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I am delighted to be here today to honor the work of Alan Rugman. Alain Verbeke (Calgary) and I will discuss Alan's contributions, with me focusing primarily on his contributions to the field of international business (IB); Alain, his contributions to international management (IM).

In evaluating Alan Rugman's work on MNE environmental strategies, the subject of this chapter, it is too tempting not to start with a 2×2 matrix. Fig. 1 is meant to roughly indicate four different types of work that might characterise an academic's research portfolio. Obviously, all the well-known caveats of such a scheme apply, and perhaps more than usual. However, the main purpose is, by way of introduction, to situate Alan's output on environmental issues and the MNE, compared and related to other topics. While the horizontal axis of Fig. 1 refers to a regular division into theoretical and empirical work, the vertical axis differentiates main foci of research from other, more sideline, areas. Applied to Alan Rugman's research portfolio, the latter category characterises his work on environmental strategies of MNEs best, particularly quadrant 2, although some of it (generally more exploratory work) can be placed in quadrant 4 as well.

I think it would be fair to say that explaining the geography of multinational enterprise (MNE) activity has never been a major part of Alan Rugman's scholarly research and writings. Nevertheless, over the last 25 years, he has provided us with several useful nuggets of understanding and empirical evidence about the territorial expansion of firms, and its impact on their global competitiveness.

Issues, which have negatively impacted a diversity of business stakeholders, suggest that business thinking and leadership behaviors surrounding a desired strategic business focus appear increasingly inadequate. For example, that integration strategies and differentiation strategies are mutually exclusive. Three issues appear to contribute to such circumstances.

First, Western strategic business frameworks are largely based on quantitative foci, and remain largely unchallenged. Second, balance between key leadership team agendas and external stakeholder expectations is usually absent. Third, there is minimal connection between what organizational cultures reward, and how human resource management prescriptions provide support.

To address such concerns and implant a renewed strategic business focus, Porter and Kramer (2006, 2011) have identified the notion of shared value, which seems an appealing means to redress business problems represented by negative multistakeholder relations; moreover, an absence of any contemporary acknowledgment of the social contract. Nevertheless, a number of elements appear to be missing from the how shared value is portrayed by Porter and Kramer (2006, 2011).

Based on Maslow’s notion of Eupsychia, and employing an Ideation approach, a renewed strategic business focus supporting the notion of shared value is presented. The renewed focus seeks to enhance Porter and Kramer’s (2011) framework, by including key features to enhance shared value, including elements of Eastern and Western philosophy, and Western organization theory.

Problematic examples, identifying the absence of shared value, and including research propositions are identified.