The MNE’S Spatial Positioning

Abstract

Alan Rugman, in the course of his professional career, has not shied away from controversy, whether the issues were international diversification versus internationalization, internalization versus use of the external market, double diamonds versus single diamonds or global multinational enterprises (MNEs) versus regional MNEs. Whatever was the bone of contention, he has formulated strong hypotheses and then engaged in empirical work to provide evidence for his position. He has taken the issues to a wide audience – scholarly, government and business. To each group he has hammered the ideas home until he was associated with a position on the issues. In fact, Alan seems to have relished being in the middle of storms of controversy as he beat the drums furiously for what he saw as right regardless of whether he offended others taking an opposite view. The result has been that he has had a huge impact on the field of international strategic management and an influence on government policy and business activity.

Citation

Wolf, B.M. (2005), "The MNE’S Spatial Positioning", Verbeke, A. (Ed.) Internalization, International Diversification and the Multinational Enterprise: Essays in Honor of Alan M. Rugman (Research in Global Strategic Management, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 29-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1064-4857(05)11003-1