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This chapter complements the one that appeared as “History of the AIB Fellows: 1975–2008” in Volume 14 of this series (International Business Scholarship: AIB Fellows on the First 50 Years and Beyond, Jean J. Boddewyn, Editor). It traces what happened under the deanship of Alan Rugman (2011–2014) who took many initiatives reported here while his death in July 2014 generated trenchant, funny, and loving comments from more than half of the AIB Fellows. The lives and contributions of many other major international business scholars who passed away from 2008 to 2014 are also evoked here: Endel Kolde, Lee Nehrt, Howard Perlmutter, Stefan Robock, John Ryans, Vern Terpstra, and Daniel Van Den Bulcke.

The eclectic paradigm of Dunning (1980) (with its OLI and four motives for FDI framework) can be reconciled with the firm and country matrix of Rugman (1981). However, the fit is not perfect. The main reason for misalignment is that Dunning is focused upon outward FDI into host economies, whereas Rugman’s matrix is for firm‐level strategy covering MNE activity in both home and host countries

Of the forty banks included in the world’s largest 500 firms, none operate on a global basis. All but one are heavily dependent on their home region, with an average of 78.3 percent of their sales being intra‐regional. The other bank is European owned but has a majority of its sales in North America, i.e. it is host‐region oriented. The insularity of the world’s largest banks is not a sector‐ specific factor only nine of the world’s 500 largest firms are global, and the vast majority are like the banks, home‐region based.

The Asia‐Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum has only recently included investment liberalization on its agenda. A review of actions since the Bogor declaration of 1994 reveals that critical components of an investment liberalizing strategy are already being assembled within APEC. For example, an investment experts group has been meeting regularly and it has undertaken work on impediments to investment and on implementing the non‐binding investment liberalizing procedures endorsed by members at Bogor in 1994. Investment is also now a required component of each member's annual individual action plan. It would be useful to formalize this process and then move towards adoption of the rules‐based investment provisions of NAFTA, especially the national treatment principle. Then the process developing within APEC to liberalize investment as well as trade by 2020 would help to speed up the economic integration of APEC.

Competitiveness is one of the most misunderstood concepts of the 1990s. It has drawn substantial attention from the government and business communities during the last 25 years. Morrisson et al. (1988) noted that between 1983 and 1987, the term competitiveness appeared more than 5700 times in the titles of newspapers and magazine articles. The growth of importance and interest can also be observed from the increase in the bibliographical entries in ABI/Inform database. From 1981 to 1986, the topic “international competitiveness” increased by about 26 listings per year (a total of 159 in 6 years) and the rate increased to 45 listings per year from 1987 to 1993. Academic interest in the area has also increased and as a result, new developments contemplating conceptualization and understanding of competitiveness are taking place. However, to no one's surprise, writers from different disciplines offer a variation in perspective when describing the concept, understanding, and postulation of competitiveness.

The most significant event for the School has been the announcement of the creation of the National Centre for Management Research and Development. The Centre is due to open in 1986 and will provide research facilities for up to 20 major projects designed to improve the competitiveness of Canadian business practices.