global scale. Early research on global

expansion builds on the assumption of MNEs commanding ‘non-location-bound’

V

C2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies

Journal of Management Studies 53:6 September 2016

doi: 10.1111/joms.12188